so ive been bring my bike to work everyday for the past week and a half....and every day they have me show id and run my lock through the metal detector. i always take it to the basement and lock it in the store room....every day i go down the stairs...today one of them followed me and begain yelling that i had better not take the elevator....as i waited soemdbody to clear the door to the stairs....he begain shouting that i could not block the stairs with my bike....when i asked what to do..he sent me to the escaltor..."my wheel could get stuck" i informed him..."take the escalator" he bellowed back....so i did

and lo and behold....the escalato ws about 2 cm to narrow for my wheel to be sideways...as it inevitably turned, wedging itself between the two sides...by the time i managed to pull it out...the to opposite sides of the wheel had beeen bent in toward each other...bah

it is only slightly....but when i spin the wheel.....i can see it wobbling like crazy....is this "tacoed?" with the two sides bent in?

more importantly...can it be fixed....or is a pysical bending in from each side too much of a catastrophe for a truing to fix?

aiyah

thanks buds xoxo
max

If you can spin the wheel it's not really tacoed. Tacoed is wraped around your fork bent, really bent, unspinnable.
if it wobbles so much it's unrideable, you probably have to replace the rim. you might be able to true it, but there's gonna be a lot of tension on certain spokes and the rim may eventually start to crack around the nipple holes.

It's time for you to get the facts on what policy is from building management. Knowledge is power. Make sure you know exactly what are your rights and what you are allowed to do. And also note any policies the guards do not follow or rules they break. Time to turn the tables and make their life miserable.

Yup, I'm with riderx.
441 4th Street had a "policy" where the guards required messers to leave their bags at with security. Messengers hated it, it really sucked. Since it was totally random- nobody else had to leave bags- i pursued it. Sure enough, that wasn't building policy, it was just some crazy guards making crap up. And now, messers can keep their bags.

Moral: Always worth asking.

im not a messenger...im an intern....and im not just in an "office building" im in a congressional house office building....

...they can basically do whatever they want..because i think as part of the job they have a license to kill or something

No don't ask! Assume you are right. If they bellow at you bellow back. You work for congress that makes you important right?

Joe

there should be a rack/racks in the parking structures that other staffers use for their cars. it's dc law.

explain again how you mangaged to get your wheel stuck in an escalator?

or you could just hold your wheel straight. I'm failing to see how your wheel got caught? It just turned?

it kind bumped the side while i wasnt payign attention...i mean...it was my fault sure....but i didnt want to be on the escaltor to begin with...and yeah there are bike racks...but my bike is too new for me to feel comfortable leaving it outside...especialy with all you hooligans running around

your new bike is worth less now with the bent rim tho

I hate to say this, but it sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy. You got on the escalator expecting it to damage your wheel, then held the bike carelessly so it did. Why didn't you simply lift the bike overhead while you rode the escalator?

Your wheel should be fixable. If it can't be brought back by simple re-truing, then they could also bend the rim slightly back in. Mine got kicked one night and it was pretty bad, but they brought it back in, no problem.

Can't you get your congressman to put in a good word for you?

why didn't you hold your bike in the air??
sorry

I wouldn't worry so much if it's locked with at least a u-lock, indoors, and behind US congress security. And it's fixed, so it's not as attractive a theft item...

Were you struck with a sudden bout of amnesia?

It's obviously the fault of the escalator manufacturer.

first thing i thought. leave the poor security guard out of this and sue the crap out of the otis company and the family of the former charles seeberger.

it was careless of the escalator people to not think of the diameter of a bike wheel when desigining their escalator

Even better. The Fed. gov. has a million rules and you can bet they probably don't spell out what these guys are saying. Educate yourself. They are on a power trip.

of course....but there is not much i can do about it.....my boss wont exactly go yell at the guards...he'd probably yell at me

Don't let some $5 security guard tell you what to do. Yeesh.

I remember that; I always hated it. Thank you.

Who are you working for? Agencies sometimes have regs covering bicycle parking at their facilities--I know NIH and the Navy Yard do--check the CFR.

I'm not sure if the DC Reg that chimblysweep mentioned, which covers bike accessibility in DC parking garages, is going to be enforceable in a federal building.

You don't need your boss to fight your battles. Look up the information and when a guard tries to tell you do something you don't need to, whip out the policy that states otherwise. A few times of you showing you know what the real rules are and they will probably realize it's not worth their time to hassle you.