General Cycling Discussion - A BMX magwheel urban myth?

my first bmx bike had steel 5spoke mag wheels on it, and they easily outlived the bike. most of my friends had conventional spoked wheels and a few others had "plastic" mags.

my question is, has anyone ever heard of the bmx urban myth that if you take a pair of (i think it was) skyway mag wheels that get out of true, you can make them straight again by "putting them in the freezer" for awhile. it sounds absurd that you could throw a mag wheel, plastic or skyway into a freezer and they'd come out straight, but has anyone heard of this actually working? i heard this back in the 80's and early 90's a few times, but was sceptical.

Ive never heard of that before....Try it and see what happens!!!

my first bmx bike had steel 5spoke mag wheels on it, and they easily outlived the bike. most of my friends had conventional spoked wheels and a few others had "plastic" mags.

my question is, has anyone ever heard of the bmx urban myth that if you take a pair of (i think it was) skyway mag wheels that get out of true, you can make them straight again by "putting them in the freezer" for awhile. it sounds absurd that you could throw a mag wheel, plastic or skyway into a freezer and they'd come out straight, but has anyone heard of this actually working? i heard this back in the 80's and early 90's a few times, but was sceptical.

Some plastics have "memory", where heating them will restore them to their original, as-molded shape. I kind of doubt this is the case with Tuff Wheels, though- I'm pretty sure they're fiberglass-reinforced. If they bent enough to permanently deform, they're probably toast.

that makes sense. if i ever get a pair that is bent, i will have to try this to see if it works. untill then...

This thread brought a smile to my face. I was riding my commuter the other day and stopped by the bike/skate park and watched some of the BMX'ers doing their thing. It brought back memories of me on my BMX bike as a kid, I had the wheels you speak of. As soon as I saw the subject I already knew what urban myth you were talking about. I never had a chance to test it.

No such thing as BMX when I was a kid.

I have heard that if you spend the night in a freezer, you'll wake up smarter. Anyone want to test that out??:lol:

i've got 5-spoke tuffs on my diamondback that are slightly out of true but no way in hell am i going to add insult to injury like that... plastic, like glass, can get brittle from freezing.

It does work with mothers-in-law, however. Or so I hear.

No such thing as BMX when I was a kid.

I have heard that if you spend the night in a freezer, you'll wake up smarter. Anyone want to test that out??:lol:


Yeah....youll learn not to do it again......that is if yer dumb enough to try it in the first place!:D

My son told me you could pop out a dent on a car by holding a piece of dry ice against it. I never tried it, and he was wrong about other things, but hey, how much does it cost to try?

You know, you have to wonder about nomenclature like "plastic mags".

My son told me you could pop out a dent on a car by holding a piece of dry ice against it...

I'd like to see that on "MythBusters!"... :thumb:

Well, hey, even a clock that's stopped is right twice a day, Poco.

So true Nermal :)

Which makes me wonder (I'm new around here)... has there been a thread ever written about "Bicycle Myths and Legends?" That should be a good read on a rainy day!

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That would be good. If I had something to start it off, I might start it myself.

Actually, motorheads do cryo treatment to high wear parts in custom engines to get better tolerances under use and wear characteristics over the life of the part (eg, valve train, crank, etc). Mind you, -20 C (standard freezer) and -150 C and lower are a little different. Maybe if you had access to a -80 C freezer, it could work.

My son told me you could pop out a dent on a car by holding a piece of dry ice against it. I never tried it, and he was wrong about other things, but hey, how much does it cost to try?

You know, you have to wonder about nomenclature like "plastic mags".

Actually, that's true. The Paintless dent removal guys do it all the time.

-R

Well, score one for junior.

I also heard that putting a BMX wheel in the freezer would put it true again, I have never heard of anyone doing it though. That was about 25 years ago when BMX's were cool.

Well, score one for junior.

Hehe! :thumb:

I've been wracking my brain trying to think of any other bikes myths. The only one I know is a car one... if you ever needed brake fluid in an isolated place with no motor shops, go into a grocer and use cooking oil. I suppose with hydraulic brakes in a lot of mountain bikes these days, that may qualify as a bike myth? :o

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Actually, motorheads do cryo treatment to high wear parts in custom engines to get better tolerances under use and wear characteristics over the life of the part (eg, valve train, crank, etc). Mind you, -20 C (standard freezer) and -150 C and lower are a little different. Maybe if you had access to a -80 C freezer, it could work.

Cryo treatment is designed to convert the retained austenite in high carbon steels to martensite. Martensite is much harder than austenite, thus it wears better. A good tempering process should make cryotreatment unnecessary.

My senior design project for my materials science degree tested some cryotreated steels against non-cryo steels...the results were the same.

I doubt that cyrotreatment would have an effect through the same mechanism as it does in steel.

I've heard of the freezer 'myth' too but never tested it out. I recall though that the Tuff 1s were virtually indestructable, the Tuff 2s were lighter but prone to cracking around the hubs and then there were the Graphite Tuffs that were as light as alloy wheels but just broke into pieces if abused.

Remember the Motomag by Mongoose? An alloy Tuff wheel look alike.
http://bmxmuseum.com/image/7520_lg.jpg

Remember also the Z-rims by ACS?
http://www.23mag.com/com/acs/acs85zrims.jpg

ACS also had a plastic (Nylon?) 5 spoke Tuff wheel competitor with thinner spokes. Can't find any pics though.

i miss my mags. wish they made ones in the 26 x 1.5 to 1.75 sizes. im sure they probably have the uber expensive carbon fiber racing wheels, but how about some more value orientated versions. a little wheel choice would be nice. hmmm... should i used spoked, spoked or spoked wheels on my bike. different designs, color quardnation and durability.