Head on crash, need wheel rebuild?

[Anonymous]

Hey all,

My front wheel was involved in a head on crash. Probably a 12-15 mph slam. It is very slightly out
of round. 24 radial spoked Velocity Deep V.

What is the procedure from here? Full rebuild? Simple rerounding? Some sort of spoke testing?

Thanks, Doug

 

[Harris]

"Doug" wrote:
> My front wheel was involved in a head on crash. Probably a 12-15 mph slam. It is very slightly out
> of round. 24 radial spoked Velocity Deep V.
>
> What is the procedure from here? Full rebuild? Simple rerounding? Some sort of spoke testing?

I'd be more worried about the fork and frame. Have it checked out by a competent shop.

As for the wheel, have the shop try to true it. The rim may need to be replaced.

Art Harris

 

[S. Anderson]

news:[email protected]...
> Hey all,
>
> My front wheel was involved in a head on crash. Probably a 12-15 mph slam. It is very slightly out
> of round. 24 radial spoked Velocity Deep V.
>
> What is the procedure from here? Full rebuild? Simple rerounding? Some sort of spoke testing?
>
> Thanks, Doug

Deep V rims are very hard to correct when they become out of round (up and down). The rims are
usually heavier and stronger than a regular, non-aero style wheel. You can try and have that
repaired and they might be able to get it close to normal, but I'm not sure it will ever be 100%
round again. Don't worry about the spokes. Complete rebuild is dependent on the outcome of the
trueing attempt and your personal level of acceptance for things that aren't quite right! For the
$50 or whatever it's going to cost you to repair that wheel, if it's only a 1/16" or something of up
and down, I think I could live with that. Others, maybe not. And, as others suggested, be sure to
check the hub for cracks, the frame and fork for bends or cracks. Hitting something solid at 15mph
is a serious blow to the bike.

Cheers,

Scott..

 

[Bruce Jackson]

> My front wheel was involved in a head on crash. Probably a 12-15 mph slam. It is very slightly out
> of round. 24 radial spoked Velocity Deep V.

I don't know how much "very slightly" is. Do you mean a few mm's or or a couple of cm's?

> What is the procedure from here? Full rebuild? Simple rerounding? Some sort of spoke testing?

I've seen plenty of front wheels that were still perfectly fine after the cyclist ran into a parked
car. Bicycle wheels are suprisingly strong in the vertical plane. Without seeing your front wheel I
can't comment on your particluar situation but I've seen a lot of wheels survive this sort of
collision with little or no damage. To be safe you might want to have someone have a look at your
wheel though.

ride with the wind...

Bruce
--
Bruce Jackson - Sr. Systems Programmer - DMSP, a M/A/R/C Group company

 

[Harris]

"Bruce Jackson" wrote:

> I've seen plenty of front wheels that were still perfectly fine after the cyclist ran into a
> parked car. Bicycle wheels are suprisingly strong in the vertical plane.

Good point. I was once hit head on by a wrong way cyclist. My forks were bent and the down tube
dimpled, but wheel didn't even go out of true.

Art Harris

 

[Andy Dingley]

On 1 Jun 2003 07:32:10 -0700, [email protected] (Bruce Jackson) wrote:

>I've seen plenty of front wheels that were still perfectly fine after the cyclist ran into a
>parked car.

I've seen plenty of crashed wheels, some damaged or destroyed. I've also seen worn, tired and
fractured wheels.

But I don't recall ever seeing one with a non-obvious failure (like a cracked rim) that was
traceable to a single large impact. Smashes make pretzels, fatigue makes hairlines.

Would it be a reasonable and safe blanket assumption to make that a crash either trashed the wheel
visibly, or is nothing much to worry about ? Opinions ?

 

[Jon Bond]

"Andy Dingley" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On 1 Jun 2003 07:32:10 -0700, [email protected] (Bruce Jackson) wrote:
>
> >I've seen plenty of front wheels that were still perfectly fine after the cyclist ran into a
> >parked car.
>
> I've seen plenty of crashed wheels, some damaged or destroyed. I've also seen worn, tired and
> fractured wheels.
>
> But I don't recall ever seeing one with a non-obvious failure (like a cracked rim) that was
> traceable to a single large impact. Smashes make pretzels, fatigue makes hairlines.
>
> Would it be a reasonable and safe blanket assumption to make that a crash either trashed the wheel
> visibly, or is nothing much to worry about ? Opinions ?

I cracked a rear mountain bike rim (Mavic X517) at the spoke hole with one major impact. Sharp edge,
dented the rim some, and caused a small crack at a nearby spoke hole (going widthwise). The crack
did grow with fatigue, but I still managed to eek out 2.5 months of riding and one race on it

Jon Bond

 

[Jasper Janssen]

On Mon, 02 Jun 2003 02:13:55 +0100, Andy Dingley <[email protected]> wrote:
>On 1 Jun 2003 07:32:10 -0700, [email protected] (Bruce Jackson) wrote:
>
>>I've seen plenty of front wheels that were still perfectly fine after the cyclist ran into a
>>parked car.

I ran into a car at 30 kph once.. bent the fork over backwards so far, that the rear surface of the
tyre, the fender, and the downtube were in intimate contact. A replacement fork let the bike do its
work as a clunker for another couple years unbtil I left it with the keys in one not-so-fine day..

>Would it be a reasonable and safe blanket assumption to make that a crash either trashed the wheel
>visibly, or is nothing much to worry about ? Opinions ?

If you hit something relatively sharp, like a curb, you might get a dent in the rim, maybe. Not
necessarily one that shows up terribly visually, but maybe just one that kills equality of tension
between spokes.. I've had that happen, without any obvious causes, apart from hitting the
occasional bump.

Jasper