Tubed Tyres can KILL YOU!

[Racey Rider]

SO I'm trundling along today on the KR heading home to NP. I'm caught in a line of cages doing 95Km/h. So at the passing lines a few of us pass the slower cars, as you do. I have the chance to pass one more ute, so contuine on at 109km/h and make the pass. But just as I pull back into the lane, I feel the back off my bike trying to come round and OVERTAKE ME!

No Idea whats going on. Feel like I've lost the axle from one side or something with Stuff all control of the bike! I choose not to hit the brakes cause I don't know how that will affect what the bike is doing? I button off the throttle in the hope I can ride it out. I have very little control of the steering, but manage to keep it upright for presious metres while I slow somewhat to 90 odd Kmh. But at that speed I hit the grass verge and the bike Highsides me off to roll down the roadside on the grass!

Thankfully I have ALL my saftey armour/Leathers/Back protector on, so all I come away with is a bruised knee. But "What The 'WT' happened There!!"

Looking at the bike, I see a flat tyre on the rear!
Now I've had flat tyres before, but with tubeless tyres, they always gave a bit of warning before becoming totally deflated. But What I didn't know before, was this wheel off my spares bike had a tube in it!
And when it pucture there was No warning. Just Dead flat! And a loss of 90% of control!
NEVER AGAIN WILL I ROAD RIDE ON TUBED TYRES!

Only by Gods grace I ended up in the grass verge and not through the windscreen on oncoming traffic! Lesson Learnt!
Don't let it happen to YOU!
Racey

[Dadpole]

How did we survive?

[Waylander]

Run flats are great.

[Motu]

How did we survive?

I've died a thousand horrible deaths according to these guys - like a gruesome zombi I just keep going,still riding a bike....tubed tyres and all!

[Dadpole]

Guess we are just too old to die.

[Warr]

So did the cages stop and applaud ??

No seriously Racey,
Tubeless can go down pretty quick too.
Last weekend on another delivery mission. I was bein doubled by Teflon on my VTR750. Rear tyre looked a bit sus, so had discussed its condition with the bike shop the previous day. Well Teflon & my weight together is prob. a little more than mine and Mrs Warr. I hadnt put any extra air in it and riding along there is this bang and instant flat at 110k's.
Teflon got us stopped ok but what had happened was tyre overheated and a couple of patches had letgo and air all rushed out.
No crash thankfully

Good to hear your gear all worked for you too

[DemonWolf]

Good to hear that you are alright Racey Rider.. Hopefully the bike isn't too damaged?

What bit of road heading to NP?

[Racey Rider]

How did we survive?

Alright! Now that I've had a nights sleep and claimed down a retration is in order.

Tubed Tyres ARE Fine. Being a UseLess Rider with a Flat Tyre Can Kill You!

Happened between Elthan and Stratford.
Damage to bike is fairly superficial. Indercators/ headlight bracket/ handlebar/ dented tank. Had no flairings on it at the time, so will have it back in race bike mode fairly easy.
Speical thanks to the HP Officer who gave me a ride all the way home.

[DemonWolf]

ahh.. then I've seen you a couple times =)

Hows the bike?

[Racey Rider]

That was only a one off trip I made. You wouldn't have seen me there before.

Bike damage edited into previous post.

[Dadpole]

Just a PT there Racey Rider.
I will agree with you about tubed tyres. They are crap, and tubeless is the way to go. Can't claim to have personal experience with a deflating tyre though. Over 30 years on bikes, God knows how many km, and one (yes one) puncture which went down overnight.

Will this post offend the biker Gods? - perhaps I should let my tyres down now.

[DemonWolf]

ahh..

well glad its only superficial damage.

I've only had one puncture on a GS550 with a mate on the back.. very interesting wrestling with the steering to stay on the road... hell loud bang when it ripped..

[Yokai]

Guess we are just too old to die.

Yup - too old to die, too weird to live!

[Motu]

I've had a few blowouts,front and rear - but ony one at a speed enough to cause concern.

Coming back from Hamilton on a sunday afternoon on my Triton,set up with rearsets and clipons,kinda like a modern sports bike,but we are talking 1974 here.I came past the Karaka turnoff and slowed down to 70mph,I had been travelling at 90mph all the way (ah,the good old days when you could ride SH1 at 100mph for as long as you liked) As I went over the causeway the bike snapped out full left lock sideways,aiming me at the medium strip (grass and bushes then)that was not where I wanted to go,so flipped it over to full lock the other way and rode off the motorway.In those days the sides were loose gravel and I went into that at 50mph (80kph)flipped to the other lock and somehow got it to stop.No crash and I was able to manouver without tangling with cars.

A little bit of extra colour about that day - as I was pushing it up the motorway to the Takanini off ramp a mate stops in his old truck going south,and we have a converation shouting across the motorway.He says he'll come back and pick me up.Choice,no more pushing and I can get the bike home no worries.I wait for ages and he doesn't come back - prick,and I haven't seen him since that day.At that stage he was on the run having been caught with a doz stolen bikes at the old pad in Ponsonby,he did a runner from Police custody and was living on an island in the Waikato river,he must of seen a Cop and decided not to get involved in my roadside salvage - damn those 70s were a wild time eh?

[pyrocam]

I had a rear puncture on a tube at about 70k. not fun and very little control over steering. managed to get it to the grass verge inbewteen the 8 lanes of traffic on the NW..... ahh good times.