My wife took a spill on our cargo bike and bent a spoke badly enough that it pulled the nipple out of the rim. Any chance this can be salvaged? Unfortunately it’s a proprietary 22 inch wheel so options to replace just the rim are very limited from what I’m seeing so far.
by cantstandya7
8 Comments
No, unfortunately.
Nope. You either Need to replace the rim (and a few spokes) or get a complete new Wheel.
It’s worth trying to try flattening out the tear out and finding a small washer to hold the nipple in place. Not ideal, as aluminum fatigue makes it prone to failing again. What’s the spoke count on the wheel? How out of true is the wheel?
Nope. Based on the zero tension spoke next to it it was ridden for a long time with low spoke tension. Every time those spokes roll the rim gets pushed inward bending the spokes then they pop out, hammering the rim and also weakening the spoke. Build a new wheel with new rim and spokes and have it tensioned and trued at least once a year.
You can try sapim nipple washers. They’re oval and will give you the best chance.
I’d also recommend fitting nipple washers on the rest of the wheel to prevent this in the future.
At the end of the day if the rim is f***ed trying this isn’t going to make it more f***ed. If you can risk riding home with another broken spoke then it’s worth a shot.
I am sure someone in Africa has fixed worse. But you aren’t in Africa. But again, I think more people should fix things and not just wimp out immediately assuming a part is completely destroyed at the first scratch.
It’s serious, for sure, and you may find out quickly as you try to bodge together a fix that it is indeed totally fucked. But maybe, just maybe, you can make it work.
This happened to my on my all carbon checkpoint, and I had to get a new rear wheel, which was over 500. Also, it happened right after the shop had replaced a popped spoke.
Although I have eTap, the shifting sicked after they replaced the wheel, I took it back for like the 5th time in a row for them to tune it again. I rode it 2 days ago and it’s good now.
I recommend a new wheel. I’ve also used a valve nut (presta) between the nipple and the rim to make shitty wheels functional again. Yes a washer would have been better but what I had was a valve nut so… The rim seems like it’s made out of a softer aluminum (most likely due to the heat treatment or lack thereof). Due to the softer aluminum it’ll reforge to accommodate stress vs just cracking to oblivion. Hacks like some form of washer to support the nipple(s) are doable with shitty low strength aluminum rims. Higher strength aluminum is way less likely to fail like that.