A buckled wheel is common and usually easily fixed. Read Mickle's seasonal tip at the top of the Technical Know How section which will at least give you an understanding. Learning how to true a wheel is one of the essentials as far as I am concerned. I say this because a broken spoke (which can happen even on fairly new wheels) is enough to cause a wheel to buckle to such a degree that it is no longer rideable. Thus it is worth having a spoke key in your basic tool kit that you take out with you - but it is of little use if you don't have a clue how to use it.