I have been told this a couple of times recently and want to get a consensus. My recent front tyre's sudden deflation had a comment made when repairing the flat. I was told the internal rim corrosion was bad and needed to be sanded off and sealed. From what I have heard over the years raw Aluminium forms oxidization very quickly but once it forms it doesn't go any further sealing the surface from any more deterioration. So why would you need to take this oxidisation off the inside of a rim under the tyre? As long as the rim tape is ok what else needs maintenance inside Alloy rims?
Borani Rim Corrosion
- Thread starter Vince
- Start date
Rob
Hero member
- Location
- Midlands, UK
My tyre fitter is very OCD about cleaning rims on all the wheels he fits tyres to. Obviously important for tubeless but he reckons that the rim needs to provide a secure seat for a tubed tyre too. A wire brushing does the job.
Tippie
Hero member
- Location
- Dr?bak, Norway
It can go very deep under the powdery stuff. The oxidising you mention is part and parcel with aluminium but you don't want deep pitting.
Alzero
Hero member
- Location
- Slow traveling
You can also get dissimilar metal corrosion if the spoke nipples are not aluminum. Humid air introduced into tubeless tires can also promote long term corrosion, this is one argument in favor of using dry nitrogen to fill tires.
martymoose
Hero member
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
I think the hard plastic rim tape caused your problem more than corrosion vince, but still a good idea to clean the inside of the rim. As discussed, i will be cutting those hard plastic rim tapes off in future, and fitting rubber ones.
That hard plastic petrified rim tape was pretty sharp that's for sure. It must have been a bit of a Handgrinade as I had done nothing different riding-wise as usual in the previous 200ks that day including a solid thrash up Wotton Way. I hadn't hit any particularly big bumps either. Just a sudden reduction in stability on the expressway at 110kph that I bearly managed to ride through as I pulled over. Check your rim tapes people every tyre change. I didn't think the corrosion inside the rim was that bad. It got a bit of a tidy up though. BTW it did take way too long for me to think about why the steering had suddenly become slow and unresponsive, by the time I was sure something was wrong I was struggling to slow the bike and pull over without dumping it. That was really stupid on my part.
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