Buckled wheel (I'm an idiot)

Gross stupidity (my own, I'm afraid) means that I buckled my back
wheel today. I could still ride on it, which was just as well as I
was 30 miles from home, but it's obvious enough for another cyclist to
point it out to me. (Er, yes love .... I *had* noticed!)

I'm currently working my way through some previous urc threads on the
subject but had a couple of questions.

I haven't yet taken the tyre/tube off the wheel, or even the wheel off
the bike, but I wheeled it into Halfords and got a sharp intake of
breath off one of their bike "experts". I buckled a wheel once
before, perhaps a bit worse than this buckle, and had a satisfactory
repair from the LBS. (Halfords, by the way, weren't accepting any bike
servicing jobs till at least next weekend.)

I'm loath to buy a new wheel as this is a Sturmey Archer hubbed wheel
and I really don't want to spend much money on this bike. In the next
year or two I want to buy a new bike and am trying not to "waste" bike
money on my current one.

So, if the LBS says that the wheel cannot be satisfactorily trued
would it be worth me getting a new rim (and spokes, I presume) fitted
round my existing hub? I'm not sure what the relative costs would be
and whether your typical LBS would want the job.

Thanks for any advice.

Judith

in message , Judith
') wrote:

Gross stupidity (my own, I'm afraid) means that I buckled my back
wheel today. I could still ride on it, which was just as well as I
was 30 miles from home, but it's obvious enough for another cyclist to
point it out to me. (Er, yes love .... I *had* noticed!)

I'm loath to buy a new wheel as this is a Sturmey Archer hubbed wheel
and I really don't want to spend much money on this bike. In the next
year or two I want to buy a new bike and am trying not to "waste" bike
money on my current one.

So, if the LBS says that the wheel cannot be satisfactorily trued
would it be worth me getting a new rim (and spokes, I presume) fitted
round my existing hub? I'm not sure what the relative costs would be
and whether your typical LBS would want the job.

It's easy to transfer the spokes yourself from one rim to another of the
same model. Tape the two rims side by side and then transfer one spoke
at a time. Do not tighten the newly transfered spokes, until you have
transferred all of them. Then cut off the old rim and gradually tighten
the spokes systematically around the wheel, truing it as you go.

However, before you do that it's worth trying to true the wheel
yourself. You need to be patient and systematic, but if the rim isn't
actually damaged and the wheel will still turn it's likely to be
possible, and if you're prepared to put in the time it isn't actually
that difficult.

See URL:http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; making jokes about dyslexia isn't big, it isn't clever and
;; it isn't furry.

Judith wrote:

So, if the LBS says that the wheel cannot be satisfactorily trued
would it be worth me getting a new rim (and spokes, I presume) fitted
round my existing hub?

Yes. If you have any local cyclist friends get their opinion on whether
the LBS builds decent wheels. Many are hopeless.

On Mon, 02 May 2005 08:27:31 +0100, Zog The Undeniable
wrote:

So, if the LBS says that the wheel cannot be satisfactorily trued
would it be worth me getting a new rim (and spokes, I presume) fitted
round my existing hub?

Yes. If you have any local cyclist friends get their opinion on whether
the LBS builds decent wheels. Many are hopeless.

I don't know any "real" cyclists. ie the ones I know would happily
take advice from Halfords.


Can anyone recommend a decent wheel-builder in
Wirral/Liverpool/Southport areas?


I'm going to have a look myself. I bought a spoke-key, on a whim,
last year so I might as well have a look.

Judith

"Judith" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 02 May 2005 08:27:31 +0100, Zog The Undeniable
wrote:

So, if the LBS says that the wheel cannot be satisfactorily trued
would it be worth me getting a new rim (and spokes, I presume) fitted
round my existing hub?

Yes. If you have any local cyclist friends get their opinion on whether
the LBS builds decent wheels. Many are hopeless.

I don't know any "real" cyclists. ie the ones I know would happily
take advice from Halfords.


Can anyone recommend a decent wheel-builder in
Wirral/Liverpool/Southport areas?


I'm going to have a look myself. I bought a spoke-key, on a whim,
last year so I might as well have a look.


If you hadn't noticed the buckle, you'll probably be able to fix it. Watch
out that you don't flatten the rim by over tightening the spokes. This means
you must be aware of how much the rim moves up and down as well as from side
to side.

Much of the stuff about wheel building on the web won't apply to you because
you have hub gears. (Derailers are harder because the wheel needs to be
dished to fit in the 8 or 9 gear cassette).

Judith

Frank X wrote:
Much of the stuff about wheel building on the web won't apply to you
because you have hub gears. (Derailers are harder because the wheel
needs to be dished to fit in the 8 or 9 gear cassette).

Not really harder because the different spoke lengths (left & right)
basically create the dish for you. The centering still needs checking,
but that's true for all wheels.

For DIY-truing, it's a good idea to have a spoke key at least as good as
the Buddy Spokey: http://tinyurl.com/dmbw2 . It's cheap enough @ £3.99 to
get both sizes (red & yellow) if not sure.

There's a real danger of ruining spoke nipples with anything that contacts
fewer sides of the nipple, especially when spokes are very tight.

~PB

Pete Biggs wrote:


For DIY-truing, it's a good idea to have a spoke key at least as good as
the Buddy Spokey: http://tinyurl.com/dmbw2 . It's cheap enough @ £3.99 to
get both sizes (red & yellow) if not sure.

There's a real danger of ruining spoke nipples with anything that contacts
fewer sides of the nipple, especially when spokes are very tight.

I agree. I had a bit of trouble with the Park 3-size spoke key at the
weekend and ended up having to replace a chewed nipple. As I only use
DT spokes I should buy just the #1 key.

Judith wrote:
On Mon, 02 May 2005 08:27:31 +0100, Zog The Undeniable
wrote:


So, if the LBS says that the wheel cannot be satisfactorily trued
would it be worth me getting a new rim (and spokes, I presume) fitted
round my existing hub?

Yes. If you have any local cyclist friends get their opinion on whether
the LBS builds decent wheels. Many are hopeless.


I don't know any "real" cyclists. ie the ones I know would happily
take advice from Halfords.


Can anyone recommend a decent wheel-builder in
Wirral/Liverpool/Southport areas?


I'm going to have a look myself. I bought a spoke-key, on a whim,
last year so I might as well have a look.

Judith

Pete Matthews is THE expert wheelbuilder in that part of the country;
some say the whole of the UK.

If you could ride on it (just) then it's almost certain it can be
trued.

If it can't, then you only need to change the rim. You're right, you
need to find a good LBS that takes pride in building wheels. But
there's no point buying a whole new wheel, which will then need
tensioning/truing anyway. For a rim and rebuild you'll be looking at
around 25-30 pounds. If it's just a true (likely) then around 10-15
pounds.

"Pete Biggs" wrote in message
...

Not really harder because the different spoke lengths (left & right)
basically create the dish for you. The centering still needs checking,
but that's true for all wheels.


It is the tension differences I find difficult with dished wheels.

But I've never build a hub geared wheel so I guess I don't know what I'm
talking about, I remember my dad doing it for me 30 years ago, but I never
did it myself.