[Ski_rush]

The other day I decided that I was going to try remove my tire so that I could have a better time trying to true the front wheel. Take a look at the picture. That's from one spoon with two attempts or bites. The end of the tire iron was all the way inside the tire and under the lip of the tire. This damage was not from the tip of the tire iron. It is from the edge or side of the tire iron. This damage is simply pathetic, in my opinion. I've watched numerous videos of people changing dirt bike tires of big brand bikes and most of them did NOT use a rim saver because they said they simply didn't need to. And, they removed the tire without damage.

If this were just as scratch, I'd say who cares. But, one bite at the tire to move the lip of the tire over the rim actually gouged the rim. The metal in the rim must be extremely soft.

That, plus, the rim is very much out of true. I'm able get the rim laterally true, not problems there. However, the radial trueness might actually be worse now that it was before. I didn't officially measure it, but I'm guessing a 1/4" or so higher on one end of the rim, compared to the other. And, it makes no different how I tighten the one side and loosen the other, the radial trueness of the rim does not change.

This is why I decided that paying a shop $120 to do this would basically be kissing $120 goodbye. I'm confident he would have told me that there's nothing he can do to fix it.

I rode this bike one real time. I'm not counting 2-3 trips around town for 2 miles. The one ride I took was about 20 miles. That's it. One trip for 20 miles.

The softness of the metal in the rim is pretty scary if you think about it. There is not way I should have been able to damage that rim like that just from one bite of a tire iron.