Brake pads destroying wheels Today I braked my bicycle from 50 km/h with my front rim brake and  heard a really nasty sound coming from the braking surface of the wheel, and I saw some metal shavings as well. 
The brake has been randomly making these noises for a little while, but this is the first time I've seen shavings.  The brake pads and rims are about two months old.

Do you think my wheel is toasted or my brake pads are too hard?



I have rim brakes. It has been happening for a while, randomly but just the sound, never seen the metal shavings flying from my rim. And yeah, the brake shoes are like 2 months old, as well as the rim.

The rim is aluminium.
Sparks coming from rim brakes sounds like there's some hard object, such as a piece of grit or metal, embedded in your brake blocks. After two months, they shouldn't be badly worn, unless they're very soft, but pads will eventually wear enough that the metal cartridge mount is now touching the brake track.

You should check your rim for damage. If it looks badly scratched up, it might be damaged. Also, hold a steel ruler or other straight edge radially against the rim.  A new rim should be almost straight; worn rims develop a concave profile as braking erodes the material.  (By the way, if there's one perfect groove right around the rim on both sides, which looks like it was cut by a machine, that's a wear indicator: as long as you can clearly see that groove, the rim's not overly worn, assuming it's in good general condition.)

My guess would be that the sparks were from something getting lodged in the brake pad and the noise before that was due to poor adjustment.  Brake pads need to be "toed in" slightly so that the front end of each pad touches the rim slightly before the rear end. If the rear end touches first, the brakes judder and vibrate.

If you're not confident that you can diagnose this problem yourself after getting help here, you should get the bike checked out by a bike shop. The front brake and front wheel are critical to your safety.