robo

I just wanted to get some opinions from the people here on this, as i've gotten conflicting reports from a few LBSes.

My rear wheel (XT rear hub, DT Revolution spokes, alloy nipples, Mavic SUP 217 rim) has a vertical wobble. On a certain point, the rim bobs 'up' maybe 1.5mm. I took it to one LBS, which was pretty ghetto (ie. they only stocked cheap BMX bikes and sub $400 hybrids etc). Anyway, the guy there tinkered with it for maybe 20 minutes until he told me that some of the spoke nipples were stuck, and he'd have to replace some spokes, but he didn't have any of the right type (they only had straight guage generics). But he evidently thought the wheel was fixable.

So i took it to a better shop that my friend recommended. They didn't look at it for more than 0.5 seconds before the guy said 'vertical wobble, you need a new wheel'. I was pretty surprised, so he was like 'don't believe me huh? Hey joe, this wheel needs to be rebuilt with a new rim right?' The mechanic looks up, grunts, nods, and goes back to whatever he was doing.

Anyway, i stop by one more bike shop. This one has a lot of high end stuff but their 'repair' corner is pretty minimal. Just one stand and a few tools. I ask the guy there, he looks at the wheel for a couple seconds and says 'we can fix that.. it just needs to be trued'. I say 'but it has a vertical wobble.. isn't that bad?' and he looks at me totally blank. 'It just needs to be trued' he repeats.


Soo... any suggestions from experienced wheelbuilders? Is a vertical wobble a terminal illness for a rim? Was the second shop playing me for a fool?

Thanks,

robin