Ever punched a hole in your carbon rim, repaired it, and lived to tell?
 

Like many before me, according to the internet, I ran over a drywall screw last Wednesday and punched a hole through the tire and carbon wheel.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...058bdd60bd.jpg
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Turning to the internet for answers after the incident produced many threads of likewise accidents and the typical 50/50 response of the wheel will be fine with a small repair or you'll die immediately. None of those threads contained an actual experience of making the repair and testing the wheel. So, either all those people are, in fact, dead after trying the repair, or the information is just lacking. Most of those threads were found here so I am hoping to hear from those who have experienced this directly, but also tried to fix the wheel and continued to ride it. I'm not interested in replacing the wheel, or buying another rim brake wheelset anytime soon. I have a backup set I'll just ride those for now.

I've ridden cracked alloy rims that others wouldn't. So if this falls into the "you won't ride them" category, then let me know. I'll pay for the postage to send them to me. <grin>

@Iride01 beat me to it .... otherwise I'd have done long-term endurance testing on my repairs on your old rim for you.

I would never recommend riding that rim again, to anyone else.

I would, for myself, look into to CF patch kits, or even fiberglass patch kits (same basic tech) and then ride the snot out of it .... but I don't go fast so a blowout or even a split rim probably wouldn't kill me. Not sure about anyone else.

Apparently you can get resin, hardener, and CF cloth for about $35 on Amazon Smile.

eh, you can have them. I just realized they are not disc hubs. I don't care to have to rebuild them on different hubs.

I do agree that I'd just try putting a little resin and cloth on the hole. And likely I'd just put a tube in it, instead of trying to make it hold air. Like anything that's been damaged, I'd just look a little closer every time I looked at it.

Wifey had that happen on her Knot64s. Shop put some resin in it and we haven't thought about it since. Will that work for you? I have no idea - the hole in her rim was much cleaner, as it was from a nail instead of a screw.

This was sort of what I planned on doing. I've been looking for the right resin and a new rim strip. Since I am not tubeless, I'm less concerned about being airtight and more about sealing the hole smoothly and covering well to prevent an internal puncture.

Damn that's unlucky!

If it were my rim I'd search around for a good carbon repair shop to get it fixed, failing that I'd do it myself with some Google-fu and the tips above.

I recon it'd be fine to ride once the hole is sealed up, carbon is stronger than many give it credit for.

I agree it’s reasonable to do this but I doubt anyone can prove/disprove how risky this will be.

Ever punched a hole in your carbon rim,

Yes

repaired it,

Yes

and lived to tell?

No

The sky is not falling. Sheesh.

Fill the hole with a bit of epoxy putty and get on with life.

Probably a new rim strip.

Still alive. Only one ride though, I didn't die. Resin repair over the hole, new rim strip, patched the tire.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9c50f345c.jpeg
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https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6991c5fc4.jpeg
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https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...aa11993b4.jpeg

Why all the needless photos you ask? Just to show the terrain. I rarely ride with people so since today was with a friend, I didn't take it easy on this wheel at all. 50 miles, 5k, some rough pavement, gravel, and a descent I wouldn't even drive down. For future Google searches, they'll at least know I made it that far before the wheel exploded.

How can you be sure? Still posting in here sounds like it could be part of some eternal punishment.

Beautiful area.

​​​​​​More please!