Gutted/annoyed and to be fair quite confused.

picked up the wheel from a lbs with a good reputation for building wheels. All seemed fine, had the wheel on one bike all week for my commute (it fits both my cx and 29er)

this weekend put it on my 29 – all seemed fine but had a little off and the thing it absolutely totalled – ive never significantly bent a wheel there’s no dent in the rim its just gone totally out of shape

any thoughts? Is it possiblt to build a wheel so it looks right but then pings out of shape so quickly?

You can apply quite some force in a biggish crash but surprising from your description. Is it a ded light rim ? How many spokes ?

No it was the bog standard rim id had on my inbred with no probs, just got it rebuilt with a dynamo hub. It was true when I dismantled it and when it was rebuilt.

And 32 spokes

Shit happens I’m afraid. If you fall ‘just right’ it doesn’t take much to pringle a wheel.

hmmmm, I’d at least see what the shop has to say about it

spokes all still intact?

Yes all spokes intact, will go and see them tomorrow

WTFU and fix it yourself! 😉
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI8tDjDZK54[/video]

Would love to have the time but my todo list is long enough

Been there. Cycling home from collecting the bike & handbuilt wheel, went to bunny hop up a curb and cacked it, cracking the rim.

Quickest 200 i ever lost.

It’ll go like this
You-“Hi,I had a wheel built last week and I’ve crashed and now its buckled and I’m not very happy”
Them-“That’s unfortunate….what’s your point?”

If they fitted an inner tube last week and you punctured would that also be their fault?

Thats the point I guess it wasnt actually a crash got blown sideways lent into the gust to stop me falling to the right where there was a bit of a drop, over did it and fell to the left I stuck my hand out and swore a lot as it took the force of me, landed on my hip too. After I finished swearing I just went to go again and my mate pointed out my wheel. Neither of us could figure out what had happened. If id imhave whacked the thing i wouldnt grumble

I’ve tacoed the rear wheel of my 29er in a similar way. Unfortunately it can happen if you’re unlucky.

My mate had a low speed tumble and broke his hip, it could have been worse!

I slipped getting into a swimming pool and still have my leg in plaster.

Accidents happen.

Yes I know, my point is that this was the first off rd ride with a newly built wheel that has been built up previously and I just came off

Im sure most people would feel that something wasnt quite right

If it’s popped out of shape they probably built it wrong. Seeing as you did have an off of sorts I’d tread very carefully when you go back in, but yeah they probably over tensioned it.

If there’s no marks visible on the wheel or rim then they really should just rebuild it.

Pics?

Im sure most people would feel that something wasnt quite right

Probably, but doesn’t necessarily reflect reality.

If it’s popped out of shape they probably built it wrong

er… no… Wheels taco once the rim is bent sufficiently sideways.

Sideways bending of wheels tends to kill them pretty quickly (much more than bump impacts). It sounds like you fell in a way that overloaded it sideways. Unfortunately that can happen on your first ride or after 10 years of no problems.

There is a chance it was a poor build and that didn’t help. I doubt it though, seeing as you say they have a good rep.
Problem is, now it’s bent, there’s no way of checking how good the build was
I’d go into the shop, explain you’ve crashed and bent your brand new wheel (look sad…!) without the merest suggestion it even might be their fault, and thy might take pity on you and rebuild it for less than they normally would. I probably would, cos I’m nice like that. 🙂

If it’s popped out of shape they probably built it wrong

er… no… Wheels taco once the rim is bent sufficiently sideways.[/quote]

Well, I guess that hinges on whether it was restrained and bent by the rider’s weight bending it, or whether it just “popped” out of true because of a bad build/overtension.

Very careful inspection after the accident would show what happened.

the wheel – if the link works

Side loads kill wheels.
Inline loads don’t.
You can total a front end – frame, fork, the lot – and still have a true front wheel.

or whether it just “popped” out of true because of a bad build/overtension.

Wheels don’t just pop out of true. Even really badly built wheels. Wheels taco when the rim bends sufficently.

You can total a front end – frame, fork, the lot – and still have a true front wheel.

Very true. I rode head on into a car at 25mph (don’t ask… my fault…). The fork dropouts were back near the BB. The front wheel was fine.

So me leaning sideways into the wind and falling sideways is enough to do that? I am sure I have exerted greater side forces in that rim before with no adverse effects

anyway I’ll take it back and see what they say

No but you crashing and maybe applying load to the wheel sideways as you crashed or the fork turned sideways can be. Slow crashes can cause broken bones, etc as much as high speed ones.

Brant and Nemesis are, of course, both right.

But I think the question here is “Did you have your wheel in a rut?”

Seeing as you made no mention of it, I assumed you did not, and in that case the wheel should not have bent, in my opinion.

Either way – just pop back and ask nicely – you have nothing to lose.

Very true. I rode head on into a car at 25mph (don’t ask… my fault…). The fork dropouts were back near the BB. The front wheel was fine.

Did the very same thing on a Raleigh racer as a teenager, replaced the forks and all good again.

I have also taco’d a rear wheel by falling off a wall into a bush(don’t ask)with me landing in the bush with the bike on top, no idea how I bent the wheel but put it down to being a bit of a d!ck.

Everyone knows 26″ is a far stronger wheel size 😈

You don’t need your wheel in a rut to bend it. My point is that unless you know exactly what happened to the bike during the crash, it’s impossible to say whether it’s reasonable that it bent? What is clear though is that the rim did bend. So either it bent because it was faulty in some way (eg badly manufactured) or because it was overloaded. You can overload it in loads of ways, loads of which don’t require a rut.

Okay – I guess I have just been very lucky then – never done that despite loads of offs 🙂

Best of luck.

If it was a oldish rebuilt rim that could cause problems too. I’ve had 2 wheels where the hub failed and had the rim rebuilt onto a new hub (by the same people who built the original wheels). Both failed catastrophically within weeks without any riding that they weren’t subjected to before the rebuild.

Maybe the change in spoke tension distribution around the rim between the old and new wheels were sufficiently different to cause problems. Maybe I should have checked tension more carefully after the first few rides because it was a rebuild. Who knows, lesson learned though!

^^ That tyre looks awfully large.

I don’t think anybody has mentioned it, but the one aspect of wheel building which can make a wheel more likely to taco is having the tension too high. No idea if that was the case here – most likely it was just down to excessive side loading as others are suggesting.