So my rear wheel took a pretty hard impact today and I got a puncture on my tubeless setup. When I looked at the wheel afterwards I noticed a tiny almost crack on the rim, basically hairline sized. That's also around where the sealant came out from after the impact. I can't tell if it's a crack from the impact or just something to do with where the rim joins.
It's so small I really can't tell the difference. It also sits perfectly opposite the valve hole which makes me think it might just be from the factory where the rim joins together. The wheel isn't any more out of true than it was before, which isn't too bad at all.
Rim is a Bontrager Line on a 2023 Trek Roscoe 8.
Has anyone seen this before? Is there a way to tell a seam from a crack? And is sealant coming out at that spot after a hard impact normal?
Any help or advice is welcome
by ewanc12
3 Comments
seems you might have hit your wheel in a bad spot, just where the rim is joined. As it’s not welded, it’s normal that there is a tiny tiny gap, but yours looks a bit bad, especially in terms of misalignment. Might be perfectly normal for bontrager though.
You might be able to get it warranted if the rim otherwise looks fine, mentioning that you noticed sealant leaking from the joint and it looking odd upon further investigation.
That is the seam and maybe the sealant burped a little from the hit. As long as it holds air, I wouldn’t worry about it.
Now if you can move the joint sides apart from each other, the pin may have failed. If so you should replace the rim.
The exact same thing happened to me 2 weeks ago on bontrager line comp rims! It’s what you said, is the junction where the rims joins together that failed.
I went to a trek store and it was covered under warranty because it’s not a normal point of failure. I don’t know if yours is still under warranty, but if it is it’s worth trying! Good luck 🤞