You know those dreams you have as you are going to sleep, and you dream that you are tripping over a crack in the pavement, and your body jerks yourself awake? I had one of those lastnight. I dreamt that a kangaroo jumped out in front of me. And I grabbed too much front brake. I guess that's a good way of learning of your riding deficiencies. (I learned something else about riding once by waking up in a sweat. But I can't remember what it was. Can't have been a very good lesson!) Incidentally, how does one practice handling a blowout correctly? You can practice all the emergency stoppies you want, but the day you realise you have a rapidly deteriorating tyre, and you've got to remember to not even roll off the accelerator too quickly, let alone grab any brake at all. -- TimC I sit in a chair, pressing small plastic rectangles with my fingers while peering at many tiny, colored dots. -- Peter Manders
In aus.motorcycles on Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:47:07 +1000 For the occasionally fast value of slow for me. It's never been *bang* but it has been "what was that! Damn, back end very wriggly, better stop carefully right now". Never had the front tyre lose pressure quickly for which I am grateful. I have had the back do it, such as when the Baby Beemer had its 20yo tube give up the ghost at the valve... That wasn't at speed, "at speed" is not something the Baby Beemer was really capable of. I have had the Pantah pick up a nail and lose pressure fairly quickly, but I did have time to think "back end very nasty, better stop!" and pull it down from 120 to stopped without difficulty. Zebee
I found the back was skating or weaving around a bit... can sometimes get the same feeling riding on white lines when it's wet. And the back kept on starting to slide out on corners without much leaning, as if the road surface was very greasy. I noticed them, and put it all down to the heavy rain at the time! =:-o
I had a rear tyre blow out at around 120 kph on a country highway, ( I was late for work, supposed to start at 5.30 am and it was already 5.35 ), when I heard a loud bang and noticed the rear of the bike weaving better than a woollen mill, I started to look for an appropriate place to land on the side of the road, then as soon as I went into the gravel at the side of the road, didn't touch either brake, the bike decided to go straight as a die and slowed nicely to a stop. The worst thing was getting the bike on a trailer to get it home. Reminded me to not think I could get another 100 kilometres out of a tyre when it hit the canvas
With tubeless tyres, the chances of there being a leak which will very quickly deflate the tyre are low, and as it deflates you will feel the tyre wriggling a bit and have time to stop before the handling deteriorates too much. Most modern sportsbikes have very low profile tyres. The deflated tyre can only wriggle as much as sidewalls will allow the tread to move, so a standard 180/55-17 sportsbike rear tyre with very short sidewalls will track pretty truely even when it has very low pressure. A skinny, high profile tubed tyre on the other hand, will squirm around a lot, and much more suddenly. Nev.. '08 DL1000K8
Yeah thirded! I've had a few car-tyre/trailer/caravan blowouts and even a pushie blowout (or two) but the worst I've ever had on a motorcycle was the "back and too sloppy... better slow down" situation described previously. (Although; being so pig-headed, I'd generally push on for my second or third slide before I'd actually concede and stop.) Oddly enough; the only front punctures I've had were local, 60kph close-to-home events that were unremarkable in every way.
Ever had a valve stem pop out completely in a rear tyre with an inexperienced pillion on the back riding slowly in traffic? I managed to stop, the pillion stepped off and the bike fell on my left leg causing median meniscus damage. It was almost 50 years ago but I seem to remember it was trying to ride on oil
Same here. On one occasion on a deflating tyre in the drizzling rain on country sealed roads but with the occasional dairy crossing, I was being Clem's pighead and trying to keep up with my mate depsite the budgie's rear end sliding out everywhere until we stopped to wait for the others to catch up and Muck noticed that mt rear tyre was steaming. From flex, as it only had 6 psi in it. The other two times were around town and nail through rear. Back end starts to feel funny but in both situations I was within 5km of a bike shop and just rode gently to the shop and got the tyre fixed. I think because it isn't a catastrophic deflation, you probably go further before realising it as the effect slowly builds up on you.
On Jun 17, 9:33 am, TimC <- astro.swin.edu.au> wrote: <<<<<I had a dream>>>>> "That all men will be created equal", is that what you where trying to say? [Quote Philip Mazzei, NOT Martin L. King!]
No, his dream was wetter than that. -- - KRudd at his finest. "The Labour Party is corrupt beyond redemption!" - Labour hasbeen Mark Latham in a moment of honest clarity. "This is the recession we had to have!" - Paul Keating explaining why he gave Australia another Labour recession. "Silly old bugger!" - Well known ACTU pisspot and sometime Labour prime minister Bob Hawke responding to a pensioner who dared ask for more. "By 1990, no child will live in poverty" - Bob Hawke again, desperate to win another election. "A billion trees ..." - Borke, pissed as a newt again. "Well may we say 'God save the Queen' because nothing will save the governor general!" - Egotistical shithead and pompous fuckwit E.G. Whitlam whining about his appointee for Governor General John Kerr.
I had a rear blowout on the T140 triumph and that had tubes, it happened in a couple of seconds in a left hand uphill sweeping corner. The rear suddenly started weaving then waving then swinging wildly from side to side. I managed to stop without coming off somehow. I've only ever had a slow deflation on the front (tubeless). There was a guy who was killed just south of Kyneton a year or two back on an old brit bike (a Norton I think) when pillioning and his front tube burst. He was thrown over the bars at 110 with an open face helmet and a brando jacket with what amounts to no warning. I do NOT miss tube tyres on motorbikes.... G-S
I had an abrupt loss of front tyre pressure on a motorbike once: http://www.humbletown.org/temp/1995.htm BTH
It wasn't (at least so far as I know - I woke up in the hospital). The front rim got squashed when it hit something pretty hard. Once it was fitted to a replacement rim the tyre held air again. BTH
I had a blow out in the dunny at the pub once. **** it was loud. The blokes in the next bar thought someone was shooting up! I've got tubed tyres (and two car tyres) on my bike but have never had a sudden enough drop of presure to be a concern.
