Originally Posted by artifice

bike + wheel are only a couple months old. Thats why I'm asking if anyone else has had this problem- doesn't seem like a flat should be incurring such a large repair bill.

Ok, so extended version of the flat:
Took a minute or two to realize I had the flat.
Stopped to fix it.
Group effort.... three people took a look at the tube and tire, determined it looked like a pinch flat.
Put in the new tube. Inflated it... nail came popping right out through the tire.
Woops. Apparently we're all blind.
Some chick kept trying to pull the nail out- I told her not to, that it might hold enough air to walk it home. (I was only 2 miles into the ride). She continued messing with it until it deflated entirely.
So, I walked the bike about half a mile, and called for a ride. This is where the damage must have occured, walking the bike... although I wouldn't have thought walking the bike would have killed the rim?
Probably should have stopped to patch the tube, re-inflate and walk it home but I never imagined it would have caused that much damage.?!

Lesson learned.