Waterbar Rim Damage. Sealant,Glue or Rebuild?

My feckless son whacked a waterbar in Coire Etchachan last month and put a ding in the rim sidewall and a flattening in the rim floor on a brand new XM 1700 wheel.  We got back using a tube and I’m now trying to fix it.

I’ve managed to straighten the sidewall with a vice, but it leaks a tiny bit through the rim tape and thence a spoke hole. The problem being that the rim floor ( or whatever you’d call the non flange bit) is no longer circular but flat, or even pacman, on that bit of the wheel so the rim tape bunched up.

I retaped it, and it seemed stuck down, but the tyre didn’t stay up long and I think there will always be a tiny gap there.

Do I:

Stick a dod of glue under the tape. Then sealant etc

OR

Just chuck sealant in and hope that seals.

OR

Spend £200 on getting a new rim built on?

I put a flat spot/ding in a EX517 (I’m also feckless, hi.)  held air for a while until I left the bike for a while, seal went and I couldn’t get it to hold on reinflating.  tried to bend, it back, failed but chewed the tape up. did a 3 layer contoured tape section (smallest oval on the bottom, bigger then bigger)  to build up the flat spot, rim taped over the top, fine for now after rising at BPW and Dyfi forest.

Yep, as above, try building the flat spot area up with a few layers of tape, it might be fine

You don’t say how old he is, but you could sort out the spoke tension so it doesn’t get worse and then leave the tube in. Explain that kit doesn’t grow in trees and he learns to look after stuff until he can afford to replace or repair it.

My bike was in various states of knackered when I was in my teens as I learned to fix my own bike, look after it while riding and learned to understand how much work I had to do to earn the money to buy the parts.

Depends how tight money is, but personally I’d happily accept that £200 is a small price to pay for being able to spend quality time with my son doing something I love and would rather have the peace of mind that there is no structural damage to the wheel.  If the money is an issue then how about just buying a new rim and transferring it yourself – switching a rim over is much easier than building from scratch and I’ve done it in the past without any tools other than a spoke key with the resulting wheel lasting for many years.

Personally I’d tape under the flat spot a little and rely on the sealant to sort things out. If that doesn’t work, there’s always – yes I know, how did we ever ride with them – tubes… Sod’s law is that if you fit a new rim he’ll only go and do the same thing on the next ride out… kids these days eh.

My feckless son whacked a waterbar in Coire Etchachan last month

Karma will have you damage a rim next ride – what will you call yourself?

Buy a rim and replace it – worse case you’ll have to pay someone to tension it properly.

You’re not asking for parenting advice but it seems the bodges vs. new question essentially comes down to that. And we don’t know anything about either of you. I’ll guess he’s 13-17 but the answer varies hugely as about halfway in that band he’s old enough to earn his own money. What constitutes a useful learning experience vs. mean “teaching him a lesson” we can’t really say. Nice DT wheels are a privilege for any teenager and the damage might not just be an accident or riding mistake, but a combination of mechanical sympathy, appropriate tyre pressure, appropriate tyres, inserts.

The problem being that the rim floor ( or whatever you’d call the non flange bit)

Shoulder, I think.

Spend £200 on getting a new rim built on?

you can get a rim for 50 quid – buy one and rebuild the wheel together (sounds like you maybe haven’t before but it’s not hard, especially if you tape the 2 rims together and swap one spoke at a time)

If it’s a fairly new wheel then it should dissemble easily and fitting a new rim would be simple. Take that approach, learn together.