Comments on: Riding with a badly bent wheel

By: Guitar Ted

Guitar Ted — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:26:42 +0000

Dan: Good technique there. You can also attain similar results by removing the offending wheel and smacking the bent portion on the pavement while holding the wheel wth both hands opposite the bend. Make sure you start your “stroke” with the wheel above your head for dramatic effect. Works a trick as a stress reliever too!

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:17:42 +0000

Not interested in walking out of the bush with my injured bike I once bent a tacoed (sp?) wheel back to workable straightness by taking it off my bike, removing the QR laying it on the ground and doing some strategic standing on it until it would fit in the frame. I was able to limp home after that but like Noah said, the stability was horrible. It was slow going but faster than pushing the bike home.

By: SteveG

SteveG — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:47:24 +0000

If it’s not too bad, you can also try roughly truing the wheel on the road or trail, using the fork and brake pads as a truing stand. I did this once last year and after some kid knocked my bike over in a bike stand where I’d stupidly left it with the front wheel as its only support. You need a spoke wrench with you, of course. I did a better job when I got home, but I managed to get most of the wobble out on the road.

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:15:09 +0000

If you ride conventional 32 or 36 spoked wheels, you are almost guaranteed to make it home. “Few spoke” or ‘paired spoke’ wheel will almost always become unrideable.

By: Noah

Noah — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:26:12 +0000

Indeed. I also forgot to mention that ride stability is (obviously) severely reduced. In my case yesterday, the wheel was so far out of true that it actually rubbed on the fork, but not badly enough to make it un-ridable. I couldn’t even get the bike to roll with the brakes in place, though. The bike was very, very squirrely and a bit of a challenge to ride, but it was either that or a three-mile hike.

By: Donald

Donald — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:17:02 +0000

I had to figure this out on my own one time biking home from the bike shop. They made some mistakes fixing my rim (using the wrong spokes) and my rim bent halfway home. Luckily only a couple of spokes popped so I could actually perform this trick. It’s a good thing for anyone to know. =)