Aluminium rims are made by extruding a long section, bending it into a circle, and then joining the two ends. On high quality rims the two ends are generally sleeved and welded. The sleeve is a small section of aluminium which fits inside the rim’s cavity and is pinned to both sides of the rim. The sleeve helps hold the two ends of the rim when it’s welded, and also acts as a heat-sync during the welding process to eliminate warping. Sometimes this sleeve can dislodge from the rim and rattle – this can be very frustrating but is not a structural problem.
This can sometimes happen if the wheel has had a whack which dislodges part of the sleeve. We’ve seen this on Pacenti as well as Stans and a few other brands of rim.
This should take about 15 minutes and you’ll need the following parts:
4mm drill bit
Two-part epoxy glue
Rim tape. We use 21mm Stans tape
1) The joint will have a handful of dents from where it’s pinned. Use the drill on the two outside dents being careful to only drill the outer wall of the rim.
2) Mix up some two-part epoxy glue. You could possibly use tubular glue but I’d suggest a two-part like in the photos.
3) Smear the glue into the two drilled holes. Capillary action will draw the glue into the holes, or give it a bit of a push with your fingers.
4) Wipe the area around the holes clean of glue
5) Apply rim the tape.
6) Allow the wheel to sit with the joint at the bottom for long enough for the glue to set – that’s probably about 2 hours but the epoxy instructions will say.