Hi, hoping you can help!
I am helping a neighbour fix up his road bike which has rim brakes. For context I am a mountain biker who builds my own bikes and works on them, but I am used to disc brakes. I've noticed that there are deep grooves in the braking surface (about 1mm deep) on both wheels. I genuinely have no idea if this is OK or not. Does this guy need new rims? I can't see any sort of wear indicator.
What I vaguely remember from my own rim brake bikes as a kid in the 90s was that the braking surface should be uniform and rough but not grooved like this (unless there is a groove as a wear indicator)
I told him that my instinct is that this is unsafe and to buy new wheels, but I could use some more opinions so he doesn't waste his money unnecessarily.
The bike is not in great shape to be honest, but he likes it and doesn't mind to spend the money on parts. I am already planning to replace a lot of worn parts. Adding wheels to that list might make him reconsider his options in terms of just getting a different bike.
Thanks in advance!
by Zaitobu