Unrepairable Tire

Rickster · Apr 1, 2007

I had a problem a while ago, but didn't show pics. so here they are.

No matter what kind of on-the-road inflater you come up with (like: slime compressor, or C02 inflate (I like ultraflate), strings or mushroom plugs etc.)

You can always get stranded. Look into a service (search, some recommend AAA RV Plus, or mtstowing.com, or I heard good things about the goodsamers.com -- you read and figure out what's best) just in case this happens to you.

cell-phone cam pics of the tire -- so the quality isn't so good. This was non-repairable on the side of the road. I was forced to trailer it.

Rear Tire -- at night -- got squishy -- stopped to check it out -- no worries -- I have ultraflate and string plugs! used them many times -- a quick plug and some air -- i'll be on my way -- right????? WRONG!!!!

When I was able to get the tire off -- this was INSIDE!

This piece of rusty steel metal punctured the tire, and was rattling around in between the tire and wheel!

FlyingLow · Apr 1, 2007

Well, let's just hope that you took one for the team here and negated any bad karma floating around and that way all of us riding to WFO or the other FOs don't run over any railroad spikes or pickaxes along the way.

jestal · Apr 1, 2007

Yikes. I don't think my emergency bottle of Slime (to use after the string and patches fail) would have fixed that!!!

FJRMGM · Apr 2, 2007

wow - that was a bad one. At least it wasn't something small like a staple.

That tire had no chance against that piece of metal.

ionbeam · Apr 2, 2007

Glad you had a gentle let-down in spite of the severity of the puncture! That sure had the opportunity to not go as well as it did. ME-6 or Diablo? While needing a trailer sucks, it could have been worse, that was quite a chunk of metal you picked up.

I started my riding back in the days of tube tires, and they let me experience the thrills of immediate, explosive blow-outs where one second the world is fine at 24 psi and the next you are on the rim at 0 psi. This truly gets all your senses and your adrenaline system maxed out in milliseconds. I really appreciate the way modern radial tubeless tires normally deflate in a slow, controlled way.

radman · Apr 2, 2007

We have pulled every manner of foreign objects from tires, including a pair of scissors, wrenches, and a chunk of what we could best determine was the snout off a small block Chev water pump. It's a dangerous world out there........

ionbeam · Apr 2, 2007

We have pulled every manner of foreign objects from tires...It's a dangerous world out there

[thread degeneration] Our niece managed to get a huge cast iron skillet stuck up in the wheel well of her car, the handle went though the tire and locked up the front wheel. This happened on a major 6 lane highway, in an unpopulated area. Guess we need to start a new 'Flat Tire Caused By' thread. In honor of this thread starter, the ridiculousness of the flattening object will me measured on the Rickster Scale. I would place his Deflation Object (DO) at roughly 5.0 on the open ended Rickster scale. [/thread degeneration]

rogdeb · Apr 3, 2007

ionbeam said:
We have pulled every manner of foreign objects from tires...It's a dangerous world out there

Click to expand...

[thread degeneration] Our niece managed to get a huge cast iron skillet stuck up in the wheel well of her car, the handle went though the tire and locked up the front wheel. This happened on a major 6 lane highway, in an unpopulated area. Guess we need to start a new 'Flat Tire Caused By' thread. In honor of this thread starter, the ridiculousness of the flattening object will me measured on the Rickster Scale. I would place his Deflation Object (DO) at roughly 5.0 on the open ended Rickster scale. [/thread degeneration]

E1Allen · Apr 3, 2007

I'd Frame it.

Grumpy · Apr 3, 2007

Rickster, at least you know what caused your ruined tire. The last flat I had was caused by some unknown something that put a hole in the middle of the rear tread that I could literally put my small finger thru. Never did find out what caused the hole. Needless to say there were no roadside repairs....it was call a friend with a trailer.

jim

Rickster · Apr 3, 2007

yeah grumpy -- makes me want to get some sort of road side assistance -- I'll start a new thread to ask.

tmonroe · Aug 12, 2009

Great discussion.

Has anybody considered adding a small spray bottle of soapy water to their tire kit? You spray the water on the tire, and you'll see bubbles where its leaking. You can use this to find a leak, or to check to make sure your repair is holding air.

Patriot · Aug 12, 2009

tmonroe said:
Great discussion.
Has anybody considered adding a small spray bottle of soapy water to their tire kit? You spray the water on the tire, and you'll see bubbles where its leaking. You can use this to find a leak, or to check to make sure your repair is holding air.

nah, my soapy spray bottle is called "spit on it"

happyPuppy · Aug 12, 2009

nah, my soapy spray bottle is called "spit on it"

Excellent, it is easy to carry and a almost limitless supply. Sunday is was riding the backroads and a youngin' on a SB was fixing his tire and I stopped to see if they needed help. He said the bikes rear end was slipping and he thought it had a leak. He was using WD-40 to find it. I pointed out it was not a good idea. We checked the pressure and it was under 10 psi. Pulled the pump out and filled it up for him and gave him a old shop towel and told him to start cleaning and ride home real slow... I ran over a spark plug socket once , and it made a fine hole and killed my tire with a lot of tread left too.

Auburn · Aug 12, 2009

The worst thing I picked up has been a 9/16" combo wrench in the rear tire on my ZRX 1100. Thankfully I was only 2 blocks from home.

Zorlac · Aug 13, 2009

At least you got a wrench out of it.

Auburn · Aug 13, 2009

Zorlac said:
At least you got a wrench out of it.

Yep, still have it. It is a Craftsman that is pre-bent so you can adjust the distribtor on Chevy 350's. B) But is was kind of an expensive wrench.

ionbeam · Aug 13, 2009

Another thread dredged up from the way past.

Last fall I picked up a large chunk of glass in my rear tire, I was fortunate that the tire was just about worn out when this happened. From the outside it looked like a small hole but when the tire was taken off and viewed from the inside there was a cut almost 2" long in the tire carcass, with many cut cords sticking out. It would have been major ungood to have plugged this tire and ridden with it in a normal fashion.

On another motorcycle I picked up a staging nail in the center of the tire. The nail and first head went clear through to the inside of the tire, locking it in place. Every time my tire completed a revolution the nail punched a hole in the sidewall. After a few revolutions it perforated a nearly circular area over an inch in diameter. Since I was traveling >60 mph it took out the sidewall in almost no time. This was the first time that I had experience a total blow-out. I was on a 4 lane highway in the fast lane during heavy rush hour traffic. One second everything is right with the world, and the next second I was having long lurid fishtailing in and out among all the now scattering cars. It was a b!tch to ride it over to the shoulder. Just as I was coming to a stop the tire came off the bead. If that had happened just a second or two earlier I would have been done'fer.

Duplex, staging or double headed nails:

racer · Aug 13, 2009

I picked up a three inch steel lip from a grader blade in the rear of my KLR, 42 miles in on the Denali Highway, a 135 long gravel road through the middle of Alaska. Luckily, I had another inner tube, and a large boot patch for the inside of the tire. Took me two hours to fix in the rain and only two cars came by. Both stopped but were unable to help.

Unrepairable Tire

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