Potholes vs wheels

amberwolf

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Somehow, AFAICT, we've gone a whole decade without a thread to collect pothole damage pics. So now we have one to show off your carnage. If there is another one, any mod feel free to merge this one with it (but it might need retitling as it didn't come up in various searches).

I found a few about specific pothole incidents, and a number of posts about them in general, but no collection and hardly any pics:
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=pothole*&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=titleonly&sr=topics&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=pot+hole*&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=titleonly&sr=topics&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

and other stuff under "crack* rim*" etc.


Anhow, this is what happened to me Saturday, from a sharp-edged pothole (actually a sinkhole) whose edge collapsed under my wheel as I passed it, and dragged the wheel partway into the hole as I went by. Would've beenmuch worse if I had actually hit the pothole straight-on.

Keep in mind that on the rear of SB Cruiser I am using "20" (16") 2.5" Shinko moped tires on a ~45mm-wide rim, kept at 35PSI, laced to the hubs with around 75-ish mm 13gauge Sapim spokes from Grin Tech http://ebikes.ca .

It's retensioned and re-rounded as best I could manage, though side-to-side is pretty crappy, no rim brakes back there so not as big a deal. Repair held ok yesterday and today; when it starts to have a problem again I'll deal with it then. (I only have one more rim like this I can use back there).


https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=67833&hilit=pothole%2A&start=650#p1359023

Rim damage itself; not apparent is the bending of the rim, out of round by a few mm:
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Some spokes pulled thru the washers (but not quite thru the flange) because the flange holes are just about the same size as the heads (a hair larger). As it turns out some other spokes also stripped the nipple threads, so had ot put some spare washers and nipples on.

No spokes were broken; if these were the common OEM spokes there would probably be several destroyed, most likely at the elbow (that's where they usually go).

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This is what the wheel is on (it's the right rear that is damaged)
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The pothole incident prior to this one broke the 5304 axle (but it left the rim and spokes undamaged). Thankfully the HSR3548 axle in this weekend's incident didn't get damaged AFAICT.

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=67833&p=1310982&hilit=x5304+axle#p1310982

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I did "fix" the axle by welding on some scrap steel, but it's still untested, becuase somehow I also damaged teh windings with the grinder, and I've been using hte HSR3548 wheel (as shown in the first post of thsi thread) since breakign the X5304 anyway. (switching from one to the other required widening the rightside frame at the time, and can only switch back by narrowing it or extending the X5304 axle).

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=67833&p=1310982&hilit=x5304+axle#p1312057

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The one before that was similar to the first post, but it was on CrazyBike2. Oddly it was actually the exact same motor (and spokes, I think) as the first post, too, so they've gone thru a lot and survived. :) I can't remember exactly what happened to bend it, though, and cant seem to find the post about it (though Im sure there was one).


On this one I bent it back but should've left it alone, because bending it cracked it. :/ Eventually the bend cracked and failed completely:
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but it took a long time to get to that point
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This is what that wheel was on at the time, the rear between the two red boxes with the yellow/black stripe tape:

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but it actually looked like this back then (assuming it happened when I remember it)
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Four and a half years ago, again on CB2, I flatted a rim on pothole I couldnt' see because it was in a lake in hte middle of the road. Not a giant hole, but big enough. Same motor as the first and third posts, and probably half the spokes. (can't recall for sure).

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12500&p=799353&hilit=bent+rim%2A+crazybike2#p796519
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It pulled nipples thru the rim, cracking it. I ran across this rim recently in my cleanup of old crap and recycled it, so I don't somehow accidentally try to reuse it.
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BTW, this pothole also broke stuff on the frame itself, though at that time I didn't know it and found out till a short time later. At the time I thought it was just the battery pack shifting around, but that' wasn't all of it.
 
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