damaged (cracked?) rim -- how safe (temporarily)

Well, obviously, it's hard to venture an opinion without seeing the
rim.

Riding uphill yesterday, a rear, freewheel side spoke pulled out of
it's hole, ripping an elongated gap of nearly an inch on the
underside, about 1/2" of one side of which very slightly extends just
onto the angled portion of the rim wall (not the main nearly vertical
wall).

Didn't have any problems riding it a short distance to where my wife
picked me up and last night I re-trued the wheel so it's reasonable.
Actually, it's more true than many wheels I've seen. The rim seems
strong to the hand. But, obviously, that's "seems", not "is".

I've ordered another wheel but it won't be here to mid-next week and
I've got to have my fix. (There are worse things to be addicted to. I
hope.) So I'm wondering how safe it is to go out for short rides, even
8-10 miles, near the house. Would involve hills and descents since
that's the topology. Getting home isn't the problem if there is a
problem, but I don't think it would be too cool to have the rim
collapse on me. I don't mind taking the downhills very, very slowly.

You know, in the old days (which I'm old enough to remember too well),
you know, those days before indexed shifters and cassettes, in this
situation you'd just swap rear wheels with an old one hanging around.
Didn't matter what freewheel it was. Maybe I can re-commission one of
my ancient bikes, in various stages of disrepair, cannibalized over
the years, etc. But their gearing is definitely on the high side for
me now, to say the least.

On Jun 24, 4:52*pm, yirgster wrote:
Well, obviously, it's hard to venture an opinion without seeing the
rim.

Riding uphill yesterday, a rear, freewheel side spoke pulled out of
it's hole, ripping an elongated gap of nearly an inch on the
underside, about 1/2" of one side of which very slightly extends just
onto the angled portion of the rim wall (not the main nearly vertical
wall).

Didn't have any problems riding it a short distance to where my wife
picked me up and last night I re-trued the wheel so it's reasonable.
Actually, it's more true than many wheels I've seen. The rim seems
strong to the hand. But, obviously, that's "seems", not "is".

I've ordered another wheel but it won't be here to mid-next week and
I've got to have my fix. (There are worse things to be addicted to. I
hope.) So I'm wondering how safe it is to go out for short rides, even
8-10 miles, near the house. Would involve hills and descents since
that's the topology. Getting home isn't the problem if there is a
problem, but I don't think it would be too cool to have the rim
collapse on me. I don't mind taking the downhills very, very slowly.

You know, in the old days (which I'm old enough to remember too well),
you know, those days before indexed shifters and cassettes, in this
situation you'd just swap rear wheels with an old one hanging around.
Didn't matter what freewheel it was. Maybe I can re-commission one of
my ancient bikes, in various stages of disrepair, cannibalized over
the years, etc. But their gearing is definitely on the high side for
me now, to say the least.

I have pulled spokes through rims, trued the wheel and finished the
ride. I have never done that where the crack extended in to the
sidewall. That is more problematic, and I don't know what would happen
to the crack under braking forces or whether it could result in the
rim falling apart. Jobst should enlighten us on that. My unscientific
sense is that the rim would retain its hoop shape because of spoke
tension but that you would get a nasty rim crack catching your brake
pad. The good part is that it is a rear wheel, and you will not go
OTB if it fails. The deal is that you should stop riding that wheel
because crack propagation can be unpredictable.

I would do the following: (1) research whether any of the rims in my
retired wheel collection have the same ERD and handedness, if so (2) I
would get about three beers, and (3) I would watch the World Cup and
unlace the wheel with the right rim and (4) swap it with the broken
rim. Alternately, I would just go buy a new rim that fit and build
that wheel. Reduce beer intake by one bottle. -- Jay Beattie.

On Jun 24, 5:52*pm, Jay Beattie wrote:
On Jun 24, 4:52*pm, yirgster wrote:



Well, obviously, it's hard to venture an opinion without seeing the
rim.

Riding uphill yesterday, a rear, freewheel side spoke pulled out of
it's hole, ripping an elongated gap of nearly an inch on the
underside, about 1/2" of one side of which very slightly extends just
onto the angled portion of the rim wall (not the main nearly vertical
wall).

Didn't have any problems riding it a short distance to where my wife
picked me up and last night I re-trued the wheel so it's reasonable.
Actually, it's more true than many wheels I've seen. The rim seems
strong to the hand. But, obviously, that's "seems", not "is".

I've ordered another wheel but it won't be here to mid-next week and
I've got to have my fix. (There are worse things to be addicted to. I
hope.) So I'm wondering how safe it is to go out for short rides, even
8-10 miles, near the house. Would involve hills and descents since
that's the topology. Getting home isn't the problem if there is a
problem, but I don't think it would be too cool to have the rim
collapse on me. I don't mind taking the downhills very, very slowly.

You know, in the old days (which I'm old enough to remember too well),
you know, those days before indexed shifters and cassettes, in this
situation you'd just swap rear wheels with an old one hanging around.
Didn't matter what freewheel it was. Maybe I can re-commission one of
my ancient bikes, in various stages of disrepair, cannibalized over
the years, etc. But their gearing is definitely on the high side for
me now, to say the least.

I have pulled spokes through rims, trued the wheel and finished the
ride. *I have never done that where the crack extended in to the
sidewall. That is more problematic, and I don't know what would happen
to the crack under braking forces or whether it could result in the
rim falling apart. Jobst should enlighten us on that. *My unscientific
sense is that the rim would retain its hoop shape because of spoke
tension but that you would get a nasty rim crack catching your brake
pad. *The good part is that it is a rear wheel, and you will not go
OTB if it fails. The deal is that you should stop riding that wheel
because crack propagation can be unpredictable.

I would do the following: (1) research whether any of the rims in my
retired wheel collection have the same ERD and handedness, if so (2) I
would get about three beers, and (3) I would watch the World Cup and
unlace the wheel with the right rim and (4) swap it with the broken
rim. *Alternately, I would just go buy a new rim that fit and build
that wheel. *Reduce beer intake by one bottle. -- Jay Beattie.

Get three beers ...

Ah, some practical advice! Relevant too!

On 25 June, 00:52, yirgster wrote:
Well, obviously, it's hard to venture an opinion without seeing the
rim.

Riding uphill yesterday, a rear, freewheel side spoke pulled out of
it's hole, ripping an elongated gap of nearly an inch on the
underside, about 1/2" of one side of which very slightly extends just
onto the angled portion of the rim wall (not the main nearly vertical
wall).

Didn't have any problems riding it a short distance to where my wife
picked me up and last night I re-trued the wheel so it's reasonable.
Actually, it's more true than many wheels I've seen. The rim seems
strong to the hand. But, obviously, that's "seems", not "is".

I've ordered another wheel but it won't be here to mid-next week and
I've got to have my fix. (There are worse things to be addicted to. I
hope.) So I'm wondering how safe it is to go out for short rides, even
8-10 miles, near the house. Would involve hills and descents since
that's the topology. Getting home isn't the problem if there is a
problem, but I don't think it would be too cool to have the rim
collapse on me. I don't mind taking the downhills very, very slowly.

You know, in the old days (which I'm old enough to remember too well),
you know, those days before indexed shifters and cassettes, in this
situation you'd just swap rear wheels with an old one hanging around.
Didn't matter what freewheel it was. Maybe I can re-commission one of
my ancient bikes, in various stages of disrepair, cannibalized over
the years, etc. But their gearing is definitely on the high side for
me now, to say the least.

There is an obvious reason for failure, too much spoke tension. You
simply dont need to be anywhere near there. The ripping out of one
spoke will have reduced the tension in the others a little. If you
knock it down a little more when truing then I think the only problem
remaining is the possibility of the tyre (asssuming you are on covers)
splitting the damaged rim. So knock the tyre pressure down to the
lowest you can manage with. It wouldn't bother me too much for a
short period, I wouldn't use the brake there though.

On Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:52:04 -0700, yirgster wrote:

Well, obviously, it's hard to venture an opinion without seeing the rim.

Riding uphill yesterday, a rear, freewheel side spoke pulled out of it's
hole, ripping an elongated gap of nearly an inch on the underside, about
1/2" of one side of which very slightly extends just onto the angled
portion of the rim wall (not the main nearly vertical wall).

Didn't have any problems riding it a short distance to where my wife
picked me up and last night I re-trued the wheel so it's reasonable.
Actually, it's more true than many wheels I've seen. The rim seems
strong to the hand. But, obviously, that's "seems", not "is".

I've ordered another wheel but it won't be here to mid-next week and
I've got to have my fix. (There are worse things to be addicted to. I
hope.) So I'm wondering how safe it is to go out for short rides, even
8-10 miles, near the house. Would involve hills and descents since
that's the topology. Getting home isn't the problem if there is a
problem, but I don't think it would be too cool to have the rim collapse
on me. I don't mind taking the downhills very, very slowly.

You know, in the old days (which I'm old enough to remember too well),
you know, those days before indexed shifters and cassettes, in this
situation you'd just swap rear wheels with an old one hanging around.
Didn't matter what freewheel it was. Maybe I can re-commission one of my
ancient bikes, in various stages of disrepair, cannibalized over the
years, etc. But their gearing is definitely on the high side for me now,
to say the least.

You did not mention the number of spokes or the type of rim. Both would
give some information regarding how much additional tension you had to
add to other spokes to get the wheel back to true and whether or not the
rim can take the additional tension.

Stephen Bauman

In article
,
yirgster wrote:

Well, obviously, it's hard to venture an opinion without seeing the
rim.

Easy opinion. It's toast. More spoke holes are going to fail. If
you're going to ride it, just do laps around the block.

--
That'll put marzipan in your pie plate, Bingo.

On 25 June, 03:30, Stephen Bauman wrote:
On Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:52:04 -0700, yirgster wrote:
Well, obviously, it's hard to venture an opinion without seeing the rim.

Riding uphill yesterday, a rear, freewheel side spoke pulled out of it's
hole, ripping an elongated gap of nearly an inch on the underside, about
1/2" of one side of which very slightly extends just onto the angled
portion of the rim wall (not the main nearly vertical wall).

Didn't have any problems riding it a short distance to where my wife
picked me up and last night I re-trued the wheel so it's reasonable.
Actually, it's more true than many wheels I've seen. The rim seems
strong to the hand. But, obviously, that's "seems", not "is".

I've ordered another wheel but it won't be here to mid-next week and
I've got to have my fix. (There are worse things to be addicted to. I
hope.) So I'm wondering how safe it is to go out for short rides, even
8-10 miles, near the house. Would involve hills and descents since
that's the topology. Getting home isn't the problem if there is a
problem, but I don't think it would be too cool to have the rim collapse
on me. I don't mind taking the downhills very, very slowly.

You know, in the old days (which I'm old enough to remember too well),
you know, those days before indexed shifters and cassettes, in this
situation you'd just swap rear wheels with an old one hanging around.
Didn't matter what freewheel it was. Maybe I can re-commission one of my
ancient bikes, in various stages of disrepair, cannibalized over the
years, etc. But their gearing is definitely on the high side for me now,
to say the least.

You did not mention the number of spokes or the type of rim. Both would
give some information regarding how much additional tension you had to
add to other spokes to get the wheel back to true and whether or not the
rim can take the additional tension.

Stephen Bauman

It can't, that's why it broke.

On Jun 24, 7:30*pm, Stephen Bauman wrote:
On Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:52:04 -0700, yirgster wrote:
Well, obviously, it's hard to venture an opinion without seeing the rim..

Riding uphill yesterday, a rear, freewheel side spoke pulled out of it's
hole, ripping an elongated gap of nearly an inch on the underside, about
1/2" of one side of which very slightly extends just onto the angled
portion of the rim wall (not the main nearly vertical wall).

Didn't have any problems riding it a short distance to where my wife
picked me up and last night I re-trued the wheel so it's reasonable.
Actually, it's more true than many wheels I've seen. The rim seems
strong to the hand. But, obviously, that's "seems", not "is".

I've ordered another wheel but it won't be here to mid-next week and
I've got to have my fix. (There are worse things to be addicted to. I
hope.) So I'm wondering how safe it is to go out for short rides, even
8-10 miles, near the house. Would involve hills and descents since
that's the topology. Getting home isn't the problem if there is a
problem, but I don't think it would be too cool to have the rim collapse
on me. I don't mind taking the downhills very, very slowly.

You know, in the old days (which I'm old enough to remember too well),
you know, those days before indexed shifters and cassettes, in this
situation you'd just swap rear wheels with an old one hanging around.
Didn't matter what freewheel it was. Maybe I can re-commission one of my
ancient bikes, in various stages of disrepair, cannibalized over the
years, etc. But their gearing is definitely on the high side for me now,
to say the least.

You did not mention the number of spokes or the type of rim. Both would
give some information regarding how much additional tension you had to
add to other spokes to get the wheel back to true and whether or not the
rim can take the additional tension.

Stephen Bauman

Yes. Absolutely. This is a mavic ma3 with 32 (now 31) spokes. 8 years
old.

Here's a pic of the rim: http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/4...0624183649.jpg

On Jun 24, 5:57*pm, thirty-six wrote:
On 25 June, 00:52, yirgster wrote:



Well, obviously, it's hard to venture an opinion without seeing the
rim.

Riding uphill yesterday, a rear, freewheel side spoke pulled out of
it's hole, ripping an elongated gap of nearly an inch on the
underside, about 1/2" of one side of which very slightly extends just
onto the angled portion of the rim wall (not the main nearly vertical
wall).

Didn't have any problems riding it a short distance to where my wife
picked me up and last night I re-trued the wheel so it's reasonable.
Actually, it's more true than many wheels I've seen. The rim seems
strong to the hand. But, obviously, that's "seems", not "is".

I've ordered another wheel but it won't be here to mid-next week and
I've got to have my fix. (There are worse things to be addicted to. I
hope.) So I'm wondering how safe it is to go out for short rides, even
8-10 miles, near the house. Would involve hills and descents since
that's the topology. Getting home isn't the problem if there is a
problem, but I don't think it would be too cool to have the rim
collapse on me. I don't mind taking the downhills very, very slowly.

You know, in the old days (which I'm old enough to remember too well),
you know, those days before indexed shifters and cassettes, in this
situation you'd just swap rear wheels with an old one hanging around.
Didn't matter what freewheel it was. Maybe I can re-commission one of
my ancient bikes, in various stages of disrepair, cannibalized over
the years, etc. But their gearing is definitely on the high side for
me now, to say the least.

There is an obvious reason for failure, too much spoke tension. * You
simply dont need to be anywhere near there. *The ripping out of one
spoke will have reduced the tension in the others a little. *If you
knock it down a little more when truing then I think the only problem
remaining is the possibility of the tyre (asssuming you are on covers)
splitting the damaged rim. *So knock the tyre pressure down to the
lowest you can manage with. *It wouldn't bother me too much for a
short period, I wouldn't use the brake there though.

Yes, many spokes on the freewheel side are really tight. What are
"covers"?

duck tape GOOD duck tape
or fiberglass-any resin and cloth handy ?