Originally Posted by
bcpriess
Hi - I have a bent rim from my rear wheel sliding out from under me sideways in the mud and hitting a rail tie pretty hard on its side. When I tension the spokes to get it back in alignment, I end up with one super tense side, and one super slack side and the wheel is still bent. Looks to be about 5-7mm offset to the nds at its worst spot. The other 180 degrees of the wheel are still true. It's still round, but I can't keep my rear brakes from rubbing and still have a rear brake. What are some good techniques for bending the rim back closer to its original flat shape? I don't really want to get a new wheel or relace everything to a new rim if I don't have to.
The DS can have up to 2X the tension of the NDS. That's how the wheel is properly dished.
Trying to tension both sides the same will "pull" the rim way over to the NDS.
Notice the differing "angles" the spokes run between DS & NDS? The NDS has a MUCH greater effect on dish-
That said, I did something similar to my rear wheel when I did a nose stand with my new to me then Globe.
The wheel went about 3-4' in the air and banged down hard as I was "stepping off" to the side.
I had a rather nasty "Pringle".
I loosened all the spokes to the 1st thread and the rim WAS FINE. I just built the tension back evenly and had a "straight" wheel.
It was simply so poorly tensioned, it was looking for an "excuse" to go out of whack.
So- Don't start banging on the rim until you have loosened ALL the spokes first.