The sound was deafening.
It was just before 7 o’clock on Saturday morning.
I decided to top up the air in my back tyre before heading out for my regular Saturday ride. The pressure was almost where I wanted it when an almighty bang rang out in the early morning.
My first thought was that I’d blown a tube. Unfortunately I’d actually blown my rim apart.
As you can see in the picture (click the photo for a better view) my rear wheel is in a very sad state. A large part of the rim parted company with the rest of the rim. Not good.
I took the wheel to the coffee shop where we meet after our rides to impress the rest of the group. None of the other riders had ever seen anything like it before. I hope I never see anything like it again.
I now have a new wheel on order but I did spend a fair part of Saturday frantically trying to find a spare wheel to take part in yesterday’s Freeway Bike Hike. Thankfully one of the guys that rides with us on Saturday mornings was kind enough to let me use his back wheel for the day. I was more than pleased when I was able to return the wheel to him in one piece.
Posted by Rodney Olsen
Technorati Tags: Cycling – Bang – Wheel
Do you think some of your friends would enjoy reading BANG!? Please use the buttons below to share the post. Thanks.
wow! i would never have thought that could happen! i guess its good that if the rim was weak or damaged or whatever that it gave out while you were pumping up the tube and not while you were riding.
wow that is impressive!
So was it a defect in the rim? Or was it simply too much air pressure?
I’d have to say that it was a defect in the rim.
I like to run my tyres at a fairly high pressure but I stay well within the recommendations.
A rim shouldn’t just come apart like that. I would have expected a tyre to give way before a rim. The tyre is still in perfect condition.
One too many pieces of chococalate cake at the coffe shop perhaps?? 🙂
Rodney, Hi there.
Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving a comment. I agree with Shawna, at least this happened while you were at home and not on the bike, imagine the fall, ouch! Can the manufactor replace it for free?
Glad you enjoyed the Bike Hike day too 🙂
Sounds wheely bad!
Gosh…I’ve never seen anything like that. Thank God you weren’t on the bike riding through traffic!