Ever had a flat????

[Jer]

While riding????

[music man]

The closest I ever came to it was one day I got a nail in my back tire while out riding and it made my tire leak down fast enough that I had a flat about 5 minutes after I got home, but haven't had the pleasure of being stranded because of one yet.


Later

[Jer]

I'm curious about peoples experience of being on the bike and moving when a tire loses air.

I've been reading that the correct course of action is to brake firmly with the wheel that is ok.

Which makes sense.

I'm curious to know how bad it is for this to happen.

[Jenny]

I'm curious how you know that's what the problem is when you're riding.

[alanmcorcoran]

There's flats and there's flats. There is not a one size fits all solution to every situation.

Most of the time you will hear or feel the air going out of the tire. It will feel funny and will probably be making a noise. With those, you'll probably instinctively slow down. Keep the bike moving straight and get off the road.

Occasionally, it's "Bam" and then "Oh $hit!" If a blowout happens to the front tire at full speed, it's probably going to be dicey.

If the wheel is still rotating, you can probably brake normally etc. If the tire or rim gets stuck in the fork, you could get pitched onto your face.

Assuming you don't have some sort of freak catastrophe, your bet bet is to keep the bike traveling as straight as possible while slowing down gently.

[Easy Rider]

I'm curious how you know that's what the problem is when you're riding.

Well initially you probably don't.

You will, after some time in the seat, get to know your "baby" and learn what the normal sound and feel is. It is an excellent habit to slowly stop for an inspection when you notice ANYTHING out of the ordinary.

This coming from a person who rode for over a mile AFTER hearing a loud POP and didn't crash only out of luck !! :skull: :cry:

[Easy Rider]

While riding????

More than once. Luckily never a blow out though. The first indication for me always was: What the hell? This thing steers like crap.

[Water Warrior 2]

Just a word to the wise concerning tubes. If you have noticed, the valve stem is threaded and there is a nut holding it in position. The nut is only supposed to be slightly snug, no more than that. I managed my first flat by tightening the valve stem nut a turn or two and pulled the stem enough to weaken the rubber where the stem is joined. Luckily I had just stopped for a smoke and coke with friends and we all got to watch the front end hiss and go flat. That is a lucky flat.

[Sarris]

Years ago, I had a blowout on the rear of my Norton Commando doing about 65 mph. The tire hung up in the swing arm, locking up the wheel, putting me into a sideway skid. I got the skid under control, but by the time I finally got stopped I had burned through the tire/tube and had ground about 3/4" off the back rim in a shower of sparks. I ruined both the rim and my shorts.

This fiasco was caused by a 20d finish nail in the edge of the sidewall where it meets the tread. I didn't check the before I rode, and I still don't do it as often as I should. It pays to check and listen for the hiss.

Remember that tube tires can blow out, but typically mags w/ tubeless tire usually just deflate.

O_o :cry: O_o :cry:

[alanmcorcoran]

I've not had the pleasure of a blowout on a motorcycle, mainly owing to having travelled less than 1000 miles on one. I have had numerous blowouts on bicycles, mopeds (drove one exclusively for three years when I had no driver license) and cars (former taxi driver.) #1 cause of blowouts for me was poverty, specifically driving on crap tires. Worn tread, belts showing through, cracked sidewalls, bulges, you name it. #2 was driving into, over or through something I shouldn't have. It's embarassing, but, yes, I have driven over those spikes you aren't supposed to drive over. Dumbest thing I ever did was drive into the "former" entrance to my neighborhood gas station. They had remodelled the thing one weekend and removed an apron that had been there for 15 years. I hit the place where the apron was supposed to be (it was now like a 9 inch curb) at about 20 miles an hour and blew out both of my front tires and effed the rim up pretty good too.

When driving the cab, where the rule was "drive it until the next thing breaks", I almost got used to the old "BAM, whump, whump, whump" sound that signified a blowout. It was almost always a front tire and quite a few were at speed. Fortunately, if you just keep your wits about you, it's not that hard to control a 4 wheeled vehicle with a flat.

I had one face plant on the bicycle and one "high side" on the moped. On the bike you can generally feel, see or hear the air going out and blowouts are rare. The moped I just kept on driving with old tires because I not only couldn't afford them, I had no idea where to even get one.

There are lots of other reasons not to ride on bad tires, and I can give you personal examples of most of them. Now that I can afford it, I am a fanatic about having nice tires on all my vehicles. I won't let my kids drive on bad ones and if I notice bad ones on someone else's vehicle I won't go anywhere in their car. Bald tires plus rain equals big trouble.

[music man]

You sound like me Alan. I used to be the same way, it didn't matter what shape my tires were in if they held air they were good enough to drive anywhere i wanted to go. Now if I even think I have something wrong with a tire, I am getting it checked out as soon as possible, Especially on my bike.

[Water Warrior 2]

The size of the contact patch of a tire all that keeps you safe. It better be a good one.

[Magnar Infectus]

I had a flat last week. Not while I was riding though. I came out to my bike after work to a completely flat rear tire. Fix-a-flat got me across the street to the gas station to fill it up the rest of the way. I got a new tube Monday while getting my 500 mile service. $35 for a new tube + labour. They refused to patch it. Said it was a safety hazzard. It was expensive but the stem and cap sure are purdy though.

[dhgeyer]

I had the "pleasure" of a flat while on a multi-day tour once, on a Vulcan 1500 Classic FI. Nail in the rear tire. It was going down slowly, and I didn't notice until I pulled in for gas. Once I slowed down and tried a tight turn it felt very squishy, and it was painfully obvious that something was very wrong. Luckily I was only a half hour tow from a Kawasaki dealership. When you're on tour they tend to drop everything to get you going again, but then they charge you for the special service. Between the tow and the fix I was out about 5 hours and several hundred dollars.

This event was on my first actual overnight tour - three days in the Adirondacks. I shuddered to think what it could have been like if I was out in some of the places I had been when it happened.

After that I got very interested in ways of dealing with nails in tires that didn't cost hours and hundreds of dollars. Here is what I learned.

If you have tubeless tires, which you normally do on non-spoke wheels, there are a number of kits available to make an emergency repair. BMW dealerships sell a very compact and light kit that allows you to plug a tire temporarily, and inflate it with CO2. Some people carry a plug kit and an electric tire pump. You can get fairly compact electric pumps, and then tear the working parts out of the casing, and wind up with something that is very small and light.

The GZ250 has tubed tires, of course, so plugging on the road is not an option. Fix-a-flat is not rated for motorcycles or tubed tires, although it might work. There is similar canned goop available at Harley dealerships that is rated for motorcycles and tubed tires. I now carry a can of that if I'm actually going anywhere much. I also carry the BMW kit. Even though I can't use the plugging feature, I can add more air with the CO2 inflation rig if I need to. I also carry a few extra CO2 cartridges.

An even better solution is a product called Ride-On TPS (Google it). You put this stuff in your tire before you have a problem. It is fairly high tech, and uses the consistency of the goop along with thousands of microfibers to "heal" small holes. It's success rate is about 65% with tubed tires, much higher with tubeless ones. It's great advantage is that you don't get the flat to begin with. You lose some air while the nail is still in the tire, but once you pull the nail, and assuming the hole isn't too big and the tube isn't actually torn, the hole heals up. On a tubeless tire it's a permanent fix. With a tube, you want to replace the tube ASAP. But, with any luck, you don't get stranded.

Some people who are very serious about touring on bikes that are light enough to do this, and the GZ certainly is, carry extra tubes and the tools needed to replace one. They use plastic tire irons so as not to pinch the new tube, and of course you need the wrenches required to get a wheel off the bike. They just lay the bike down once they get the axle far enough along to get it out, and pick the bike up when they're done. And, of course, you need some means of inflating the repaired tire - pump or CO2. The tool kit on the GZ wouldn't be much help. You would need to look at the repair manual to see what tools you would need to pack. Sounds to me like a real pain, but the ultimate peace of mind.

I personally have gotten lazy in the last few years. I know I should put Ride-On TPS in my tires, but I haven't bothered. I carry the Aerosol goop from the Harley dealership, and a CO2 inflator with some extra cartridges and hope for the best.

[mrlmd1]

As maybe was said before, one of the first signs of losing air in a tire is that the bike feels "squishy", especially if it's the front - the steering feels mushy, not as solid and precise as when the tire is properly inflated. I carry a miniature air pressure gauge in the compartment under the seat to check pressures, just in case.
After you ride for a while, it's easy to tell if your tires are not right, whether in a car (like if one front tire has low air pressure, the steering is off towards the other side to compensate for the flatter lower pressure tire), or on the bike. You have to pay attention to the little details and not ignore them.
A sudden blowout is rare, just try to keep the bike in a straight line and slow down carefully, as quickly and as safely as you can .

[GZ250]

Sometime you are just lucky

Last time when I went for tire replacement on the rear wheel there was nail in the wheel really pressed into the rubber. It was think with a large head but it did not puncture the tube inside so I never noticed and nothing happened. Even with so much weight I survived and drove with a nail in the rear tire :)

I check my tires for nails but have to be diligent.

[New GZ250]

Yup on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. I never ever checked my air pressure and had a passenger. The valve stem ripped away from the rim. That was when I was young and stupid in the early 70's. Not much fun to get towed off the bridge and dropped off at the first exit. Seedy area, plus I ended up changing the tire myself. My bike required taking the exhaust pipes off. I did the impossible!
:2tup:

[hugemoth]

I've had lots of flats in the 40 years I've been riding, in fact I had the front tire go flat while riding on a curvy 55 mph road just last Saturday. It took about 5 seconds for it to go totally flat. My recommendation is light braking with the good tire.

A few years ago I hit a piece of firewood in the road at 70 mph in a hail storm on my CX500. The bike and I did a jump a few feet into the air and landed perfectly but with a flat front tire. Pic below. A good stiff tubeless tire like a Dunlop Elite II is a lot easier to control than a thin flexible tire. I was able to ride it 15 miles at 40 mph with no air at all in the tire.


http://s4.postimage.org/pqRoS.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVpqRoS)

[Water Warrior 2]

Fire wood on the road is very common here in late summer and the fall. Only slightly worse is the guy in front of you flipping it up with a tire and then you have flying object to dodge.