I hate early breakfasts - or the $500 breakfast..

[deilenberger]

Our club often meets for breakfast on Saturday AM at a joint called "The Breakfast Club" - kinda specializes in great breakfasts and fun waitresses.

Usually if I call a breakfast, I call it for 9:30AM.. but one member beat me to it yesterday and called it for 9AM. I decided since it appeared to have stopped raining, I should get my butt outta bed and make it.

So - left the house at 8:45AM - plenty of time to make it there.. and about 1/4 mile from my house, on a road that is usually in fine condition, I managed to carefully determine the location of a new pothole (caused by the torrential rain the night before, and the local township's crappy road repairs..)

BANG. Looked like a damp spot in the road, by the time I spotted what it was it was too late to swerve. Got to breakfast, ate breakfast, came out and looked at the rim. A very healthy dent on one side, and a mark on the other where the tire had obviously compressed on the rim. Stock tire pressure (32PSI/front)..

Might make a believer out of me in upping the pressure a few PSI.

No leak, held air just fine. My local insurance guy was in the area (a fellow rider) and told me that it would be covered (minus $500 deductable) under my policy. New rim - ~$960 - availability, should have it Tuesday or Weds. Swap over rotors, TPMS system, install the brand new tire that was supposed to go on today.. will be another $100 or so.

It's the first rim I've lost in about 150,000 BMW miles.. and I certainly hope it's the last. $500 breakfast was good, but not that good.

Grrrrrr... nothing to ride until Weds.

[hankth]

major bummer.
At least you didn't have a get off.

[ammolab]

Can those shops that repair alloy auto wheels fix your dented wheel?

I have had some damaged car wheels fixed with great success.

[deilenberger]

Can those shops that repair alloy auto wheels fix your dented wheel?

I have had some damaged car wheels fixed with great success.

Some can, some can't. There is one near us that thinks he might be able to.. cost is certainly a savings over a new rim, but turns out that collision insurance will cover a bent rim (hitting a pothole = colliding with a pothole) minus the deductible, so I've ordered a replacement new rim. Should have it Tuesday or Weds. If I had more time (leaving early the week after for the RA rally in Asheville NC) I'd probably futz around more with the old rim.

As is - I'll likely take it to the guy who thinks he can do it and leave it with him, with no hurry to get it done. It will end up being a spare.

[parkec]

Must have been a heck of pothole. Fortunantley only the rim was damaged.

[Acpantera]

Bummer on the wheel Don, I bent one on both sides of the front rim on my R1150R. Ever since then I carry 35-37psi in the front. Even my last tire purchase was influenced by that hit (bridgestone 023 GT spec). Still amazed at how the telelever frontend isolated me from the violent impact. The bent wheel assy makes for a good conversation piece in the garage tho.

[ammolab]

A quick google search will find many wheel shops that do and even specialize in alloy Bike wheel repair.

Get those dinged up wheels fixed up for a spare or sell them to someone who has a need (described as 'refurbished' of course).

[deilenberger]

A quick google search will find many wheel shops that do and even specialize in alloy Bike wheel repair.

Get those dinged up wheels fixed up for a spare or sell them to someone who has a need (described as 'refurbished' of course).

Kinda my thinking. Figure "refurbished" it might bring $300-400, which means most of my deductible would be covered. Used ones seem to be very difficult to find.

[MTBeemer]

Who knows whether or not extra pressure would have saved the rim; maybe, maybe not. However, I began running 40 psi up front to determine if it would reduce or stop the fairly aggressive cupping I was experiencing. It has worked on my last two front tires (both Shinkos); no discernible cupping at 6000 miles. I just put PR2s on the bike and I head for the Yukon tomorrow. Trip will be nearly 6000 miles, so it will be a good test of the anti-cupping theory. Guess I'll need to look for a huge pothole to see if it will save the rim.

Sorry for your bad experience Don. Thankful you did not go down.

[deilenberger]

Kevin,

Somehow I don't think there will be a problem finding a huge pothole heading to the Yukon.. it's likely almost as bad as in NJ..

On cupping - the PR2 cupped on me rather badly - it started humming loudly at around 10k miles or so. Bad enough that it went away. The current PR3 I have on the bike has been on since 54,000 miles - I'm now at 68,000 miles, and no hum yet, but it is thin enough in the center that I intended to change it anyway at least before a ride from NJ to Oregon and back.. I have the new PR3, so it will go on tomorrow once the insurance adjuster sees the bike. The new rim arrived today at the dealer - a quick $981.73 later and it's in my garage. I'm hoping by noon tomorrow I'll be 2-wheel mobile again and can stop having to drive the 4 wheeler.

[mogu83]

I was going to have this wheel fixed but decided to just get a new one. Also replaced the axel and bearings.

[MTBeemer]

Harry..............wow!!!!!

Don, I have a set of PR3s sitting in my tire rack and will mount them after the Yukon. Not sure the roads in the Yukon are worse than NJ.... spent a fair amount of time in both places and it is a tough call.

[Lost Rider]

Running higher pressures for the sole purpose of making up for (cheap) tires that wear badly doesn't make sense to me. Higher pressures will reduce your contact patch and therefore your available traction, but to each their own. Better tire life can be achieved by higher pressures at the sacrifice of traction...
Seems to be easier or cheaper to just replace tires when need be instead of trying to squeeze more life out of them by over inflating your tires, especially if you were to crash from lack of traction and get those expenses... On wet gravel in the Yukon, I would be running 22 PSI and 32 on pavement, but I like traction more than longevity.


Don, Woody's Wheel Works is a good place to send your rim for repair, glad you weren't injured!

[hjsbmw]

I was going to have this wheel fixed but decided to just get a new one. Also replaced the axel and bearings.

Holy cow. What kind of a pothole and what speed does one need to damage a rim like that? I've encountered unexpected potholes, but luckily never had damage. I am seriously wondering what the variables are.

[deilenberger]

Just an update..

Back on the road with minimum damage to my wallet. Kudos for Progressive Insurance. The case manager and the adjuster worked to move it right along.

Chronology:

1. Saturday - 8:30AM - hit the pothole, bend the wheel.
2. Saturday - 10AM - call the dealer, have them order a rim
3. Sunday - be depressed for a while about not having a bike to ride in the garage
4. Monday - 10AM - call local agent and report claim.
5. Tuesday - 10AM - go on line and see claim was entered into their system. Call the case manager and do a phone report of what happened. She said she'd try to expedite the claim processing.
6. Tuesday - 1PM - head to the dealer to pick up the new rim.
7. Tuesday - 4PM - get a call from the adjuster asking when I'd like him to come by.. we decided on 9AM the next morning.
8. Wednesday - 9AM - adjuster arrives takes a few photos, looks up the parts on-line, mentions it appears the tire could be damaged. Hands me a check, which includes the new rim, labor to install it and the cost of a new tire (with mounting.)

I'm quite happy with their service. The entire experience was almost a pleasure (as pleasurable as this sort of thing could be) and I have no complaints at all with the end result. New tire and rim on the bike, tire-pressure monitor sensor moved over to the new rim, rotors moved over to the new rim, bike feels as wonderful as it always does with a new tire on it. It's also much quieter - the PR3 was starting to get noisy at 14,000 miles.



BTW - set tire pressure to 36F/40R now. Seems OK, grip is still there, and ride hasn't deteriorated a bunch.

[deilenberger]

I was going to have this wheel fixed but decided to just get a new one. Also replaced the axel and bearings.

Holy cow. What kind of a pothole and what speed does one need to damage a rim like that? I've encountered unexpected potholes, but luckily never had damage. I am seriously wondering what the variables are.

I think Harry's was a minivan in a traffic circle thing..

[mogu83]

Actually it was a flying fence post in Casper, Wyoming (a lond ugly story).

[Bill Stevenson]

Don,

My sympathy for your mishap. I did that too, on my then brand new K1100RS. Dented both sides of the front rim on an invisible pothole, no flat, same deal as you. Only, not smart like you, I never thought about insurance and just rode the bike. Never had a problem in the 50,000 plus miles I owned the bike. The dented rim had no effect on the performance of the bike and the tire went the distance too. But you did it right.

Bill