Why did this just happen randomly mid-ride? Didn’t hit anything, no broken spokes. 30 year old rim. No new brakes, tire 3 weeks old, nothing rubbing where it shouldn’t.
by hberg32
Why did this just happen randomly mid-ride? Didn’t hit anything, no broken spokes. 30 year old rim. No new brakes, tire 3 weeks old, nothing rubbing where it shouldn’t.
by hberg32
16 Comments
Were the spokes tensioned/loose? I’m highly skeptical that you were just riding along and this happened, in fact there’s an entire sub that mocks this type of thing.
Did you turn or brake suddenly?
What did you hit? Or hit you? Rims don’t just bend like that. I am assuming that is a steel rim as aluminum would have cracked
Never saw a wheel taco like that without an impact.
Pothole? Caught it in a sewer grate?
I really want to know more because I own a shop and if a customer told me this I wouldn’t believe them… I mean I wouldn’t tell them I didn’t believe them, but I wouldn’t lol. Really, you hit nothing??? I mean even if every spoke was completely loose, there’s not that much weight on the front. I’m super curious to know if you figure it out!
Here’s a possibility:
The rim did have an impact, a long time ago. Then somebody straightened out the slightly tacoed rim by mis tensioning some of the spokes and calling it good.
That got it close enough to straight to last for a little while until…
*SPROING*
Y’all on this sub, chill. Maybe OP did something but didn’t realize it. Maybe this was actually JRA. But saying what boils down to “you’re actually lying” isn’t going to help anyone. It’s not like OP is hiding their shame while trying to get the bike fixed — they are literally posting asking WTH happened.
Let’s not forget that the _point_ of this sub is to help people who have basic questions, or who might not know to notice things that others of us might find obvious. Let’s try to offer guidance in that spirit, instead of turning super antagonistic and trying to convince an OP that they know that they’re lying, and should tell the truth. Again, that attitude helps nobody.
I wonder what your brake surface looks like. It may have become so worn that the rim lost its lateral integrity.
I had this happened quite often when building wheels from old parts. The rim is bending like this with little force, even the spoke tension was causing the rim to bend. I read it is a sign of age. Aluminium has very little elastic qualities. So little bumps and deformations cause the material to become weaker over time to the point of failure.
Impressive taco. I’ve seen this happen when people try to detense a wheel after building, but not while riding… I can imagine if one were to be overly aggressive with the tension…
Happened to me once and probably the reason here as you said the rim is old: the rim brakes have worn down the breaking surfaces / side walls of the rim and it finally lost lateral strength. Keep an eye on those wear indicators – you do not want this happening to you at speed.
Haha, you found the lower energy Pringle form
This shape results in all the spokes being under lower tension than straight, but requires enough energy put in to initially over-tension a few spokes, and deform the rim.
You can sometimes pop these back straight by holding the rim in two adjacent places that are central to the hub (ie 12 and 3) and smacking the opposing high spots (ie 7:30) down into the ground, forcing it back to the centreline.
If done, it effectively pops the rim back to basically straight. It’s one of the most satisfying repairs to do, especially in front of a customer, as it’s like a magic trick. Take a pringled wheel, turn it in your hands with a bit of razzle-dazzle, stare, mutter. Then BANG on the floor and hand them a straight wheel.
I have a “trick rim” that I saved off an old bike. If you hold it just right & torque it, it’ll taco. You can then torque it the other way and it goes right back into shape.
Two stable states of being.
Are you saying you just rode like one does and suddenly your wheel is fugled? Well, might be the temperatures with the age or sum’
Hope you can get a good fix!
Did anyone else immediately go to the office pothole on a highway clip reading OP’s title?
At the risk of being offensive… are you the same size as you were 30 years ago?