Bent rim

"Paul Romano" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Greetings bicycle experts. I have a novice tech question.

<<snip..>>

Quoted message said:

My question is: should I have this wheel re-trued, if possible, or should I purchase a new wheel?
My concern is that, even though the rim may be only slightly bent, it is at risk for failure. (I
realize that I am a little paranoid about crashing.)

Thanks,

Paul Romano

Nah, just true it up. The wheel won't catastrophically fail or anything like that, especially if you
could ride it home. It sounds like it's not even touching the brake pads as you ride. If that's the
case, it's definitely not finished and should be easily repaired.

Cheers,

Scott..

Quoted message said:

Yesterday my bike fell over while the front wheel was caught in a bike rack. Now, the rim appears
slightly bent and the wheel is out of true. However, I was able to ride home without a problem and
the rim does not rub against the brake pads (when not braking, that is!). So it does not appear to
be a serious problem.

The bike is a 1999 Bianchi Veloce with Mavic CXP-21 rims. I am a fairly big rider (5'11", 205)
and I ride about 1000-1200 miles/year. Until now, I have not been aware of any problems with
these wheels,
i.e. never out of true, no broken spokes, etc.

My question is: should I have this wheel re-trued, if possible, or should I purchase a new wheel?
My concern is that, even though the rim may be only slightly bent, it is at risk for failure. (I
realize that I am a little paranoid about crashing.)

I shouldn't worry too much about it. I have retrued rims that have been bent back over on themselves
and ridden them until they wore out. Retrue the rim then look for stress fractures that might be
forming. If you think about it, the stress on a rim is perpendicular to the way that you have bent
it, thus the impact is not as high as you might think. Those Mavic rims are by all accounts pretty
bombproof too.

That said, if you are unhappy or paranoid, the safe option of a new rim might be for you 🙂

Regards,

John, no guarantee or warranty

Paul Romano said:

Yesterday my bike fell over while the front wheel was caught in a bike rack. Now, the rim appears
slightly bent and the wheel is out of true. However, I was able to ride home without a problem and
the rim does not rub against the brake pads (when not braking, that is!). So

Either it was barely bent at all, or your brakes are not well adjusted.

Quoted message said:

The bike is a 1999 Bianchi Veloce with Mavic CXP-21 rims. I am a

I have the same rims on my 2001 Giant TCR2. Despite many bad reviews of them, I like them, and
find them to take my 210 pounds without going out of true. YMMV, especially if built by
different company.

Quoted message said:

My question is: should I have this wheel re-trued, if possible, or

Yes, or re-true it yourself. It's not difficult, just be patient.

Quoted message said:

should I purchase a new wheel? My concern is that, even though the rim may be only slightly bent,
it is at risk for failure. (I realize that I am a little paranoid about crashing.)

While the description of the accident makes it sound bad, the description of the damage sounds
not so bad.

You should probably true it and adjust your brakes.

My rear rim needed truing once, so I trued it, and I found these rims easy to true and they run very
straight once true.

It's not necessary to get a truing stand; you should be able to true sufficiently for lateral
trueness just leaving the wheel on the bike and using the brake pads for reference.

Quoted message said:

Thanks,

Paul Romano

--
Rick Onanian

"Paul Romano" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Greetings bicycle experts. I have a novice tech question.

Yesterday my bike fell over while the front wheel was caught in a bike rack. Now, the rim appears
slightly bent and the wheel is out of true. However, I was able to ride home without a problem and
the rim does not rub against the brake pads (when not braking, that is!). So it does not appear to
be a serious problem.

The bike is a 1999 Bianchi Veloce with Mavic CXP-21 rims. I am a fairly big rider (5'11", 205)
and I ride about 1000-1200 miles/year. Until now, I have not been aware of any problems with
these wheels,
i.e. never out of true, no broken spokes, etc.

My question is: should I have this wheel re-trued, if possible, or should I purchase a new wheel?
My concern is that, even though the rim may be only slightly bent, it is at risk for failure. (I
realize that I am a little paranoid about crashing.)

"Failure" is highly unlikely from your description, a rim which still spins nicely between the brake
pads. Yes you should either straighten ( true) the rim or get an opinion about that from someone who
does that kind of work.

--
Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1 April, 1971

(Paul Romano) may have said:

My question is: should I have this wheel re-trued, if possible, or should I purchase a new wheel?
My concern is that, even though the rim may be only slightly bent, it is at risk for failure. (I
realize that I am a little paranoid about crashing.)

From what you describe, retruing can probably be done with a spoke wrench alone in a few minutes. I
wouldn't even demount the wheel from the bike to fix this. Unless the wheel's damage included
visible bending and distortion of the side of the rim, I can't think of a reason to scrap it. Merely
not running true is almost trivial to correct.

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail. Yes, I have a killfile. If I
don't respond to something, it's also possible that I'm busy.

Quoted message said:

fairly big rider (5'11", 205) and I ride about 1000-1200 miles/year.

Big? I would blow away at that wieght :-) I'm 6' 1" 248, riding ~3500/yr. I feel big only
when I climb.

Good luck with the rim.