wheel warranty info

Max Rider Weight: None Max PSI for Rims: 150 PSI (do not exceed)

Please follow the below instructions for the best possible service life of your BikeHard Carbon Wheels:

100% carbon wheels require slightly more care than would aluminum wheels, but it is neither arduous nor extreme in comparison to that of caring for a high end aluminum wheelset. Your BikeHard carbon wheels possess some of the best components and materials available in the cycling industry and have a specially engineered layer of material at the brake track area to help dissipate heat and extend rim longevity. We recommend that you keep brake pads and rims clean from debris and glazing on a regular basis. How often these maintenance steps are required is often subjective to your riding style, geography and climate. If you have more questions please email us at info@BikeHard.com.

Debris can come from many sources. It is commonly generated any time you apply brake pads to the rim whether you are riding aluminum or carbon wheels; both surfaces naturally wear on each other and remove miniscule amounts of surface material at the point of contact. This is most commonly visible on alloy rims as a grey dust or dark discoloration on the braking surface; similar to the dust that may accumulate on the surface of your car’s rims from braking over time. Carbon wheels, being darker in color, usually do not show this as easily. Also debris is picked up from the road and climate as you ride. It is not uncommon to see small stones, metal or other road debris embedded in bicycle brake pads. And wet/adverse climate riding conditions increase the debris build-up and abrasion between pads and rims on all bicycles. Routine scheduled cleaning of your wheelset will improve modulation and braking in all conditions.

Brake pad glazing most often occurs from overheating of the brake pad and rim surfaces. Carbon and aluminum rims react differently to heat. Carbon rims tend to build up heat more rapidly under hard braking conditions. Brake pads may glaze-over or surface-harden easily, especially if you are new to riding carbon wheels and in hilly or mountainous areas. We supply and recommend specific blue brake pads for use on all carbon wheels that are less subject to overheating and dissipate heat better that other stock brake pads. Riding style is often a factor. For most riders simple adaptation to frequency and force of braking may reduce brake pad glazing and heat build-up. That is probably the biggest difference in riding wheels with aluminum or carbon braking surfaces. Try not to ‘grab a handful of brakes’ when slowing the bike; especially on long descents. When riding carbon wheels try to use your brakes with lighter modulation. Try to ‘feather’ the brakes rather than to ‘ride or drag’ the brakes continuously against the rim. More frequent, short, quick, light applications of your brakes will offer the best results while still providing the good modulation and stopping power; much like an ABS system does for your car. Longer application of the rear brake combined with shorter, faster, lighter application of the front brake may also provide less glazing, increase brake pad life and benefit safety in bike handling.

We recommend a few simple cleaning tips for your BikeHard carbon wheels. Suspend your bike in a rack and drop the wheels out of the frame. Inspect the brake pad surfaces, front and rear, for embedded debris. Remove any embedded small particles in the pads with a fine point tool. If the brake pad surface appearance on your stock blue brake pads appears shiny, they may be glazed. If the appearance on Swiss Stop yellow pads includes either-or-both shiny appearance or dark smears/smudges, they may be glazed. With an abrasive tool such as a rasp, clean metal file or 100-grit sandpaper scuff the brake pad surfaces. Try to scuff the pads vertically; opposite the direction of rotation from the wheel, until the appearance is flat/non-shiny.

Wheel cleaning may entail that you remove the tires to adequately access the entire braking surface. It is usually easiest to remove tires when cleaning your rims. And, for typical riding style and usage, do it as normal routine maintenance about every 3-4 months. Run your fingers along the entire circumference of the wheel’s brake surface feeling for width variations or changes in roughness. Changes in tackiness or ‘smooth-to-rough’ patches along the brake track may indicate areas with glazing. You will need a clean red scotch-brite pad (most hardware stores will stock red, medium-abrasive pads in a three pack for a few dollars) and Acetone to best clean your wheels. We recommend that you wear latex gloves whenever using Acetone.

First, clean the brake track along the top 13mm of rim circumference. Remove all discoloration, smears and ‘tacky- feeling’ areas. Focus on the rough feeling patches or those with obvious discoloration and very-very lightly scuff with the scotch-brite in the direction along the circumference of the rim. Please be careful not to use excessive pressure when cleaning your wheels as it is easy to remove more than surface contamination and damage the braking layer molded into rim. After you have removed any of the smaller/obvious areas from your rim, start at the valve hole and continue around the entire circumference of the rim lightly scuffing the surface. You will detect dark grey dust accumulating on your abrasive pad. Rotate the pad to a clean section and continue cleaning. Perform this circumference cleaning on both sides of both wheels. After you’ve completely Cleaned the brake track, with the abrasive pad, wipe down the surface with a small amount of Acetone on a clean cotton rag. You may need to wipe down the rim numerous times until you no longer see dark grey deposits on your cleaning rag. You may also wipe down the entire rim surface with Acetone; it will remove most-all road grime and oil from your hands that has deposited on the wheel, but should not damage decals.