Bike Pittsburgh

my rim just exploded

so my front rim on the bike i took to chile just blew up. i can't believe that i went almost 1000 miles in another country, then bring my bike home and the first time i put my bike back together, the rim gives. i guess that's luck or something.

luckily this didn't happen when i was riding, just a minute after pumping up the tires.

do people know any tell tale signs, aside from the obvious, to predict that this would happen?

RE: my rim just exploded

Sometimes you can look at the rim and see air gaps. At that point immediately head for home.

You can simply place you fingers on the rim and feel how concave it is. The more concave it is the less rim you have left, as they start out flat.

RE: my rim just exploded

of course, by air gaps you mean cracks?

by the way, it was a sunrim cr-18.

RE: my rim just exploded

Correct. Sometimes you can simply see thru the rim in small places.

The type of rim doesn't much matter, they are all susceptible to this sort of failure. The pads slowly wear down the metal esp in rain, dirt and/or if you don't get metal shavings out of your pads.

Go feel any brand new rim and it's perfectly flat. Then go feel (probably) the other rim on your bike or a similarly older rim and notice the difference.

They explode because they cannot withstand the pressure the bead applies.

I've had one rim fail like this part but for the most part my rims seem to last for a long time. I suspect in part because I use Kool Stop salmon pads which do not retain metal shavings.

RE: my rim just exploded

I have a front wheel with some sort of shimano hub and a sun CR-18. It's a bit older, but still servicable.

You can have it for free. Let me know if you are interested.

RE: my rim just exploded

thanks, i just got new rims tho.