front wheel deformity

[Markst1]

The front wheel of my r75/6 has a noticible flat spot on one side of the rim. Looks like it hit a pot hole. The tire still runs true. It is a spoked wheel. All the spokes are tight, none broken. Does this really need fixing or can it wait until its time to replace the tire? Is this something that can easily be fixed, or should I farm this out to a shop? I have never changed or repaired a tire on this bike, so any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Theo Marks

[flash412]

While I would not presume to assess your mechanical abilities, I can share what I would do, and in fact have done in the past when faced with such a predicament.

I removed the wheel and then the tire. I placed the rim opposite the "flare" on a piece of wood on a concrete floor. Then I had a friend hold a length of 2x4 over the flare and I hit it with a BFH. I had to hit it several times, harder each time until I found how hard to hit it to get it to deform. A few more calibrated hits and it was pretty darned straight. Then I checked the out of round and the runout and found them within spec except for a very slight "blip" where the flare had been. I called it good enough. Otherwise, I would have trued the wheel. I rode that bike another 40,000 miles or so before selling it without any problems.

[nrpetersen]

I bent one flange of both front and back wheels on my R1100RT hitting a pothole. The tires still ran true, but the rim deformations were about 3/16 inch. I straightened them in a big vise using tape and a steel backup plate, deflating but not removing the tire. It took a surprising amount of force.

Can't see any rim trauma now.

[Markst1]

So, I took the bike to the dealer to have the tires changed. I ask them to take the flare out of the rim and true it up. They say that because it is an alloy wheel it would lead to structural failure if they tried to hammer out the flare. They do not do spoke adjustments to true wheel. They say that the wheel is trash, and should be replaced. Then they mount the new tire and balance. They show me that even though the wheel is flared and a bit out of true, the tire runs true. I like the new tire (Metzeler Lasertech), but I think that a ture wheel without flare might be a real improvement. Maybe it would prevent the slight low speed wooble.
What to do? Look for a good used wheel? Try to fix the bent one?
Thanks for your thoughts
Theo Marks

[srb]

it will be tough to have this fixed at any dealer or tire place (liability and such). you can follow the advise seen on this thread, or a used rim may be an option. price them out, hopefully used ones don't end up costing as much as new.

[James.A]

The un-knowable factor would be that a used part might not be significantly better than what you have, particularly if bought thru e-bay. If it were my bike, I'd use a method like what flash412 describes.