Slightly bent wheel... options?
 

Hello again,

I was on my normal club night ride taday and I was doing about 30 MPH and hit a small pothole in the road. Now my front wheel is slightly rubbing on the front brake... I mean slightly. It is enough friction to barly stop the wheel but it does after a little while. My question is what can be done about it. Please note that the wheels are race x lites areaos which I very strong and also expensive so buying a new wheel is out of the question. It is bent so slightly that you can not even see or feel the bend, it just rubs very very little.

So what are my options?? Can the wheel be trued? The rubbing peice is right above one of the spokes? Can it be straightened? Thanks

Going to my LBS tomarrow to have it looked at...

It's pretty hard for carbon to permanently deform so it's doubtful that you rim is permanently bent. I suppose it might be a bit tricky with your hardly-any-spokes-at-all wheels, but it should be possible to true the wheel in a more or less conventional fashion by tweaking the spoke tension.

They are the aluminum versions of the rim and not the carbon versions. I am going to take it to the LBS in the morning and have it done. What sucked is that I knew right away that I probably tweeked the rim, it was so dark there was no way I could even see the inperfection right in the middle of the road. I guess the hazard of riding at night...

May be too late, but did you take off the tire and spin it around to see if the side of the wheel where it is tweaked is deformed at all? If so, you got bigger problems than truing. If not, would assume that it could be trued without much of a problem. How much of a tire are you riding? If 20's or 23's, ever thought about moving to next size up to give you a little more cushion than you're getting? Regardless, hope it all works out for you!

I just had this same problem. Didn't even realize I had a bent wheel until I was cleaning it after the ride.

Shop owner straightened it for $15, but said to keep an eye on it and said it won't last long. Then proceeded to tell me he'd give me a good price on a replacement. Is a slightly bent wheel garbage, or should a repair hold for a a while?

Stock Bontrager Race wheels, I'm 165lbs.

It souds like you wheel is just out of true. A wheel that is slightly out of true, side to side is an easy fix. You can do it yourself witha spoke wrench and some knowledge.

If the wheel is out of round (i.e. it rises and falls as it passes the brake pad) thats a bigger problem, but still sometimes fixable.

If the rim is actually bent (other than a small deformation of the bead, which can be fixed with a cresent wrench) you need a new rim.

:rolleyes:

I know he said that, but was he just trying to get $200-300 out of my pocket?

I just got the bike in August, and he gave me a GREAT deal; maybe I'm paying for it now...

I would ride it until it goes back out of true just to see how long it takes if the original problem was the wheel being out of true. I have had a couple of wheels that got bent so bad they were rubbing on the frame, either due to broken spokes in a crash or getting hit by a car. I trued them up and worked on spoke tension to try and even it out and they are still going strong many thousands of miles later. It really depends on exactly how you tweaked the wheel and how good the person who fixed it was. Note for my wheels though, the integrity of the rim wasn't damaged at all, the wheel was just out of true.