Will this wheel true up?

[the_undecider]

This is off my road bike. I was 1/4 mile from my house finishing an evening ride in the dark. Despite having a decent 650 lumen headlight, I missed a metal stake in the street. I don't remember hearing my front wheel hit anything, but I mist have hit the send and tipped it up into my spokes. I heard a loud series of pops, then over the bars I went. I jumped up immediately to see what happened.

For a split second, I thought my front wheel exploded, but I quickly found the bent metal stake lodged between the fork legs. It the metal piece on the floor in the picture. It's heavy gauge steel, that that was one heck of a force to bend it more than 90 degrees and completely rip 15 or so spokes out of the rim.

I came out with only light rash on my right knee and left elbow plus my right shoulder is a little sore. Could have been much worse! My bike didn't fare so well. The carbon fork is in one piece but heavily gouged on the back side. With carbon, you replace when it gets impacted hard or any bit gouged.

Oh well, stuff happens.

 

[Slick Rick]

Sorry my man that one is toast!

 

[rickpaulos]

The bike parts are peanuts compared to what you could have been paying at your local emergency room and numerous trips to a dentist to rebuild your pearly whites.

 

[the_undecider]

Toast indeed. In all my experience, I have never seen a wheel this hammered that had not met with a car. I've seen what a stick will do to a wheel, but after a couple of spokes, the stick breaks. This ripped 12 spokes (I went back and counted, so not 15 as previously stated). When the bike reach the point where the it stopped forward motion and pitched forward was when the rim bent and cracked in those two spots nearly opposite each other. I think I will keep the wheel as a souvenir.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

OUCH! Glad you're okay. That wheel looks like it took a beating.

 

[dragnusa]

Hang it on the wall and tell everyone yep I walked away from it.

 

[Danimal]

Wall art and a story to go along with it. Glad you're ok.

 

[CCR]

Agreed, glad your not worse for wear !!! Could of been really bad from the looks of what's left

 

[the_undecider]

Hang it on the wall and tell everyone yep I walked away from it.

That's the plan.

I was at the bike shop getting a new bike and they asked me about my arm bandage. I explained what happened and show the pic of my wheel and they had a hard time believing I walked away with a little damage as I did. Someone must have been watching over me.

I'll get some pictures of my new bike tomorrow. I've been wanting a road bike with disc brakes and good tire clearance for a while. This allows me to sell my hybrid that I wasn't totally in love with and have one bike that does what my hybrid (dirt and gravel) and road bike could. Considering it was going to cost a few hundred dollars to fix my road bike, I'm not going to have spent a lot more to get the new bike after I sell my hybrid and part out my road bike.

 

[Rustinkerer]

I had a couple bikes in that load from the VA scrapyard, that seemed to have catatstrophic damage.

Glad you avoided major injuries! -Adam

 

[the_undecider]

I had a couple bikes in that load from the VA scrapyard, that seemed to have catatstrophic damage.

Glad you avoided major injuries! -Adam

That looks to have all the spokes intact, so my guess is that one had something to do with way too little spoke tension and perhaps junk got piled on top of that think for it deform that way. If that did happen when someone was riding it, bet it didn't thrown them over the bars. If I had picked up that same piece of metal in my rear wheel, It probably would have trashed the seat stays on my frame since those are also carbon.

 

[the_undecider]

Thanks everybody for the well wishes. I am really lucky! Today, I road 50 miles. My right shoulder is still a little bit sore and my left tricep was bothering me and then the pain went away.

Yesterday, I had my local shop where I bought my bike check into a crash replacement fork. I wanted to get a matching OEM piece both because I am picky about colors/finishes matching and the original fork has vibration absorbing elastomers. Unfortunately, Specialized is not going to have anything until December and they won't be the right color. I found a decent match in an aftermarket fork, but it was expensive. I also can't find the exact matching front wheel. I considered buying a high end wheelset, but after realizing how much I was going to spend, it started making less sense to sink it in my bike.

I started crunching some numbers on what I can sell all my bike's parts for as well as another bike. That other bike was a few month old Trek hybrid that I bought for road and dirt paths. I haven't quite taken to it as I hoped and found it to be nearly redundant to my road bike other than it being good for dirt and gravel. Enter this new disc brake equipped "endurance" road bike. It is barely heavier than my old road bike and much lighter than my hybrid with which it shares equal dirt/gravel capabilities. My local shop had one 2013 model left at a very good discount. With what I bought it for and what I can sell my other bike and parts for, I should come out ahead of where I would repairing my old bike. If I dont, oh well. I love it!

 

[mikeeebikey]

my business cards read, "if I cannot fix it, its broken!" That looks to be broken!

You are lucky and blessed.....
Your frame didn't get a little tweaked? My old road bikes of the 80s would have been tweaked needing an alignment.
they don't build them like they used to! Frames are a lot stiffer, stronger and lighter.
Lugged hi-ten frames were like riding a gummy bear bike.....compared to an alloy welded frame.
50 miles! I am up to 30 milers and they hurt!

 

[outskirtscustoms]

my business cards read, "if I cannot fix it, its broken!" That looks to be broken!

You are lucky and blessed.....
Your frame didn't get a little tweaked? My old road bikes of the 80s would have been tweaked needing an alignment.
they don't build them like they used to! Frames are a lot stiffer, stronger and lighter.
Lugged hi-ten frames were like riding a gummy bear bike.....compared to an alloy welded frame.
50 miles! I am up to 30 milers and they hurt!

I can say from a little experience it depends A LOT on what you ride. I once did 30 miles on a single speed Huffy Santa Fe 2 (Bootlegger bike) pulling a bike trailer with 2 bikes and parts on it. That one hurt. My KHS on the other hand (21 speed, disk brakes, comfy seat) I wouldn't even feel it. The right gearing makes a huge difference and riding position plays a big role. My old recumbent tadpole trike I had you could ride for days and not feel it, there's a local club here where guys in their 80's regularly do 50 mile rides on recumbent trikes.