Too taco'd to rebuild?

[greenstiles]

Loosen all the spokes off and start tensioning afresh then if you run out of 'pull over' that's it. Usually if the bend is not too sharp or more important there is only one bend in the rim you can straighten stuff that looks initially bad.

 

[Neil]

1995? Throw it out.

Good thinking - what WAS I thinking about, using parts from the 90s... you could almost think I was on some internet forum dedicated to bikes from around the 90s.

 

[Neil]

Loosen all the spokes off and start tensioning afresh then if you run out of 'pull over' that's it. Usually if the bend is not too sharp or more important there is only one bend in the rim you can straighten stuff that looks initially bad.

What I was thinking of doing was buying some new spokes, delacing the current wheel.

Is there any, um, manual straightening of the rim you could do whilst it was just bare rim?

Then relacing with the new spokes and seeing how it went, really. Can't go too mad with spoke tension - these rims aren't eyeletted.

 

[MikeD]

Loosen the spokes both sides where the buckle is. Use whatever method seems appropriate to lever the rim back as straight as you can -- standing on it, wedging it in a door and pushing against it, whatever. Once it's roughly straight, retension and retrue. If it can't be bend back straight, put a new rim on -- if the spokes aren't visibly damaged they'll be fine, replace any that are significantly bent.

If all else fails you can reuse the hub, but make sure you lace the rebuild the same way as the original so the spokes sit in the grooves worn by the originals.

 

[greenstiles]

I'm glad someone else has mentioned standing on it. I didn't want to. But when back in the trade we used to do that (but never told the cutomers ) it's safe if a longish shallow bend, but trying to straighten a sharp short kind would be damaging to the rim by weakening the metal too much.

 

[MikeD]

I should probably add that I've only employed such methods on my own wheels for my own use

 

[greenstiles]

now i feel even more awkward

 

[MikeD]

Although also I've never worked in a shop so the opportunity has never arisen

 

[djoptix]

I'm just amazed that you've let it sit around your house for 17 years. What you should have done is bin the rim in 95, then join a bike forum years later, buy a new rim for peanuts, and build up with that.

 

[Neil]

I'm just amazed that you've let it sit around your house for 17 years. What you should have done is bin the rim in 95, then join a bike forum years later, buy a new rim for peanuts, and build up with that.

Well it was one of a matching pair - I still have the front, which is fine, and I'll be using.

My intent was to either try and rebuild it, or at least salvage the hub. So it's been stored with all my other bike bits for years.

Just so happens, now, I have a second bike that would run those wheels, the front is fine, which I'll reuse, but the rear I'm not sure on - I have a spare rim of the same kind, not built up, but it's a 32h that would have been on the front, naturally, so won't lace to the same 36h hub. I have a NOS matching 32h rear hub I could build it on, but although straight, that rim has quite a bit more wear to the braking surface than my taco'd one.

I could just slap some later rims on (I may well do that anyways) but I was hoping that a decent set of wheels could be made up / salvaged from what I've got that would have been spec.