[blackjackel]

I ALWAYS mess up the wheels of every bike I get, they get bent and twisted and eventually the regular brakes stop working.

If I bend the wheels of a bike with disc brakes, will they still work? I'm thinking of getting a bike with disc brakes so I don't have to worry about regular brakes messing up when the wheel gets bent a little.


thanks.

[Trottel]

What kinds of bikes are you buying, $100 walmart ones? That sounds like the case.

[blackjackel]

Originally Posted by Trottel

What kinds of bikes are you buying, $100 walmart ones? That sounds like the case.

yep, thats the case. How much money would i have to spend on a bike before the wheels stop bending easily?

By the way, I ride my bikes down stairs, up stairs, up sidewalks, and i give those rims a good beating. I don't know if anything would be able to withstand what I do to a bike when I ride it.

[Trottel]

Have you been adjusting the spoke nipples to try to keep them in round?

I really don't know where the tipping point is. I have a cheapo mountain bike, have a nice road bike, and used to have a nice mountain bike. With the cheap mountain bike, keeping the wheels true by adjusting the spokes is an uphill battle, and I really don't ride it much. I don't think it was ever right from the factory, and I can never get it perfect anyway. I used to ride my nice mountain bike over rougher terrain, but can't say I ever remember having to adjust the wheels. Save just a few days when it was pouring at the time I had to leave for work, I have been commuting on my road bike every single day since mid-february. I am forced to ride it on some very rough patches of sidewalk, hit lots of bumps, and hop off several curbs, some of them quite high, during my commute. The wheels haven't been trued since they left the factory yet I can't perceive and noticeable deviation in them. The cheap mountain bike was I think $120-$130, the nice mountain bike was $400+, and the road bike had an MSRP of $950, but I got it brand new as old stock from the previous model year for only $500.

[JonSimonzi]

If you're going to be riding the bike a decent amount, I'd advise saving a few hundred dollars for a decent bike. I've gone through a few of the $100 - $200 Target bikes, and they just always have more problems than their worth. While I'm no bike expert, I plan next to try my luck on a $300 - $500 bike.

[nealric]

By the way, I ride my bikes down stairs, up stairs, up sidewalks, and i give those rims a good beating. I don't know if anything would be able to withstand what I do to a bike when I ride it.

You would need to spend at least $500 or so (preferably closer to a grand) to get something that would stand up to that kind of abuse. A decent trail bike is designed for such things. Maintenance is also key. What happens when you go down stairs on less then stellar rims is that they go out of true (i.e. they start to get off round). Proper maintenance involves truing the wheels on a regular basis (by tightening/loosening the spokes as needed) to keep them round. A slightly out of true wheel is more likely to become severely out of true.

Check out a bike store- not Target.

Disk brakes are great, but only if you get reasonably decent ones. The really good disk brakes run at least $200 just for the brakes.

[BenF]

FWIW, my specialized rockhopper has been through a lot of abuse and I haven't had a problem with the wheels yet. There's a pretty challenging mountain biking trail about a mile from my house and I used to ride it 3-5 times per week. Lots of bumps, boulders, softball sized rocks, roots, stumps, jumps, etc. I definitely beat on my bike quite a bit on that trail. The fastest way to ride was basically never touching the brakes unless you needed them to make a sharp turn. I'd spend a good amount of time just 'jumping' the low points between the roots and rocks so my wheels definitely had many hard impacts (imagine a car traveling down a washboard road at speed). I'm sure the front suspension helped out a lot, but it is a hardtail bike so the rear had its fair share of abuse too.

If you're going to be doing the riding you described, I'd also suggest looking into an entry 'nice bike'. I'd much rather spend ~$500 on a bike that'll last than frequently buying $100-200 cheap bikes.