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Front tire flats...scary stuff

4K views 26 replies 20 participants last post by  Capino 
#1 ·
So on Saturday I decided to take care of some rear wheel/fender fitment issues Ive been having. Basically taking off the rear wheel and fender, tweeking it and replacing all the hardware in preparation for a wild day/night out.
So my buddy stops by and off we go... stop to get some oil, hit the bar for a few cold ones. Hit the road again doing about 80 mph and starting to think maybe I should slow down a bit when our exit comes up, I start to lose control . The first thing I think is that its the rear wheel ...something I fucked up. So Im downshifting (jockey) hitting the brake with the bike all over the place. Managed to stay upright until I get to a stop. get off the bike and look at the rear wheel and everything looks fine so Im like wtf , maybe I hit a patch of oil or something, I go to get back on the bike and finally see the front tire is flat. Even though it was scary it was kind of a relief knowing I wasnt gonna have to spend alot of time or money to get my bike back on the road. So I get on my buddies bike and we 2 up like a couple of **** and trailer the bike home.
I guess it kinda worked out that I have no front brake cause I would have used it ( which Ive heard will put you right down with a front tire flat),thinking it was my rear wheel with the problem. First time Ive ever had a flat on my front tire.
Anybody got any other tips or stories that might help anyone else out.
 
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#2 ·
Wow.. Glad you didn't get hurt!

I don't have much to add except that i am obsessive about my tires, especially the front. I check it out constantly, whether glancing at it at stoplights, or pulling over after an especially bad pothole, etc...
That and i always carry a tire gauge.
I may be getting overly cautious as i get older, but your tires are the only thing separating you from a world of hurt.

What caused your flat by the way??
 
#11 ·
Wow.. Glad you didn't get hurt!

I don't have much to add except that i am obsessive about my tires, especially the front. I check it out constantly, whether glancing at it at stoplights, or pulling over after an especially bad pothole, etc...
That and i always carry a tire gauge.
I may be getting overly cautious as i get older, but your tires are the only thing separating you from a world of hurt.
Right on man , me too! I carry a gauge in my bag and check pressure at least once a week. I don't fuck around with tires!
 
#7 ·
Yikes that is scary for sure....I lost the front tire in a turn once gettin off the Hwy.....I could feel the bike slippin away but didnt know what happen...I just grabbed a handfull and ran out of it. Just thought I hit sand or something but when I pulled over to check my nerves, I saw the front tire just about flat.
Scary shit! Word of advice if it happens to you...Grab a handfulla throttle and get the weight to the back wheel. It'll get worse before it gets better so look for a soft spot to ditch, cause as you slow the wobble gets worse.
Glad your Ok Capino.
 
#8 ·
Hell yeah hat sucks! I had it happen on an old dirt bike and that wasn't even that fast. Maybe 40 or so. Death wobble like crazy. I shoved the bars forward as hard as I could and it slowed down fast enough to get it stoppped before I got thrown. I had cut the side wall in the trails and didn't notice the slice and the tube oozing out. POP!
Only problem with rolling on the gas is that you still have to slow down sometime.

I guess that's why you didn't make it to DC on Sat. Night?
 
#9 ·
I had a flat tire on the front of my '66 Triumph Bonneville Custom at the beginning of last summer while test riding it after finally getting it running nice and sweet...about a half mile from my house...going about 65 mph...the tire went flat all at once...the bike shot across the road like I had turned sharply to the left...whenever I tried to give it some rear brake, it would start shaking violently...had to keep giving it some throttle AND try to slow the evil bitch down...

When the tire flopped to the opposite side of the rim, the bike would head for the other shoulder just as hard as it did when it first went flat...I crossed the centerline of the road 3 times before I finally decided that if I was gonna dump it, it would be into the cornfield on my left...I finally got it steered towards the ditch that was about a foot deep and that's how I finally got stopped, by the front wheel diggin' in and running in the ditch with the tall weeds slapping the hell out of my legs....didn't hurt the bike at all....I got off and was shaking sooo fucking bad, I couldn't kick it started again....since I was close to home, I decided to just run it easy along the side of the road to get it back there...that fuckin' tire kept flopping back and forth from one side to the other and it was a miserable half mile to get back in my garage...

I seriously thought I bought the farm on that deal for sure...my asshole was puckered shut so bad, you couldn't have jackhammered a pin in there...I'm sure it all happened within a 5 second time period, but I swear it seemed like it took a couple minutes from the time the tire blew until I finally got it stopped...never did find anything wrong with the tire, but the tube inside was in pieces...

It was also a good thing there wasn't any cars coming the opposite way, because I crossed over that lane 3 times without wanting to...it was going too fast to stop it from doing what IT wanted to do, and like I said...anytime I touched the brake, it would get crazy and shake uncontrolably...

Alot of bizarre thoughts went through my mind in that short amount of time!!!...I remember praying to God AND cussing Queen Elizabeth and the whole British Empire...and, was looking around to see where they were gonna land the Helicopter for my ride to Baltimore's Shock Trauma Unit after I crashed....whew!!!...I don't want to go through that shit ever again!!!

Larry in MD
 
#16 ·
Radials and modern tires are way superior in handling but you can't beat the look of an Avon Speedmaster. The handle funny 'cause of ribbed config. They pull with little ruts and rain grooves in concrete but you get used to that. As far as safe goes, they are as safe as any other tire. As long as it's in good shape and not cracked and 40 years old.
 
#14 ·
had a buddy that decided he wanted a motorcycle... never rode in his life, went out and got a 750cc race replica. i had $50 that said he'd be in the hospital within a week. just a few days later, i was riding about 50' behind him when he hit a semi truck's blown off tread... his front tire blew to shreds...

we were well above 100mph... i kept thinking going that fast was a dumb ass idea, keeping in mind this dude had about 200 miles of riding under his belt... and wondering if he'd live through it to pay up on the bet :)

he rode it out. well.

when we came to a stop, there were chunks of the rim that were gone, one of the tire beads was wrapped around the fork, not much of any tire left, front fender broken and half missing.
he jumps off the bike, lights a cig and says "damn, that was a rush... think the rim is magnesium? sparks were rad! glad i rode BMX as a kid! i'm gonna go clean the shit out of my drawers, be right back!"
 
#19 ·
I guess it just part of the risks we take to get the look we want. Rigid frames, drum brakes, old stuff in general, you know the deal.

It's not like the bikes we put them on run 80+ all day long either. 65 for any sustained period is about the limit. Plenty of them out there in use without issue.
 
#20 ·
I hit a pothole on the way to Smokeout 8 ten miles before we got there. Same thing, I thought the rear was going flat and pointed to the rear to my friend. He said nope then looked at the front then pointed to the front tire. Turned out to be a slow leak... so we kept going looking for an auto parts store.. wobbly as shit. Went in and got a small air compressor and a couple alligator clips hooked it up to the battery and pumped up the tire. Ran it a few miles, pump, repeat till we got to the smokeout where there was a shop there changing tires. I went on the hunt for a new tube from the vendor isles, the bike got jacked up and fixed in ten minutes.:D
 
#23 ·
I was riding my friend's bike. Fresh paint, drag bars, jockey shift...rode through a couple of creeks...mossy, slippery, no problem. Get back up to speed and hit the biggest damn pothole ever. Flattened that front tire instantly. Someone had some flat fixer, pumped it in and damned if it wasn't coming out the mag wheel itself...I had cracked the wheel! So backtrack through the damn creeks with a flat front tire, get it to the nearest biker bar and call a buddy with a truck and we load it in. The friend I borrowed the bike from wasn't mad at the damage...he was mad that people at the bar saw HIS bike get loaded into a truck...how embarrassing. A midnight visit to our local 1%er clubhouse, bought a replacement wheel and all is forgiven. But how I kept from dumping his bike crossing mossy creeks with a flat tire?...I'll never know.
 
#27 ·
Well I found out the reason my tire went flat...the culpret was a cheap drag specialties inner tube , which was only 6 months old , it opened up at a seam, I replaced it with a dunlop innertube,
big difference in quality.
I never really knew or thought about it before, but never again will I run anymore cheap tubes! Lesson Learned.
 
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