Cracked rim... what to do?

[Midlife]

Back when I was a young lad in the 70's that wouldn't bother me at all.....blimey I rode much worse

Nowadays if I fall off my bike then I stand to lose my job ( I have been told if I can't do my daily tasks because of injury they will sack me) , not to mention bits of my anatomy so I'd not risk it......

Shaun

 

[Excel]

<< http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NISI-Moncalie ... m1e873c11e >>
£30.00 spent is better than a dodgy ride home when it finally gives out!
Griff

 

[Robbied196]

Its a symptom of overtightened spokes so the whole wheel is probably over stressed and popping at the weakest points. You could slacken off the tension which may help.

J B Weld is about the strongest epoxy available and you can get it off Ebay. Ideally though I'd say it needs re-rimming.

 

[Ian Raleigh]

That is rideable, what can happen, it won't explode.

I beg to differ Keith! a few years ago my rear rim started to crack at the spoke holes
and hit a bump in the road and the whole wheel collapsed and looked like a C shape
as it collapsed it took me down and I hit the deck like a ton of bricks.

I wouldn't ride the bike personally.

 

[Flandria]

Hmm, mixed opinions here . Thanks everyone!

Bike won't be used that much and when I use it, it won't be used hard. I found some metal epoxy today and decided to give it a chance since the rim is lost anyway for serious use. I've removed the spoke, cleaned and glued the crack and added another washer inside the rim. Don't know if it will hold, but I'll inspect it thoroughly after every ride.

But on the long term, this is a great excuse to go for the best solution: building a new set of wheels. Never done it before, but challenge accepted

 

[Woz]

A bit late to the party. I've had some MTB Crossmax super light jobbies crack at the spokes on the rear, and down the center on the inside by the valve hole. I relagated the wheels to "non serious" corner shop duties, and decided to drill small holes at the ends of each crack to limit them spreading and basically ride them till they failed. Well they did fail, because
what simply happens is the rim width starts to spread and every time you put the brakes on, it basically judders and pulls from the spoke even more. Even putting the rim in a vice to straighten the brake tracks was shortlived. Only 4 months after I had to bin it.

Bear in mind, inside the rim is most probably oxidisation and corrosion from trapped moisture which I'm not sure this new fangled AL epoxy would sufficiently bond to. How do you apply that stuff anyway - with a syringe?

Are you going to put a blob of that stuff on the opposite side to balance the wheel? :facepalm:

 

[Bats]

Nowadays if I fall off my bike then I stand to lose my job ( I have been told if I can't do my daily tasks because of injury they will sack me) , not to mention bits of my anatomy so I'd not risk it......

Shaun

I'm fairly sure that's illegal

 

[stringfellow1946]

Its a No Brainer! BIN IT.

 

[bm0p700f]

As the crack grows it will go out of true again and again. The rim is scrap and at some point it may suddenly fold when the crack gets big enough. the folding can happen suddenly if you hit a bump in the road for example.

 

[Jonny69]

Chemical Metal won't fix that, in my opinion. The reason is the tension in the spoke is tending to pull the crack open and if you back the spoke off you'll probably see the crack close up. So basically if you plug it up with Chemical Metal, as soon as you ride it the changes in tension on the spoke will just crack the epoxy. If you absolutely have to save the rim, then find someone who can TIG weld and zip it back up for you. If you drill a 1mm or 2mm hole right at the end of the crack you'll stop it spreading in the short term