Any tyre fitters here?

Originally Posted by SV650Racer

Very bloody hard to put a dent in a rim changing tyres, rims are tough beasts even when I do my own tyres and im the most cack handed person ever...hence why I usually leave the mechanics to Steve LOL.

Potholes are common cause and we see alot of that now. If we are changing tyres on a customers bike and notice damage, we stop and inform the customer before doing the job just so they know it wasnt us!

Agree with all of this and we do the same when changing tyres at work.

There is no set orientation when putting a wheel on a tyre changing machine, and as you rarely see the same type of machine in any two workshops it'd be impossible to know where it was being placed in others. Tyre changers don't clamp the rim that hard that they could dent - as others have said, more than likely to be pothole damage, which is something I'm seeing more and more of on customers bikes and others I've been offered for sale in the last ten years. It's come to a point where I'm spinning up front wheels when I look them over with a view to buying. I think it's a combination of poor roads and the quest for ever lighter wheels that make this happen.

Just thank your lucky stars you don't own a 1990s Ducati with a 3-spoke Brembo front wheel. I haven't seen a straight one of those in years. It seems they buckle and dent the front rims if you ride over a credit card.

The bike has been out my garage about 7 or 8 times since the wheel was repaired, and only to work and back. Been away alot with work the last couple years and haven't had the time. In fact it's only been out the garage 3 times since it's last MOT which highlighted the fact I needed new tyres. No bumps, incidents, or potholes...

The thing that really fires my suspision is that the dent is a carbon copy of the first one. I know that may sound like a random cliche, but it is 100% identical. Incuding the actual location on the wheel rim. I found it hard to work out how it may have happened the first time round. This time i'm confident the wheel was good. If it was a pot hole or the like, why would the damage only be on one side, and not so much as a scrape on the other side? To that end, the paint at the dent is fine. No evidence of smacking into an abrassive road surface/pothole.

Got a new wheel ordered up anyway. The garage I changed my tyres at offered me the labour free of charge if I put a deposit down. Which was nice!