Ever had a flat????

[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.

[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.