What caused this bizarre rim damage?
This is one of the most incomprehensible things that happened to me. My e-bike was stored, unused, for about a year, under a tarp, under a deck at my house. Long story, I'll spare the details.
A year later, I come back to the bike. It has a flat rear tire. I take out the wheel (which was annoying because of the hub motor), inspect the inner tube, and I find a long 5mm (1/4 inch) cut on the inner part of the tube that's making contact with the rim! On the rim, at the spot in contact with the inner tube cut, the aluminum is damaged. Very badly damaged, with two dents and two holes. The holes have sharp edges protruding either above or below the surface of the rim as if someone drove a nail through the rim and bent the nail sideways. These sharp edges are what pierced my inner tube. They also pierced the red plastic strip glued to the rim (to protect the inner tube). And the weirdest: the tire is completely fine, undamaged. It's only the rim and the inner tube that are damaged!
What could have caused this?? I don't even understand how this is possible.
I should note that friends with kids stayed at my house while the bike was stored (and I was away). It's possible a kid accidentally pushed the bike or hit it. But what kind of impact would cause this?