How to Straighten a Bike Rim?
Riding your bike with a bent wheel rim can be as annoying as sitting alone with your relatives for a whole day. Scary, isn’t it? But if you don’t know how to fix it, you will have to bear it no matter how much you hate it. Sounds even scarier? Haha, relax. I have got your back today.
There can be different reasons for the bending of your bike rim. For example, if you have learned bike riding recently and are trying to execute a 180 (like I did but failed), doing that improperly can put a lot of pressure on the wheel rims which can also make them bend a bit. Or in another case, if you are living on the outskirts of your city where you ride your gentle bike on off road tracks, it can cause rim bending issues as well.
But forget what causes the issue. Your main focus should be on how to straighten the bike rim of your bike that is bent.
In this article, I will be helping you in learning how to straighten a bike rim. To help you understand the process, I have presented a blueprint of simple and easy-to-follow steps.
What issues does a bent bike rim cause?
When your bike wheel rim bends down, the most annoying issue you face is that the rim constantly hits the brake pads on every half revolution of the wheel. It not only makes riding the bike harder but also damages the chain of the bike which can lead to severe accidents.
Here are a few things that might happen if you didn’t straighten the bent rim of your bike in time.
- Riding on a bike with bent rims can make it hard for you to balance the bike and you may fall.
- The bent bike rim, if not straightened, can also collide with other rims and damage them as well.
- While riding your bike, there are also chances that the bent rim comes in contact with your legs and causes severe damage.
So, now you know what a bent bike rim can do to your bike and you. The next thing you will need to do is learn how to straighten a bike rim so you can easily fix the issue all by yourself, anywhere, and anytime.
How to Straighten a Bike Rim?
Now we come to the main topic of the article, how to straighten a bike rim. Well, how you will be fixing your bike rim depends on a number of factors. Such as;
- What type of bike you have (a road bike or a mountain bike)
- Is it a heavy-duty bike or a cheap weak bike?
- Are the rims of the bike aluminum, chromium, alloy, or fiber?
- How long has it been since you are riding your bike with a bent rim?
You must answer these questions before you sit and start straightening your bike rim.
For today, we are taking a case where the bike is a heavy-duty mountain bike with aluminum rims that you have been driving for a couple of days with bent rims. Now, let’s move to our steps to find out how to fix the issue.
- First of all, remove the wheel from the bike. It will make the straightening process easier and convenient.
- If the rim bent is not so big as to be spotted at first glance, hold the wheel axle and rotate the wheel to find the bent rim.
- Now, bend the rim in the opposite direction by putting the wheel between two solid supports. For example, you can wedge the wheel between two trees and then bend the rim in the opposite direction.
- If that doesn’t work, hold the wheel in your hand and smash the area of the rim against a solid surface. For example, you can smash the wheel against a hard rock.
- Now hold the wheel again in your hand and spin it to check if the bent rim has straightened up or not.
- Make sure you have loosened and detached the rear brakes from the wheel so it can spin freely.
And all done! You have successfully straightened your bent bike rim without any use of mechanical tools and equipment. If following the steps above do not help you straighten your bent bike rim, the best you can do is visit a bike repairing shop and get your bike repaired easily.
When to Know You Should Straighten Your Bike Rim?
The issue of bent bike rims doesn’t hurt you the first day. But if not fixed in time, it can cause you a lot of issues.
Now the question comes to when you should straighten your bike rim. Here are a few things that indicate to you that your bike rim needs to be straightened up now.
- If you are experiencing vibrations in your rear wheel, it might be the bent rim that is causing the issue.
- If you feel that your rear wheel is heavier on one side, you should know that the rim of your bike needs to be straightened up now.