Bicycle Mechanics - Rim Dent - what to do?? Advice/opinions please!

Smacked my rear rim yesterday really hard on a concrete drain. It pinched the tube, sliced a big hole in the tire, and dented my Velomax Tempest rim. Please click link below to see two close up pics. The rim overall is barely out of true laterally when checking it with tightened rear brakes. But as you can see from the pic the rim is dented, inwards towards the tire, at the very top. There's also a nice indentation straight down into the top of the rim. The spokes appear to be fine. Once I changed the tire and tube I rode for another 20 miles with no noticable problems. Should I worry about this at all? Is it purely cosmetic? Should I attempt to straighten the dent at all? Thanks!


http://webpages.charter.net/007webgod/ebaytcr2/rimdent.html

(pics may take a minute to load on slower connections)

Some LBS have a tool for this. However it can be done with little or no scratching on the rim. I would try to get it done. If it gets worse the part of the rim that is bent is what holds the bead of the tire down.

It's kind of hard to tell from the pictures, but it doesn't look like the rim is out of round vertically. If you don't see a hop in the rim when you spin it, and there aren't some spokes which have gotten very loose, and you don't feel a hop when you ride the bike, I don't think it's worth worrying about.

You might want to smooth off the rough edges with a file so the tire casing doesn't get scratched.

If there is some out of roundness, you can get creative with a chunk of wood and a hammer or better yet take it to a shop where they have a tool which might be able to push it back with a bit more control.

i've seem joint welds on new rims that look worse. unless you have a flat spot or you can feel it when braking, i wouldn't do much aside from smoothing the edge out.

If you do want to remove the dent you can often do it by covering the rim with a rag and use an adjustable spanner(cresent wrench?) to straighten the rim.

d D;s advice works. Using a small crescent wrench gently bend the area out. Lightly file the rim to check for low/high spots. In the top photo the rim looks cracked. I'd need more pictures at a different angle to be sure.