While this tip may come in handy more often for mountain bikers, it is a good bit of knowledge for road cyclers as well. Let’s say that you are cruising down a rather worn trail going around 20 mph. You jet around a corner and right in front of you on the trail is a small tree that has fallen. It is far too late to swerve around, so all you can do is slam on the brakes and hope it doesn’t hurt too much when you fall.

When you pick yourself up and assess the damage you notice that your bike rim is so bent that it won’t even turn. You are 10 miles away from your car, or anyone else for that matter. What do you do? Here are some tips:

• If your rim is only slightly bent you can remove your front brakes and attempt to ride it out with the wobble.
• If your rim is still unable to turn even after you remove your brakes, you can try to repair it well enough to where it can be rideable. Here is how:
  1. First, mark the point of the rim that is damaged.
  2. Grab each side of the rim with the marked part of the rim pointing away from you. Lift the rim over your head and wack the bent spot on a semi-soft surface. Make sure you leave the tire on because it will keep the edge of the rim from getting damaged, thus keeping your tire from being messed up when you put it back on.
  3. Find a flat surface and check for more major bends that still will not clear the brakes.
  4. Repeat step 2 if necessary.
  5. Put the rim back on the bike and check if it will turn freely, and be rideable (remember you still have 10 miles to go).
• If you only received a very minor rim bend and you were able to make it back, make sure you don’t throw that rim away. Your local bike shop should be able to repair the rim by using a process called spoke truing, but it is a bit too complicated to explain for a newbie tip.

Well, if those tips don’t work, I hope you brought a cell phone. A 10 mile walk carrying a bike on your back isn’t much fun.