velocentrik

Back in the days of steel rims and before our litigious society made bike frame and bike rim repair tools a risk management nightmare for tool manufacturers, there were many frame and rim repair tools that are no longer available. Our shop just picked one of these up.

One of these was the Bicycle Research Rim Saver tool. For those not acquainted with the tool, you use it to repair a bulge or dent in a steel or aluminum rim from hitting a road hazard. Curious if anyone has experience using the tool. We'd be interested to hear your thoughts/feedback on the three positions of the tool, and best practices you've learned from using it. It was very hard to find, and we're glad to finally have one in the shop.

Any information, tips or knowledge anyone wishes to share from experience of using this tool?

wschruba

The picture pretty much says it all, honestly. I've always found them to be a poor substitute for an adjustable wrench placed over the rim wall (with an appropriate spacer, if necessary).

Modern aluminum rims tend to be quite thin, and don't like being bent, especially the harder alloys. You'll likely wind up using it only on cheap bikes, not because more expensive ones can't use it, but because more expensive rims are difficult to impossible to repair with it. Remember that with bulges on an aluminum rim, it also usually comes with a flattened area, which you can't repair conventionally.

It does make working on steel rims a pleasure, though.

Andrew R Stewart 

This method of squeezing rim blimps back has been published in many sources. Channel lock pliers and splints of wood was a common suggestion. A long length of splint for the good side of the rim and the short length for the rim blimp. Some of us made our own by brazing/welding sections od steel strip to the channel lock jaws.

But the demise of using these types of tools have nothing with liability. The cost of replacement wheels dropped so low that the cost of the tools and the skill against the results changed to replacements being the greater value. The voting public (riders) made that decision.

Part of that judgment is that the usual rim flat spot that comes with the blimp and the advent of far more AL rims made this tool's use no longer a high profit service. Andy.

canopus 

I loved it back in the day. It took maybe 30 seconds to provide a service to a customer (we usually did it for free on the bike) that would remember you when it came time to replace the rim or wheel. Now a days people would be appalled that you might elect to repair a wheel like this instead of charging them appropriately for replacement.

JohnDThompson 

My experience as well is that it works best with steel rims. And don't expect perfection.

Homebrew01

What they said. I remember using that a few times, but as mentioned Channel-Lock or similar work also.

rydabent

With disc brakes, rims dont get ruined from brake wear.

cyccommute 

And what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

This tool was to repair impact damage, not wear damage. Disc brake equipped wheels can still suffer the same kind of impact damage as any rim.

CliftonGK1

I haven't used the Rim Saver, but my makeshift is a couple of scrap metal flats and a 7" Knipex pliers wrench.

HillRider

You have to remember that rydabent is fixated on rim wear and will not pass on any opportunity to proselytize for disc brakes, no matter how inappropriate the topic is otherwise.

fietsbob

laying the rim dent on a steel plate table and hitting the rim bulge with a hammer works ,

but With that tool you wont have to take the wheel off or even , perhaps the tire..

CliftonGK1

Also scares the hell out of most customers if you work in a shop where the service area isn't hidden away.

fietsbob

Slamming the Inside of the rim over a post to take out a bigger flat spot
is another technique best done in the Back Room .

Though Most repairs are in a Queue , not while you Wait..


Exception, here, is for Pacific Coast cycle-tourists passing Through in the summer .

Dan Burkhart 

Like making sausage, it's best if the customer doesn't see how it's done.

3alarmer

.
...with disc brakes, my whites really are whiter. And my whole ride smells Springtime fresh.

San Rensho 

When I worked at Yellow Jersey in Madison wisconsin, the shop specialized in building up the most expensive Italian frames with the best (Campy) components of the time, On many occasions I saw the more experienced mechanics take a 2X4 to bend the rear triangle of very expensive frames and make sure they were perfectly straight.

You did not want the purchaser of the bike anywhere near when that was going on.

velocentrik

I thought the kids Andrew had working for him only cut derailleur hangers and braze-ons off nice vintage lightweights to turn them into fixed, and built up colorful powder coated wheel sets with 50mm+ "aero rims." At least when the shop was still on State Street.

velocentrik

Actually back in the day most shops had dedicated tools to repair the flat spot in the rim as well. Those are tools that were even more frightening to use (from a risk perspective) on aluminum rims than a Rim Saver or Rim 'Rench. Work great on steel rims for rat rod bikes or pre-war stuff though! Most cyclists today just assume you can (sometimes) repair the bulge, but can't correct the flat spot. How soon we as professional mechanics forget what we "can" actually do as in our service industry. Attached pics of the Overland Rim-True Straightener which are virtually antiques/collectibles at this point and the Cyclus Radial Wobble tool (which is still an available product). The Cyclus tool is common in-use overseas, just not in the US where we are a more litigious society.

:

Trueing Wheels

Most professional wrenches these days have never seen frame/rim, repair tools, and would pee themselves from fright trying to use a Park HTS-1 to repair a bent head tube, caused by impact on a vintage steel racing frame. Let alone have the courage to repair a bent aluminum rim.

However, with the increasing demand to keep vintage rims on period-correct bikes we think more shops are going to remember how to repair rims, at least those shops that cater to customers that collect era and vintage specific kit for their collections. You can't tell a customer bound for L'Eroica that they would be better off letting us sell them something new to replace it.

velocentrik

Back to the original conversation:

Anyone familiar with the Rim Saver have any thoughts, recommendations, or best practices to pass along? No one in our shop will admit to having used one before. Everyone excited to play around with it though, on trashed rims to see what we can repair.

3alarmer

...hey thanks for the link to that Cyclus tool. We had one of the Overlands at the Bike Kitchen (thanks to a very generous LBS owner who had two), but I do a lot ofolde wheel stuff and would like to have my own at home. I didn't know anyone still made one, and was not looking forward to manufacturing my own.

San Rensho 

That was way after my time. I was there in the late 70's, early 80's, when the staff and customers were the last of the Hippies.

Andrew R Stewart 

I have a couple of the BR crushers in my stash. One at work (I brought it in) and one at home. I find that trying to do just one big squeeze isn't the best often. Taking a few small squeezes and moving the jaws along the rim/blip is a common method that I use. I also find that one can rock the crusher a bit so that either jaw changes their angle as they contact the rim. I like to try to have the small pressure jaw end up flat to the rim's brake track. I'll also use my fingers like a caliper/pads and run them along the rim's sides to feel for any blips. I prefer to have the wheel in a stand or on a bike for support but have done many free hand over the years.

The photos of the rim flat spot puller is also familiar. The Overland (?) company made them years ago, one piece cast like the one on the left of the shot. One can do a lot of damage with these is not careful. There was a modular and adjustable design made in the late 1980s. The contact points with the rim were moveable along the curved beam/backbone. The puller part was a simple cross piece with a couple of bolts (5/16"?) at either end that were worked simultaneously to draw the cross part un against the inside of the rim. Very bulky but also effective. I have one of these somewhere in my stash, long ago stored away as I never really liked having to do these types of services. Andy