Water logged wheels

[toekneep]

We rode through a lot of water yesterday but I didn't expect the wheels to take it on board. I have just emptied water out of three of the four wheels on our bikes. You could actually hear it sloshing about when you spun the wheel. I wouldn't have thought there was room for water between the tube and the tyre, is this normal?

[MSeries]

The water gets inside the box section of the rim. I have had it before, it happens, not normal though, unless one normally rides with rims submerged

[toekneep]

The rims were submerged on many occasions yesterday, including one section when it was too far to freewheel and too deep to half pedal, everybody got wet feet on that one. After the third or fourth flood I started to enjoy them. 

[rogerzilla]

Some rims have a little hole to let it out (centrifugal force [1] will spin the water to the edge and out of the hole when riding).

Otherwise you have to remove the tyre and tube and leave the bike with the valve hole at the bottom.  An alternative method might be riding down a very long hill using the brakes to keep your speed to 5mph - I've had steam coming out of rims before.


[1] yes, physicists, I *know* there's no such thing

[andygates]

It's very, very common.  Strip it all off, leave the wheels in a warm dry room and they'll slowly evaporate out.

You might get some white fluffy aluminium fur, but that's no biggie.