What causes a bicycle wheel to buckle

[Wester]

I have a slight buckle on my back wheel and I would like to know what could have caused it the only thing I can think of is on my commute to work I go over some speed bumps pretty fast

Also will the buckle get worse if it is not put right . How do you get rid of a buckle and do you have to remove the wheel from the bike to do the job any advice on the subject please

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

all sorts of things from spokes working loose to hitting holes too hard, to accidents, to being over the max weight the rim is recommended...

Usually re-trueing a wheel needs a little practice and some knowledge of why it has happened in the first place (so as to know if spoke tension should be same all round or if you are trying to compensate for a buckle in the rim due to hitting something too hard, plus a spoke tool of the correct size.

@Spoked Wheels is one of many here who knows more about it than me!

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I have a slight buckle on my back wheel and I would like to know what could have caused it the only thing I can think of is on my commute to work I go over some speed bumps pretty fast

Also will the buckle get worse if it is not put right . How do you get rid of a buckle and do you have to remove the wheel from the bike to do the job any advice on the subject please

Few people will have a truing stand amongst their home collection of bike tools. You can get a pretty good sense of where the buckle is by putting the bike on a stand or upside downing it and watching where the buckle is in relation to the forks or stays as the wheel turns. After that, you'll need the right size spoke keys (note that the left and right hand spokes on the rear wheel may be different, also that with the wrong size spoke key or heavy-handedness you might round off the hexagonal nut) and a bit of searching on YouTube before you start. I've never got a wheel as true as a wheel builder or an experienced mechanic would get it but I've got them up and running again in a ''good enough'' kind of way. A good sense of pitch can help - the over-tight and over-loose spokes will most likely be where the buckle is.

Strangely therapeutic job, I find.

 

[Gravity Aided]

I would tend to agree.You have to keep a lot of things in your mind while doing this.Which way you turn which spoke and the such like. Practice makes perfect.

 

[Wester]

I do not have a spoke key handy would a pliers do the job of a spoke key ?

 

[Smokin Joe]

I do not have a spoke key handy would a pliers do the job of a spoke key ?

Yes, but in the same way a sledgehammer would do the job of a toothpick.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

be very careful not to round off the edges on the nipple, else you will have a bigger problem on your hands.

 

[smokeysmoo]

Never mind Sheldon @mickle has the answers HERE

 

[Spoked Wheels]

Further to what has already been said, I'd like to quote from my latest bed time reading The Bicycle Wheel by Jobst Brandt.

"In the bicycle wheel, wires replace the rigid spokes of wooden wheels. Although wires are strong, they cannot directly replace wooden spokes that carry loads in compression. In order to work, wires must be tensioned to prevent their buckling under load. With tension, wires can support compression loads up to the point where they become slack. "

"In a broad sense, wheel failure means that through some defect, the wheel becomes unusable. For example, it may become so misaligned that the tire rubs on the frame or the brakes drag. Or it may get dents in its rim from hitting a curb or riding with insufficient tire inflation. Most wheels fail gradually by losing alignment, and this deterioration can be controlled. On the other hand, the sudden collapse of a wheel is caused - with few exceptions - by excessive side loads."

Basically, unless the OP hit a curb or a pothole and damaged the rim, the problem he has is that some spokes on on one side are looser than on the other side. Correcting this tension imbalance should fix this particular problem, however, the OP should make sure all spokes are tension balanced. In rear wheels or wheels with a disk this is a little more complicated to explain and that is because of the dish of the wheel which means one side is supposed to have spokes with less tension than the other side. In those cases the thing to do is not to look at balancing the tension difference on both sides but to tighten the spokes on the opposite side of the buckle until the wheel is true again. Again, balancing the spokes tension on each side is recommended.