Originally Posted by
JakiChan
I'm also still trying to understand how a pothole did this. The dents are very shallow. You can't see them, you can only feel them. And they're not "down", i.e. they're not going from the outside of the wheel towards the hub. These are going along the braking surface towards the other braking surface, if it makes any sense. (I can't find the right terms to describe what I mean, if they exist.)
Without seeing the rim we can only speculate. Determine a cause involves considering the totality of the clues. The dealer/mechanic who worked on it is in a better position to form a theory, and seeing it might lead me to specific questions.
But here are a few.
1- are the dents in the same area as the slack spoke and rim bend?
2- are the dents opposite the slack spoke?
If the answer to either or both are yes, it would be a large coincidence if the dents, bend, and slack spoke aren't all related to a single event.
OTOH- you might review your technique mounting and removing the tire. If you, like me, start removing tires on either side of the valve, then tire levers would only be implicated if the dents were in the right place.
Finding causality, is detective work involving interpreting clues, and ruling possibilities in or out based on causal relationships.
I based my theory that the dents might be caused by a pothole, on the coincidence of the warped wheel and slack spoke. The fact that this was the Clydesdale forum was positive reinforcement. But it's just a theory, and can only be confirmed or challenged based on the details of the damage. For all I know, you might have tossed the wheel into your car, and dropped something on it by accident.