Carbon rim brakes

[Stovepipe]

Is using rim brakes on carbon wheels in mud/gravel a terrible idea?

More a general gravel riding Q but I know cx dabbled with cantis/carbon for a couple years there.

Will it wreck my rims? My gravel bike is an old steel road bike so discs aren't an option. I have a nice carbon tubular set I wanted to put some Cx tyres on for my gravel rides. Any feedback from experience would be much appreciated!

[Neddysmith]

I dont think it is the best idea, i have done both MTBing and road cycling, MTB disk brakes are amazing for stopping in both wet and dry with little fade on longer downhill runs etc.

ON my road bike i have a set of carbon rims and in the wet have noticeably less stopping power, in the dry are acceptable, with the carbon i found some brake fade and the rims heated up a lot on longer decents, alloy rims much better in both dry and wet, but still not disk brakes.

Also being on gravel i would imagine the brake surface gets a bit dirtier so would tend to wear into a carbon rim brake surface more then a alloy braking surface, which i think would be more of a worry

[KGB]

I'm doing it on my CX bike. Carbon rims with mini V's, which have a fair bit of power (at the expense of feeling spongy at the lever, which I can live with). TBH, I haven't given them a good run in proper nasty conditions yet. From what I've experienced so far, it will be fine. Mine are cheap rims anyway so if they wear prematurely it doesn't worry me too much - they are tubular race wheels anyway so won't see a lot of use. I've used carbon road rims in very wet conditions so am used to the drop in braking performance.

[Duck!]

I wouldn't do it. The grit getting into the pads will chomp away at the rims very quickly.

[NASHIE]

I wouldn't do it. The grit getting into the pads will chomp away at the rims very quickly.

Yep, a couple of guys where crying about mud rub on the carbon frame chain stays at last CX round (very muddy) so would hate to see what some carbon rims brakes would of looked like.

[dalai47]

I run a set of used FSA RD-488 carbon tubular wheels with Shimano canti's for racing. Like everything with racing, I only race what I can afford to replace. Having said that I haven't seen a huge amount of wear the season I raced on these wheels.

But for general gravel rides I swap out to alloy clinchers as the carbon rims won't be long lasting compared to an alloy rim. Plus don't think tubulars would be good for such rides...