Deal on this wheel

[jaxon]

I have a recently acquired bike I need to change tires on. Tread was good, but has hairline cracks likely from age.

I used a motion pro bead breaker on the tire but unfortunately could not get the tires off. Man I tried. Broke the beads. No cigar getting the tire off. They are stiffer than Chinese Arithmetic on Cialis.

I notice my front wheel has a slight warp on the edge. I don't think there is any way in hell I could have done this since I couldn't get the wheel off. My arms aren't pipes being 51 they are more like undercooked pasta noodles. I didn't use other than the spoon end of the motion pro bead breaker.

Am I good or do I need to panic? Like beat it out with a tech on a truing machine or find a match.

[Chaos]

Those 3-spoke wheels are know to be more susceptible to bending.  Doesn't look too bad from the photo,  I'll bet you get advice from "ignore it and ride" to "replace it immediately or you will die". 

[jay1622]

Well, it all depends, right? Is the wheel and/or wheel-lip bent inward at all towards the hub? If so, this guy would toss it; it WILL affect the tire's ability to hold a seal at speed. However, that doesn't look like that's the case at all. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears the outer part of the lip itself is bent just a tad outward and the base of the sealing lip (where the inner most part of the tire seals and contacts the wheel) looks to be in-place and unaffected, yes? If that's the case, you SHOULD (like 98%) be fine. Just please, for the love of God, don't go whacking at it with anything unless you've got some serious heat on the areas affected. There's a really good bench-vise fix for something as simple as that. You don't have a dial-indicator, do you? A little creativity and you can get that thing damn near perfect. Keep it, fix it and ride it!

[rbm]

The alloy used in the 3-spoke wheels is malleable, meaning it is both a blessing and a curse.  It's easy to deform the rim by hitting a rut in the road.  But it is also easy to repair any such deformity by judicious use of vices, hammers, wooden blocks and other implements to return the wheel to true.

[jaxon]

Well, it all depends, right? Is the wheel and/or wheel-lip bent inward at all towards the hub? If so, this guy would toss it; it WILL affect the tire's ability to hold a seal at speed. However, that doesn't look like that's the case at all. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears the outer part of the lip itself is bent just a tad outward and the base of the sealing lip (where the inner most part of the tire seals and contacts the wheel) looks to be in-place and unaffected, yes? If that's the case, you SHOULD (like 98%) be fine. Just please, for the love of God, don't go whacking at it with anything unless you've got some serious heat on the areas affected. There's a really good bench-vise fix for something as simple as that. You don't have a dial-indicator, do you? A little creativity and you can get that thing damn near perfect. Keep it, fix it and ride it!

Noted Boss.

I went out and reseated the bead, spun it around on the balancer. I think it looked more bent with the wheel's bead broken. It popped and resealed. If anything I can take it and get it taken out. They have people that do it.

Or pray to the "Lord of Bricks" and find another wheel.

[zipster68]

I'd ride the crap out of those tires, but that's just me.
-Ray