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Lacing A Very Bent Rim


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I sat on my front wheel a while ago which caused it to bend very badly. Today i decided to take the rim off and straighten it, but it's bent so badly it just can't be done. We're taking about 3-4cm offset here. I've already ordered some of these magnesium rims but need to get this one going before the new ones arrive.

Do you know of any tricks that might help me lace this wheel and make it straight? My main concern is that previously some spokes had to be really loose for the wheel to be true (by loose i mean with no tension at all). This caused a lot of wheel flex from the disc brake and small correction pivots on the front wheel felt like the whole bike was going to fall apart any minute.

Note that this is going to be laced on a disc hub, meaning that half the spokes will be running almost vertically. Should I align the wheel so that the non disc spokes which run at a smaller angle pull the bent parts of the rim to make it true? Hope you understand what i mean, find it hard to explain.

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No Ash, already tried straightening it. Using a hammer on such a springy piece of metal doesn't work. Standing on it with a small piece of wood under the bent area either.

I'm looking for advice on how to lace it so it's fairly straight and the spokes are tight. There might be something that's worth knowing when getting down to this.

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An old trail trick that is tried and tested successfully (when miles from home and rims were much weaker than these days) is to lean the built wheel against a tree at say 45 degrees and jump on it to get it roundish - then finish off trying to true it normally. Might give you a better result before you throw it away.

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plonk it in a vice and bend it back.

lay it flat on the ground bent side going off the floor - mark where the rim leaves the ground ... put in vice and bend.

Yep. Same way you would do a disc rotor. Make sure to bend it slightly more than necessary and to hold it in your newly bent position for 10 seconds or so to help it retain its new shape.

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Well, thanks for the 2 replies from people who actually understood the topic :P Will try that "tree" trick out. Can't lace it 4x as i'm using the same old spokes which are the wrong length... though in my opinion the best lacing in this case would be a radial one.

And yeah, I'm asking about how to LACE it so I don't get loose spokes (edit: and so that the wheel is fairly straight, doesn't need to be perfect!), not how to get the rim straight which I've been trying to do for a good hour without success. It's not bent in one place, it's an S shape when you look from behind <_<

Edited by Inur
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Yep, just built it up and it's adequate. The spokes are so tight half the nipples are rounded off, yet if you lean on the front wheel with your hands, it bends like rubber. Never again to front Try-All rims...

Thanks for the ideas, i found the best way was to lay the wheel on the ground and tighten the spokes while pushing the rim down in the place in which it was "sticking out". Thanks to this the spokes are much tighter, so instead of having tight and loose ones, i've got tight and very tight spokes = no more wheel flex when braking :)

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Yep, just built it up and it's adequate. The spokes are so tight half the nipples are rounded off, yet if you lean on the front wheel with your hands, it bends like rubber. Never again to front Try-All rims...

Thanks for the ideas, i found the best way was to lay the wheel on the ground and tighten the spokes while pushing the rim down in the place in which it was "sticking out". Thanks to this the spokes are much tighter, so instead of having tight and loose ones, i've got tight and very tight spokes = no more wheel flex when braking :)

Mine trued out so it could be used as a disc wheel but i had a Dx32 so i used that in the end. I did buy new spokes which i used to see if it would come straight which it did but not fully.

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