Bent rim and mangled spokes.

LongboardMalinois

LongboardMalinois

Member
So today i got my bike running for the first time in weeks, after repairing lots of damaged parts from a failure of the front engine mount, and i was riding around my block to make sure everything worked as it should, and all was good until the carb fell off, resulting in an uncontrolled burnout in the middle of the street. So i fell off and the bike dropped hard on the back wheel, the chain tensioner went into the spokes, 2 of which were pretty badly bent and one was pulled straight through the rim. The rim is also off by 3/4 of an inch or more. So my question is should i try to repair this rim, or should i get a new one and go through the hassle of putting the sprocket on it?
.duh.
 
I would just upgrade the wheel to a heavier duty wheel. To me when something breaks then it's time to upgrade to a better part.
 
leo said:
how did it do an uncontrolled burnout with no carb?
Click to expand...

There was enough gasoline vapor in the intake manifold for it to run for a second of two, and it was sucking air straight into the engine, resulting in a very lean running condition for a few seconds.
 
Well at least you seem to be okay. Bikes are replaceable and limbs aren't. I'd get an upgraded rear rim, because more strength isn't a bad thing. Then possibly think about getting a spring loaded tensioner or deleting it altogether? Just my opinion
 
I would upgrade the spokes and strengthen/remove the chain tensioner. It happened to me once; chain tensioner failed and destroyed most of the drive side spokes. Unless your rim was a single wall alloy, the strength of a wheel comes from its spokes and how it was built. If you want to continue using the rag joint (which works fine with the small engine) I would just upgrade the spokes to 12g or 13g and use a double-wall aluminum rim such as an alex dm24. The most important thing in wheel building is properly stress-relieving the spokes. If you've never built a wheel but want the least hassle now and while riding, I suggest you have a professional build and stress relieve the wheel for you. A wheel with a crappy rim built and relieved properly will be stronger than one with a HD rim built improperly.

Also, you need to use blue or even red loctite along with lock washes or lock nuts on everything. Over time because of vibration, things that are not properly mounted or are just plain weak will break and fall off. This isn't your regular heavy duty bicycle. This is a motorbike-- you need to build with vibration in mind.
 
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