Bent rim

[nicnac]

Last night while I was riding back to the apt. I noticed my back tire feeling funny. It has a bit of a wobble now and I'm wondering if rims can be fixed or is it basically a lost cause from here?
Any enlightenment will be truly benificial to this newb :)

[Kingbozo]

If it isn't too bad it should be fixable. Just bring it to a nearby shop and have them take a look.

[nicnac]

Ok, thats what I was hoping to hear! heh
It doesn't look too bad to me. Hopefully they think the same
Thanks :)

[funky-funky-chicken]

As with most questions, the answer depends: The wobble could be the results of a couple different conditions.

Wheels are held true, round, and in proper dish (the rim centered between the two ends of the axle) by correct spoke tension. When the tension on one or more of the spokes is incorrect, the wheel can wobble from side to side or you can feel that it rolls out of round. You can lose spoke tension from the wheel being improperly or evenly tensioned during the build process. In my opinion, most machine built wheels on production bikes are not significantly tensioned.

You could have a broken spoke. This can be easy to find by simply checking each spoke by hand.

An out of true, improperly tensioned wheel or broken spoke can most likely be remedied. Not always, sometimes one broken spoke can become the beginning of the end. You replace one broken spoke, bring up the tension on the wheel and others begin to break during the time of the repair or soon after returning to riding.

The last condition would be an actually bent rim. The metal in the rim is actually bent due to perhaps an impact. Sometimes this can be remedied by truing the wheel, but often can require very uneven spoke tension to hold the bent part of the wheel true with the rest of the wheel. Long term, it leads to a wheel that will need repeated attention.


You could try to repair the wheel yourself using a spoke wrench, but I would recommend not experimenting. Wheel building and repair is actually somewhat easy once you grasp the concepts. If you are interested, I would recommend reading a good book like
The Bicycle Wheel by Jobst Brandt (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0960723668/qid=1060182127/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-1497718-6495835) or attending a repair class.

[nicnac]

Thanks for the great insight.
I'll check the spokes tonight for sure. IMHO that seems more likely than a bent rim. Mainly because I really didn't think yesterdays ride was anything 'bent rimworthy'. But I could understand if the spokes need adjusting since I'm sure the guy I bought my bike from never did anything to it.
Anyway, I guess I'll find out tonight and hopefully learn a thing or two about it :)