After a week in Scotland jumping water bars and wrestling rocks, I have discovered a big dink in the rear rim. I wasn’t running tubeless and although it didn’t puncture the tube you can see an awful lot of sidewall over the dink. So , can I ignore it, try and straighten it a bit with pliers and brute force or give up and buy a new wheel? It doesn’t seem that far out of true.

Got a pic?
Is it just the side of the rim bent in? Or has the whole rim section crumpled a bit? If its still holding a tyre, its probably okay just to bend it back GENTLY with an adjustable wrench. Or just leave it if its not too bad.

Give the spoke tension around it a check and go from there.

If it looks like this… Might be new rim time.

I wouldn’t try and straighten that – it’ll probably split the metal as it’s so deformed.

Personally, I’d replace it but others might be happy to use it.

wwaswas – Member
I wouldn’t try and straighten that – it’ll probably split the metal as it’s so deformed.
Personally, I’d replace it but others might be happy to use it.

If you’re thinking of replacing it you might as well have a go at straightening it anyway. I’ve straightened many a battered rim, still not dead

Maub

If you’re thinking of replacing it you might as well have a go at straightening it anyway.

Exactly…nothing to lose: Escape from Colditz Do or Die card 8)

Don’t use pliers straight on the rim though put something flat (I’ve used cone spanners) either side of the rim and it makes less of a mess

nuke – Member

Escape from Colditz Do or Die card

😆

Not as bad as chrisdw so had a go at straightening. A definite improvement with still a bit of deformation visible so back on with the tyre and we’ll see how she goes.

Chrisdw’s picture definitely shows rim damage that cannot be fixed safely in my opinion. Trying to straighten that out will just split the metal. If you’ve managed to get it decent again, then good on you, but you might also want to have a check of spoke tension and wheel true as well. It is unlikely that a hit hard enough to put a decent sized dent in a rim through an inflated tyre would have left the rest of the wheel in perfect nick, so it might be a good time to get ahead of any problems that might have been kicked off.

dannyh – Member

It is unlikely that a hit hard enough to put a decent sized dent in a rim through an inflated tyre would have left the rest of the wheel in perfect nick,

In Chrisdw’s case it’s a DT rim so it could have got a dent like that while fitting a tyre.

My rule of thumb- if it starts to creak/click while straightening, it’s dead. If it doesn’t, it’s alive. The irony being that soft denty rims also straighten better.

Well mine was a Pacenti so like Edam.

My rule of thumb- if it starts to creak/click while straightening, it’s dead. If it doesn’t, it’s alive. The irony being that soft denty rims also straighten better.

Mine’s more like, if I can see daylight through the crack I probably shouldn’t use it – but probably will anyway

I did 3/4 of the dyfi on this

a big dink in the rim

Only one letter away from….

legend – Member

Mine’s more like, if I can see daylight through the crack I probably shouldn’t use it – but probably will anyway

Ah now, just because it’s dead, doesn’t mean I’ll stop riding it 😉 I had my 721s up to double figure cracks before I retired them.