Hi,
Is this rim still safe to use? 2 holes are a bit rounded out due to not good fastened the rim by the previous owner. The other 3 holes are in original shape.
1 Like
My son has zero tolerance towards oval or enlarged holes due to having lost a wheel due to that. I think the three holes look ok but would replace that rim anyway for the safety of yourself and others.
Welcome to the forum!
Thank you! The 3 other holes look in good shape. I just don’t know how much this affect the strength of the rim.
It should be okay as an emergency spare, but I wouldn’t use it any more daily. The one time you mount it on the ovaled holes your asking for trouble. Grab a large red paint marker and mark the oval holes so if you do install the rim you can see and need to make sure you are not using the bad holes.
Losing a rim can be a nasty crash so it’s worth the price to get a new rim.
1 Like
Wheel studs are only intended for keeping the rim tight against the hub. It’s the hub that carries the load of the kart against the wheel. How does the centre look? Any signs of corrosion or cracks?
The centre of the rim does look good. This rim has 6 anchor holes. So 1 pattern of 3 holes has 2 rounded out holes and the other pattern is just fine.
1 Like
Yep. I have a rim with pretty ovaled holes, but runout is unchanged because the hub interface is still round, and preload + friction is what carries shear.
No cracks. Just 2 out of 6 holes rounded out what makes me think the rim is a little bit weaker. The other bolt pattern is good.
I once watched an outside rear wheel fly off in a fast sweeper due to bolt shear failure, very likely owed to repeatedly slapping a curb. The result was “interesting”. Link barriers did their thing.
I bought a complete new freeline set. The old set is for spare 
I’ve run an OTK rim that had the stud holes significantly larger than the studs. The nut still sits flat and seats, it covers the holes even though they are enlarged. Haven’t had an issue - I don’t run it during a race weekend.