Dented rim

[NeilS]

Cleaning the annoying brake dust off my wheels the other day, I noticed a dent in the front rim. The tire isn't losing air and there's no vibration or other effect on the bike's handling. Funny thing is that I don't recall hitting anything significant, and I think I'd notice an impact big enough to dent the rim.

I had the bike into the dealer for the brake and antenna ring recalls, and I asked them to look at the dent. The response was, "No problem. We can just hammer that out with a big mallet." When I picked the bike up (very sloppy service -- but that's another post), they told me they weren't able to do anything with the dent.

So my choices seem to be 1) ignore the problem, 2) buy a new ($835 MSRP!!!!!) wheel, or 3) take it to a shop that specializes in removing dents from expensive motorcycle wheels. Does anyone have any experience with option 3? Any other thoughts?

[Ves]

Hmmmm.... had your tires changed recently? I ask because that's what happened to me once; dealer bent the rims changing the tire. Luckily I was able to beat them back into place, with the tire on, using a heavy rubber mallet. I'm sure a shop that specializes in that would have no problem.

[parkec]

Well look on the bright side..

you now have an excuse to drop a couple bucks on some nice carbon fiber BST's, or Dymags OR you could go Italian and go Marchesini in aluminum or magnesium....you luck dog.

[indigoid]

... or spoked wheels from Woody's :-)

I saw a pic once of a black R1200R with spoked wheels and dualsport-ish tyres, it looked awesome

[TAG-Caver]

I had good experience with Wills Rim repair. Did great work when I smacked an object on the highway that sent me airborne at about 70mph on my DR650. Cost was $65.00 and they didn't charge return shipping because it wasn't absolutely perfect. The only way you'd be able to tell where the ding is would be to remove the tire and look at the rim lengthways. Just a faint wiggle is visible if you look closely. Here's the link:


http://www.willsrimrepair.com/

Good luck!
Kevin

[NeilS]

Thanks for the lead, Kevin. I just contacted Will and it seems like he'll do a good job on it. I'll probably send him the rim after the season's over up here.

And Ves, the tires haven't been off, so I MUST have hit something. But I really don't remember. I guess that's a bad sign

[qfman]

I put a dent in the rim of my R1150R so bad that it would only hold about 10psi. I took it to a guy (frame straightening expert) who used a combination of head and rubber mallet to tease the rim back into shape. Cost me $80 and I couldn't see where the repair was.

These BMW wheels are soft (so they dent) but soft (so they can be fixed easy)

Tom

[cheelleebutt]

... or spoked wheels from Woody's :-)

I saw a pic once of a black R1200R with spoked wheels and dualsport-ish tyres, it looked awesome

Hey! This is awesome! Are the spoke wheels still tubeless? Do you know?