Bent Wheel Repair Options?

[2and3cylinders]

2 hours ago, jthayer09 said:

UPDATE: $380 was the quote from The Wheel Warehouse which is too much for me when japan.webike.net will ship an OEM one for roughly $360 depending on what day you get the shipping quote in 1-3 days.

I tried hammering the rim with a dead blow while the wheel was still on the bike and tire pressure at 0.0 psi and got pretty good results:

Slightly smaller area than before and less distance from the tire, I may take the wheel off the bike and remove the left rotor off so I can get a more direct striking line for that last little bit of bend. When I had just gotten the dent I had serious handlebar wobble from 20-50 MPH on the ride home, now it's almost all gone except for a hardly noticeable shake right at 30 MPH. If it holds air I think I may be in the clear 🤞.

P.S. have at the chicken strips 😅

Sand bags. blocks of wood shaped to the wheel radius, Duct tape the wheel, hit wood with dead blow hammer with tire on and rotor off if necessary.

Good luck!

[TomTracer]

19 hours ago, PhotoAl said:

There are a couple of very good wheel shops out there.  Sorry I can't remember the names of them but they are.  They do car and motorcycle rims.  I would be concerned about just hammering it back into place, not sure how brittle it might become of stresses that could lead to cracks or breaking.

Those places apply pressure, aka whack it with a dead blow, just like we did. Doubt they do any more  inspection than I did with my magnifying glass. A new rim is always an option. Doubt often necessary though.

[jthayer09]

Quick update:

All of the advice here is great, dead blow + a block of wood + heat when needed worked well. Got the rim back into place extremely close but the inner rim curve must've been bent more than the outer because it did slowly leak air still.

Got a new wheel shipped from Japan (got here in 2 days!) and mounted the previous tire, I was still having handlebar shimmy. I loosened everything in the front end and backed out the preload and pumped the suspension hard to re-align everything, bolted it back up. Wobble 99% gone so whatever I hit must've tweaked the forks. Remaining wobble is barely noticeable but I will be keeping an eye on the front tire to see if there's any obvious deformation that pops up.

Note: the triple tree pinch bolts are a very soft metal, it doesn't take much to round the head after it's snug.