The owner of a body shop I worked at owned an 88 Harley Davidson Dyna Wide Glide that he bought brand new in 88. He claims he did a wheelie as soon as he got it out on the street and bent the front rim when it slammed back down. He never got it fixed and has put over 40k miles on it. That being said it would probably depend on how bad its bent.

 

Well, after working on my bike today and after getting a friend to eyeball the rim while I was spinning it, the rim does appear to be more bent than I thought. I don't want to take a chance, especially since it is too risky when going fast on a motorcycle. I think I found a solution to my problem.

After searching extensively for a used rim, everywhere wants over 250.00. Ebay has a couple for less, but I don't really know what I am getting there especially when the sale is final.

After googling so many different variations for wheel fixing/repair, I found this company:

http://www.wheelsamerica.com/index.php?page=main

Since I am in Philadelphia, there is one about 30 minutes from my house, so for 129.99 I will just take my rim to them and have them fix it.

I still haven't rode the bike yet with the bent rim because I am still repairing it, and I don't know how it really is in terms of vibrating/shaking or whatever, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Thanks everyone for all of your help.

I'll let you know of my results because I will take the rim there on Tuesday if they are available.

 

if you try to save the rim i'd get it rebalanced before you ride on it again

also, they can remove the tire and put it on a truing stand and check it's side to side runout to see exactly how much of a wobble you have

 

Well, Wheels America don't repair motorcycle wheels, so I'm back to square one looking for a place to fix my bent rim for a reasonable price. I found in the manual that the runout limit for radial and axial is 2.0mm.

I think mine is over that limit, so I won't be riding until I get if fixed or raplaced.

I just don't want to have to send my rim off really far, but it looks like that may be my only option.

 

For some reason I'll post this a 2nd time although it violates my policy.

willsrimrepair.com His prices are very, very reasonable and really I'm just posting this as a thank you to him, cause he did a good job with my brake rotors and didn't charge hardly anything.

 

Hey StrikeAnywhere,

Thanks a million for the second post (and for going against your policy). I don't know how, but I actually over looked your first post on page 1. I just got off of the phone with Will's Rim Repair and the lady said it could be about 80.00 + or - given the damage.

I'll let you know what happens because I am trying to ship this tomorrow.

Thanks again.

 

Sounds good. I sent him 4 brake rotors to be straightened, 2 that were obviously bent and 2 that I wasn't sure about. He straightened 3 of them and said the 4th was fine and didn't need any work. He could have told me that he straightened all 4 of them and charged me but he was honest about it. On top of that he only charged $10 per rotor and $10 for return FedEx. I've read where other people on other sites were pleased with his wheel work.

 

10 to ship back all the rotors or each

 

???

They were all in the same box so that was a $10 charge to FedEx the box of rotors back to me 400+ miles.

 

Nice I have a bent rotor I was going to replace but this route seems much cheaper