Riding a motorcycle involves all kinds on risks, and it is not purely guaranteed that you won’t meet an accident or get injured as unlike cars you do not have a boxed cage that protects you most of the times.  So all you can do is hone your riding skills and pray for a better luck, read about safer ways of riding bikes here.

At a time when you are running out of luck chances are, you might prevent a road accident but the bike might still bear some damage. The most common example of this is the times when you accidentally hit potholes which are the size of a crater, in most of the cases motorcycle jumps out of control throwing the rider out of its seat but sometimes when the control is somehow managed, the bike simply goes in and comes out but with damaged wheels.

Also, chances of rim bend increases when the pressure inside the tyre isn’t maintained and there is an additional weight on the bike (such as pillion rider or extra luggage). In such case, if the motorcycle is being ridden at a fast pace, and hits a pothole suddenly the tyres do not bear the force due to the absence of air pressure, which is ultimately transferred to the rims and the suspension. Hence, if the pressure is too much to take, rims simply bend and even break in certain conditions. And same goes for the suspension rods.

So in such case the question which arises is what to do next?

The next step which immediately needs to be taken depends upon the severity of the situation. If your motorcycle has tubed tyres or spoke wheels then there isn’t much to worry about. As tubed tyres aren’t airtight like tubeless, hence even a bend in the rim won’t allow the air to pass through, at the same time, tubed/spoke wheels are fairly cheaper to repair.

On the other hand, if you have alloy wheels shod on to the tubeless tyres, you might be in some serious trouble because soon as the wheel is bent, air-leakage starts. If the bend is very severed, the tyre might deflate in a matter of a few minutes, if not it might take days/week.

If you are out on the highway away from the city reach, the best remedy, in this case, is to ride the motorcycle straight on to a wheel repair shop before the tyre deflates. If you are lucky, the rim can be repaired with some hammering, if not then the usual remedy in this situation is fitting a tube inside a tubeless tyre.

Since bent rim creates a passage for the air to pass so a tubeless tyre can’t hold on the same. Hence, the tube is fitted to keep the air pressure maintained. But please note that this is only an emergency solution until you reach the authorized dealership.

In the worst case scenario of rim breakage, there is no clear solution if the rear wheel is involved, as you will definitely have to call up the road-side assistance team to toe the motorcycle to the nearest station. But if the front rim has broken down, then look for a temporary replacement from the nearest motorcycle rim shop. It is slightly easier to find and replace the right sized front wheel, compared to the rear. Most of the bikes run on R17 100mm/110mm upfront, on the other hand, the rear size varies from R17 120mm to 150mm, in most of the daily use motorcycles.