went to 2 of my lbs today to try to get my wheel "trued"

its a velocity hub w/ dt swiss spokes and its in pretty bad condition

first bs in downey wanted 45 to get it fixed

second lbs asked for 25

third lbs asked for 20 but said there was a good chance of breaking the wheel so it would be useless because it had "hop" on it. and recomended i buy a new rim.

is this "hop" thing really unfixable? or should i trust the second lbs 25$. 2nd lbs is a VERY small hidden shop is focused primarily on road bikes and expert fitting. the third lbs is a family all-around bikeshop

Hey rgoo!
Pictures of your hub and rim would be helpful but I'd go for the second LBS though, they might charge you more for hub adjustment and whatnot.
I'm working on my front wheel as well..it's all jacked up.

are you talking about pat's 405...?

i would trust their judgement more than others... but a cheaper should would be the one in my town in bell gardens... it's never more than 16 bucks to true out any rim... it's called J&M on florence...

"Trueing a rim" is a poorly defined service.

There are two things a proper wheelbuilder is trying to accomplish:
1. He obviously wants to eliminate both vertical and horizontal runout.
2. He wants to maintain spoke tensions that are nearly to equal.

When you say that your rim is "in pretty bad condition" it leads me to believe those two goals are likely to be mutually exclusive. If the rim itself is bent it's sometimes possible to pull it straight by using uneven spoke tension but you won't be able to make a good wheel out of it. All that you can accomplish with a bent rim is to delay the time when you start breaking spokes or when the wheel turns itself into a complete potato chip in the middle of a ride.