Remove slight dent from rim

[bigfella]

Hi all,

I have some Mavic CXP33's laced to Phil Wood hubs. Only slight issue is with the front wheel - it has a slightly dented rim. Its only on one side and I don't think it really causes a problem. Is it possible to get this corrected or even do it myself carefully?

Please see attached photos, its not as bad as the photos look to be honest.

 

[jimboalee]

Mole grips, some metal bar packing and a pair of lollypop sticks.

BTW, are they clinchers?

 

[bigfella]

Whats the sticks for?

Yeah they are clinchers.

 

[e-rider]

No, don't do it - it will almost certainly crack if it hasn't already.

The best option would be to buy an identical new rim and rebuild the wheel using the same spokes.

 

[RedBike]

Apparently you shouldn't re-stress spokes so it would be an identical rim and new spokes.

£45 for the rim
£20 for the spokes
£15 to have it built

circa £80.

That dent is highly likely to cause an issue when braking.

 

[bigfella]

Surely its worth a go if I'm going to replace the rim?

Just wanted to add that its only on the very edge of the braking surface, at the lower half of the braking surface its fine.

 

[fossyant]

Come on...how did you dent it.....

 

[bigfella]

I bought then 2nd hand.

 

[HLaB]

I've never done it my self but I think I read in a maintenance book that you may be able to correct small dents with an adjustable spanner.

 

[bigfella]

I've heard that too, I will think about it before I do anything silly?

 

[andrew_s]

What jimboalee said.
Something stiff and straight both sides & squeeze with mole grips.

Personally, I ignore such dents unless they cause a braking problem.

Apparently you shouldn't re-stress spokes so it would be an identical rim and new spokes.

There's no problem re-using spokes provided they haven't been breaking. My front wheel is on it's 5th rim with the same spokes.

 

[jimboalee]

The lollypop sticks are so the metal jaws and packing don't damage the rim surfaces.

I've got worse dents than this out of alloy rims.

 

[bigfella]

Had a go at it, made a few marks on the rim (despite masking it off) but nothing that will cause an issue. Its not 100% perfect but its pretty damn good now with only a very slight imperfection in the rim wall.

See attached photos.

 

[Globalti]

You did right - I used to straighten the rim on my MTB like that before disc brakes made it less necessary and I stopped hitting things! Never had a problem.

If you wanted to you could always tape a new rim alongside the old and transfer the spokes over one by one.

 

[bigfella]

Thanks, it hardly took anything really. Just 10mins to perfect it as best I could.

Good idea with taping a new rim. I will see if I can get hold of one cheap, I could always transfer the rim over and then take it to the LBS for them to true it and make sure the spoke tension is OK.