Wiped out yesterday, bent rims! what should i do?

[the beef]

So yesterday I was coming out of my street about to start a 50 mile ride on my Bianchi when these two dogs suddenly appeared behind my bike, tearing down the street and barking. My riding partner freaked out and began pedaling harder, and in that split second of decision making I sped up also. I realized that there was a dead end in front of us, and taking a left would mean going around a blind curve. I decided to take the left, but completely misjudged the turn - my outside pedal caught on the curb and I took a moderate spill. At this point, the dogs lost interest.. I think they may have been chasing each other.. *sigh*


Well, I was a little hurt but the bike was the main concern - both tires now had a pronounced wobble. So I tightened spokes on the side opposite the wobble and loosened spokes on the other side. Time went by, and the wobble was mostly gone. Then when I got home, I decided to tune the spokes by ear, and they were horribly out of tune. This is where I think I went wrong - I gave some spokes as much as one to two full turns to make them 'in tune'. At the end of my experiment, my wheels had a signficant wobble once again.


So this morning I took my bike to Gregg's Greenlake Cycle - they said they could true my wheels for $22, which I accepted. When I came back after 45 minutes, the guy said he managed to true the front wheel, but the back wheel was shot (the rim had been bent). He said I could either buy a new wheel or get the in-house wheelbuilder to build one for me for about $50.


What should I do? Are there advantages to just buying a new wheelset and starting fresh, or should I just go with the wheelbuilder? Was I the one who bent my wheel by screwing around with my spokes too much? Should I ditch the front wheel, too, in case I messed that one up, as well? I just started road cycling about a month ago. Thanks for the help, guys.

 

[Deanster04]

.[/QUOTE]What should I do? Are there advantages to just buying a new wheelset and starting fresh, or should I just go with the wheelbuilder? Was I the one who bent my wheel by screwing around with my spokes too much? Should I ditch the front wheel, too, in case I messed that one up, as well? I just started road cycling about a month ago. Thanks for the help, guys.[/QUOTE]
Just replace the rim and spokes. The hub sounds OK. If the mechanic says the front wheel is OK then it probably is. That is the least expensive approach. A wheel builder will be able to get you back into a like new condition. Don't waste the money on a new wheel set.

 

[Bobby Lex]

Whether a wheel should be replaced or re-built often depends on what kind of rim and hub you have, and how much use they have had.

It's not worth it to spend $50.00 to rebuild a low-end wheel that only cost $50.00 to begin with. OTOH, $50.00 to rebuild a low-mileage $200.00 wheel would certainly be worthwhile. So before you decide to repair or replace, find out what your original wheel is worth, new.

By the way--the spokes on rear wheels have two different tensions. The drive side spokes (the side where the gears are) are quite tight. The non-drive side spokes are relatively loose. Trying to tension them up equally by "sound" is probably where you messed up.

Bob

 

[Deanster04]

Trying to tension them up equally by "sound" is probably where you messed up.
Bob

A440 eh? Does anyone do that any more? Been building wheels for over 35 years and I don't. But "pinging" the wheels is done out of old habit never to determine the right tension for the spokes. When I switched to a tensionometer my overall wheel tension went up and my wheels improved in longiviety and durability.

 

[AmpedCycle]

Killer dogs are no joke, bro. I've seen my share of furry snarling teeth before, and it's never any fun. Happened to me yesterday, in fact. I don't think they'll ever sink their teeth into you, but they might... I take the bigger dog approach because they can catch you if they want to anyways: Just stare down at them like you'll grab hem by the tail and paddle their little asses. You know the look I'm talking about. Growl if you want to, it helps me.