Had a bit of a crash today which ended up with a cracked rib (blimey cracked ribs are painful) and a fairly out of true front wheel. Its not pringled ,and I managed to ride back to the car on it no problem (apart from the pain from the rib), but its definitely a long way from being straight.

is there a rule of thumb that says once its gone x mm out of line then just bin it and dont waste your time trying to straighten? or is it generally possible to straighten just about anything as long is its still round?

If it’s not true because you’ve bent the rim then you’ll never get it true again with even spoke tension.

The more bent it is, the more unever the spoke tension required. The more unever the tension, the sooner it will go out of true.

Less out of true than the one I wrecked today- LBS had a good laugh at my expense then told me it was beyond repair. At a guess, mine was 5-10 mm out. I have a sore calf and elbow but fortunately no cracked ribs. Get well soon.

5-10mm is usually salvageable, definitely not in laughing territory!

You need to name and shame whoever laughed at the 5-10mm out! 50-100 mm I would agree with. Tolerance for factory trued wheels can be as much as +/- 1mm. I pringled a wheel so badly I had to put all my weight on it and jump up and down a few times. Limped home, and trued it up. Managed to get within a couple of mm… And it’s still going strong today (OK it’s on my commuter now but done probably 1000 miles on it).

The lughter was probably more about the stupid off but I didn’t look too closely at the wheel. It was a pretty big crash and, to be honest, I think being out of line may be the least of the wheel’s problems. I’ll see what they say.

Depends a lot on the rim. Something like a D321 would take a lot of spoke tension to pull back 10mm. However, a Stan’s podium rim for example, would probably pull back from that.

It also depends on the nature of the out of true. If it’s gradual around the circumference then it’s more likely recoverable than 10mm out across the distance of 4 spokes.

Most rims are box rims and to put them out of true by a reasonable amount, means the box is twisted and getting it tensioned right and true is not going to happen to make a good wheel again. New rim time is possibly the best option.

I’ve ridden some battered, bruised, and bolloxed wheels in the past – including one amazing lefty wheel resuscitated from a pringling. I’d prob just replace nowadays, but for sure the spoke key can work some magic in the hands of a craftsman.
Take it in to the LBS and see what they say – ideally want a place that knows how to wheel build and understands the hairy-arsedness of mountain biking, ie things don’t have to be 100% perfect.

Depends how anal you are about your setup. I’ve bent wheels before to the point they won’t go round in the frame. Judiciously applied violence can get the rim relatively straight then tweak the last bit with a spoke key to whatever balance between “true” and “evenly tensioned” tickles your fancy.

The last one I properly mangled was a Flow (2″ wobble from where I chucked the bike off a cliff). It’s still going 3 years later.

just been out for a quick truing session, managed to get it straight enough for me, its not perfect by a long stretch, but should hopefully be fine.

I might spend some more time on it in the week and see how close to perfect I can get it.

if you really must keep a totally fubared rim then take the spokes out, jump up and down as required and then move onto a spike through the eyelets to help remove the twist. I’ve worked out some real 50mm+ warps in my time and got them built back up to a mm or so. Always replaced them once back from holiday though…