I am currently in the process of building my first disc brake allroad bike. On my current rim brake bike I have a set of Light Bicycle rims.
Since I built the wheel set up myself I found myself wondering if I could take them apart, swap the rim brake hubs for disc brake hubs and (with the right length spokes) re-use them as rims for a disc brake setup.
I understand that this would be not ideal since I would now run an essentially useless brake track but I was wondering if there would be any safety concerns against doing so? Intuitively, I would say that this should be fine and that, if anything rim brake rims would have to be beefier than disc brake rims so this way around the conversion should work …
There should be no issues doing that. I have done it for some customers in the past and the wheels are still going strong. The main thing to check is the brake track, make sure it is not overly worn as it may be ready to fail if it is worn down too much from previous use.
I have done exactly this with two different rims - one a set of light bicycle carbon rims that have made a great set of disc wheels for winter. The other for a set of cx tub rims that were the ones I had when I made a leap from rim braked cx to disc about 10 years ago….they still exist and are fine.
One thing to be aware of is front wheel lacing patterns. On rim brake wheels, the front wheel is never subjected to rotational forces between the hub and rim so radial lacing is regularly used. This isn’t suitable for disc brakes though.
As long as you use something 2 or 3 cross up front you are probably golden.
Funny, I have exactly the same for the front wheel that I’m considering to rebuild, 20 spokes radially laced @Nick, thanks for the reminder I’ll make sure to go 2 cross.
