Salvaging parts from a tacoed wheel
 

I (on a fixed gear going through a green light) crashed (into a mountain bike rider going through the perpendicular red light) at a considerable speed. My front wheel tacoed when it got wedged between his down tube and front wheel. His bike was fine. The guy rode off all scared cause he broke my fancy racing wheel. So I took it to the shop where I bought it and asked if I could get a new wheel/spokes and reuse the hub. They wouldn't rebuild the wheel for me because they said the hub is too weak from the crash. Instead of calling bull**** I just paid them $130 for a whole new wheel.

Did I get ripped off? Is it really dangerous to ride on a hub that's been in a crash? I have no experience with wheels. I'm looking to gain more.

DId you get ripped of, probably not.The liability the shop assumes by rebuilding your damaged wheel is tremendous.There could be stress fractures in the hub due to the crash. If you got hurt or died from the wheel they built, a huge lawsuit would surely result.

How much money would you save by reusing a front hub? Not much I would imagine. Just sell the hub on ebay and try to recoup some of your costs. Good luck

Tim

Pre-built wheels are so inexpensive compared with paying for rim, spokes and labor that I doubt you would have saved any money even if your hub was in as-new condition.

I've had a couple of wheels with worn out and cracked rims rebuilt with a new rim and spokes. The cost very closely approached buying a complete new wheel with the same components so a new hub would be almost free.

I can understand the shops perspective on this... Especially in this day and age... So take you old hub, buy an inexpensive rim and a pile of spokes, and use this opportunity to learn how to build wheels.:D

You can reuse the spokes, nipples, rim tape, and the hub -- but you'll probably have to build it up yourself, as you discovered.

Make sure the spoke heads and bends bed on the same side and direction of the flange so you can use the dimpling from the last build. The spoke location doesn't matter for a front wheel (you can put them anywhere in the pattern).

Spokes don't get damaged unless they are nicked, broken, or kinked. You can easily feel a nick (sharp to the touch -- spoke-cross wear marks don't count and aren't sharp), and the other two are easy to see.

I wouldn't worry about a stress fracture of the hub. It can take a lot more tension than tacoing a wheel would give it (unless it's laced radially, and the hub isn't designed for radial patterns). A taco is a really slow stress, it's not like it was hit with a hammer or something.

Spokes are under a tremendous amount of tension from the first time you lace them to a hub and rim. To reuse them is not a good idea because they react in an inconsistent manner when you re-tension them. The hub could have cracks you can't see or might be crushed inward on the flange. One of the primary reasons for these stresses from the beginning has to do with the "roundness" of the rim to hub from the manufacturing process. and then just the general abuse from riding the wheel. Wheel's are expendable items and should be discarded when crashed and damaged. Don't risk it.