Gods are cross???

[auxtian]

What have I done Wrong, I try to be good (shhh) 4 rear flats in 2 months. I think I need a Kevlar tyre

[sixtysix]

This may be a record! The odds are with you but the air isn't! I get about one flat every two years, my last one was at the Classic Yamaha Rally in NC last fall. Notice the 5 inch spike through my tire.

[RiskyBusiness]

I have never had a fast leak or blow out on a bike but I sometimes wake in the night after dreaming about them. How does the bike behave when it starts going flat fast? How does a blowout cause the bike to behave?

[auxtian]

A flat while riding is not a good experiance especially 2 up usually a drop but mine have all been slow speed this last couple of months so guess I am "lucky" sortof.
Came off an express way with my daughter on the back and the rear went down as we where slowing for a corner, felt strange then the BIG wobble but she hung on like I taught her and we stayed up. That was a bolt caused that.
I had the bike loaded ready to go visit the kids and when I came out ...flat a 1inch gyprock screw was the culprite but 4 times in 2 months.....
its not fair

[Jerry]

I have never had a fast leak or blow out on a bike but I sometimes wake in the night after dreaming about them. How does the bike behave when it starts going flat fast? How does a blowout cause the bike to behave?

Handling depends a geat deal on if it is is the front or rear tire that goes. I've never had a front go flat, but did have a blowout on a rear tube-type tire while riding 2-up with SWMBO and moving at a somehwt illegal rate of speed. Not on the XJ, though, this was on a Honda.

Tire began to flop from side to side on the rim, effectively kicking the back end back and forth. Very unsettling. Lots of bouncing/vibration as the tire flopped first to the left, then right side of the rim. I stayed off the rear brake, *gently* applied the front brake and came to a normal (upright) stop at the edge of the road, though it took quite a distance to do so. Lucky I was on a staight stretch.

[schpiff]

I had a front go flat on my old cb750, I was on the way to visit a friend and felt extra wiggly in the front..on the highway (about 70mph or more give or take) it was ...sorta ok....then I slowed down... thats when it hit home!... wore out my nikes,my socks, and just about everything else I had tryin to stay upright...Still cant think of anything I coulda done different..cept for checkin out why it wasnt feeling right....duh

[auxtian]

All very scarey and I don't think I heal as well as I used to many years ago.
Does anyone think the age of the tyre would make it more prone to punctures, I mean would a new tyre have more of a tendancy to have spikey things bounce off?????

[uk1.1s]

Eeek

Yeah - punctures can be a little bit scarey - luckly my only one on the move was slow and I just was aware of a difference in the noise of the bike - until the round-about (funny European circular junction, probably alien in the US)

It all sure went to pot as I leant over on to get around - but I managed to stop upright but shaken.

Just don't get me started on diesel on the road.....

[dwales]

I had a front tire blowout on my fully loaded 78 XS while going around a curve at speed. The bike bounce on both sides. Lots of damage. I lost half my left a$$ cheek on the road. The guys sitting outside at the gas station I had just passed thought the sound was me going over the gaurd rail and down the bank. Fortunately I was able to keep it between the gaurd rails. That was the only good thing that happened that day. When I took the tire apart, there was a 6" rip in the tube. Not an experience I would recomend for anyone.

[jkgrubbs]

My first, and only flat so far, was on my old 76 kz900, at speed, on the Downtown Connector 75/85 in Atlanta. I was a young, unworldly teenager, going back to college. I was solo, running with traffic in the third lane about 70-75 mph. The rear started feeling soft, then very wiggley. I moved to the shoulder without incident, and found a 6 inch gutter spike through and through the left to the right on the rear Continental. My theory is that the front kicks up stuff for the rear. My adventure had just started. One 19 year old college kid, with a jap bike DRT (dead right there), in topsiders and polo shirt, on the side of the road. In the days before cell phones. I said to myself, "Self, what are you going to do?". Several folks slowed down, but none stopped. After about 20 minutes, a black Ford van stopped. Four guys got out. I am 6'1" and about 260 lbs. while wearing a 56 suit coat, and 38" pants. These guys made me look anorexic. One was wearing a black t-shirt that read "Honda Suzuki Yamaha Kawasaki" on the front. I thought I was golden, saved from the interstate. Then he turned around. The back of his shirt had "From the same people that brought you Pearl Harbor". I said to my jap bike riding self, "Self, what have you gotten me into". To make a short story long, I learned that day. I was guilty of stereotyping in a bad way. These four guys picked up the bike, threw both of us into the back of the black van, with me thinking that I love my family very much. I spent the next 3 hours with these guys I didn't know from Adams Housecat. First we went to a Harley yard, looking for a used Sportster 16"tube. No joy. We then went to a BBQ one of the guy's "social club" was having and had some chow. After a short time, we were off. We wound up at the Harley shop in Clayton County. I was dropped off, and told the guys all I had was 10 bucks, and they were welcome to it. They politely declined, only saying to stop for one of them, if I had the chance. I was given run of the shop, lifts, tools, and a 16" Sportser tube at a discount. The shop even took an out of town check for the tube.

The rest of the story. About 6 months later I was in Dad's pickup, coming back from school on 75. Up ahead, I saw a hardtail Harley on the side of the road. Payment time. The guy had a rear flat. I stopped, and took the tailgate off the truck to use for a ramp, and loaded him up. He used his colors for a pad on the ground, to protect the tailgate. Off we went. I dropped him at a station 30 miles up the road. As I left, he said that he always stops when he can, and that he remembered stopping for a college kid about 6 months ago.

What goes around, comes around.

Lesson Learned.

[RiskyBusiness]

Re: Eeek

Originally posted by uk1.1s
until the round-about (funny European circular junction, probably alien in the US)

Round-about... we know all about those. I can even use it in a sentance: "He put his hand on my wife's rump. That was round-about the time I mopped the floor with him."

[Snow]

If you wanna see some really bad "roundabouts", come to Tallahassee, FL USA - some engineers got the bright idea of making roundabouts in exisiting 2 lane roads (1 lane each directions) by simply putting an island in the midle of the round with a "Round-About" sign in the middle of it...not a prob when Maya purrs for me

Oh, and the same guys have brought us other "Traffic Calming Devices" that are basically sharp justs of concrete that turn the road into a zig zag for cars (again, not a problem on bike)