Rolf PRIMA Carbon Wheelset Rim Brake Instructions

: June 9, 2024
: Rolf PRIMA

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You’ve just bought carbon wheels or rims!
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Rolf PRIMA Carbon Wheelset Rim Brake

You’ve just bought carbon wheels or rims!

These are going to be great riding wheels for you. Please read the Owner’s Manual because it contains a lot of important Safety Information. In addition, here are a couple of things that we would like to point out.

Braking. You may have read about braking on carbon rims during your research. Carbon rims, whether Rolf Prima or other brands, all have the same fundamental difference from alloy rims. Any carbon rim can be damaged by incorrect braking technique and this is not covered under warranty.
With alloy rims, you can almost hold the brakes on indefinitely. With carbon rims, you cannot. The heat builds up differently with carbon wheels, so you need to brake a little differently to manage the heat.
Braking Technique. Just like you can’t drag your car’s brakes all the way down a mountain without damaging them, the same is true of carbon wheels. Dragging the brakes is the number one killer of carbon rims.
Don’t worry, you can still manage your speed to go as slow as you want. Here are some techniques for braking on descents where you normally would have dragged the brakes on your alloy wheels.
a. Pulse the brakes. Much like a car on a mountain descent, pulse your brakes. Apply both front and rear brakes firmly to scrub speed. Then release. You’ll get good slowing power and then let your rims release some heat. You can pulse often to prevent heat buildup and give the rims some time to cool.
b. Alternate brakes. Brake with your front brake, then release and switch to your rear brake, then release and switch back to your front brake and continue. This allows you continuous braking and also gives your rims time to cool.
c. Remember you have two brakes – it’s not just the rear brake. The front brake actually has more power to slow you down. Use them both as described above.
We’re not talking minutes of cooling, we’re talking seconds. Proper braking technique prevents heat buildup and even releasing your brakes for brief seconds allows rims to cool. Obviously, the longer between pulses, the more rims will cool, but even a few seconds allows the rim to shed a lot of heat.
Brake Pads. All brake pads are not equal. For Rolf Prima Wheel Systems, use the brake pads shipped with your wheels and when they need to be replaced, replace with the same pads. This brake pad is specially formulated for good wet and dry braking power and their ability to manage the braking heat generated by carbon rims. These pads are available from your Rolf Prima dealer or at rolfprima.com.
Brake Pad set up. The goal is to get as much pad contacting the rim as possible. This helps increase braking power at lower localized heat buildup. It is important that you set your pads flat to the rim top to bottom. You can add a slight amount of “toe-in” so the front of the pad touches first by a small amount.