Buckled front wheel...

[jon.mithe]

Hi,

To cut a long story short, some tit tried to do a quick U-turn from a parked position right as I was cycling down the road (either he didnt see me or completly ignored me) which meant in an instant he sprawled across the road right in front of me. I braked heavily and started to swerve but ended up body checking the side of his car and getting thrown over the bonnet :/

Thankfully, I've come away with a just few bruises on my hip/legs/arm and I didnt hit my head or anything

Anyways, my bike seems ok (forks + frame), the car and I were at a bit of an angle so I think the "impact" was fortunaly spread across the whole length of my bike - however, my front wheel is a little buckled.

Can anyone offer some help if my front wheel its fixable? (new wheels seem expensive :/) I hear this sort of thing might be fixed with a few spoke adjustments. The wheel isnt like a banana, I cycled home after the accident. But its buckled enough that once every revolution it comes across and kisses my left brake pad. It bananas ~1/8 to 1/4 of the wheel maybe with just the peak kissing the pad, the rest seems straight. My brake pads are close to the rim, adjusting it on the brake levers and I can get my brakes loose / far enough away the wheel spins freely.

I really regret this now, but unfortunately in the haze of it all I forgot to get his details / insurance details :/ I got a little pissed off becuase he didnt apologise nor did he ask if I was ok, said stuff like "why didnt you brake", he had a friend there on the pavemen and a few passers buy who all saw it and were all nice to me and reassured me that he completly did pull out in front of me leaving me up shoots creak - so I'm releived in that respect. But I really should of got his details :/

Hopefully I can get my wheel fixed this week and my hip gets a bit better, determined to do my long cycle this w/e!

Cheers,
Jon.

 

[4F]

Jon, firstly commiserations. Yes I would say that wheel is fixable. Check this out http://bicycletutor.com/wheel-truing/ or if not take it to a good LBS who should be able to sort it out for less than a tenner.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

You should be able to get the wheel trued in your LBS (local Bike Shop) for under a £10er.

Glad to here that there were no serious injuries and that the passers by took your side
Keep us informed.

As you can see FatFellaFromFelixstowe beat me to the reply. Gald to see we both came up with the same approx figure though ;-)

 

[tyred]

1/8 to 1/4 isn't too bad. There is probable a little bend on the rim rahter than just a spoke problem. You could try tweaking the spokes a little to see if it pulls into shape without having serious differences in spoke tension. Otherwise, mark where the bend is, (turn the bike upside down and use the brake caliper as the feelers on a truing stand) and remove it, slacken the spokes in the area of the bend and try and gently bend it back into shape. Then pop it back on the bike and adjust the spokes again. It will be very difficult to get it 100% but you should be able to make it better than it is at the moment. If you're not confident of doing any of this, take to a bike shop as you could end up doing more harm than good.

If you need to keep riding the bike at the moment, slacken the brakes a little until they don't catch the rim.

 

[Absinthe Minded]

Jon,

Sounds like it would be repairable - I'd take it to your LBS and ask them to take a look at it for you. Sorry about your accident, shame you didn't get his details but you're not the first to forget to ask 'post crash'.

Good luck with your wheel.

AM.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

I got a little pissed off becuase he didnt apologise nor did he ask if I was ok, said stuff like "why didnt you brake"

To which your reply is 'Why didn't you pass your test / look / engage your pea-sized brain'. Glad to hear you're okay, pity you didn't get his details and take him to the cleaners for being such an ar$e. !

 

[jon.mithe]

Thanks for the help + kind words I'll pop to some local LBS's tomorrow and hopefully get it fixed. He just was a right idiot, so gave up after a while, I did resort to some good old verbal abuse towards the end so I got my fair share in .