redelk
Moderator
Please... speak to the hand.
Posts: 3212
|
posted December 10, 2001 09:17 AM
The bike gods smiled on me last Saturday!
Sometimes your lucky and sometimes your just DAMN LUCKY! I did something I normally don't do, last Saturday... let someone else ride my bike. Let me qualify that. Let someone with little "hyperbike" riding experence ride my bike. Usually, when someone I don't know or has little "hyperbike" riding experence asks to ride my bike, I tell them that after I "ride" their girlfriend or wife, I'll let them ride mine. That is if it's just as good. I assure them that it won't be, so don't bother.
Anyway, this guy I was riding with has an Yamaha FZ1 and was thinking about getting a 12R. He didn't ask to ride mine, I offered. I told him we'd ride a on our chosen route for a little bit and then we'd swap bikes. When we got to a part of the route that was going to be nothing but 40+ mph sweepers and no traffic, we pulled over and swapped bikes. I told him that I'd follow him (it's usually been the other way around).
We hadn't gone two miles before I notice something wrong with my rear tire (on the 12R). It looked like it was REAL LOW on air. I knew that couldn't be possible. I had checked the tire pressure right before I left my house and the tire only had about 650 miles on it. Plus, I out weigh him by at least 20~30 pounds. Everytime I closed in for a closer look, he'd speed up. A FZ1 is no match for a 12R in that catagory. I knew it just didn't look right, so I started honking the horn on his bike and was trying to get him to pull over. I tried to give him hand signals, but everytime I did, he'd either check the mirrors right before or right after I had given a hand signal.
When I pulled in to a gas station, he just kept going. Finally, he got caught behind a car and I had time to catch back up, as well as move in for a closer look. Yep, the rear tire looked like it had lost quite a bit of air. Right as I got close enough to confirm it, he passes the car doing about 80 or so. I pass the car and him. Now that I'm in front, I singal for him to pull over at the upcoming gas station. When I pull in and stop, he pulls in behind me. As we are getting of the bikes, he tells me that my bike is REAL twitchy and that he didn't think that he wanted a 12R after all.
I walk around to the back of my bike and my tire was low on air... IT WAS COMPLETELY FUCKIN' FLAT! This dude had been riding my baby for almost 10 miles, passing a car at 80+ and the rear tire was FLAT! When I tried to put some air into it, I heard a loud hissing noise. REAL LOUD! It didn't sound like a nail puncture. It wasn't. It was a 3/4" slit right in the middle of the tire. He or I must have run over a piece of glass while we were pulled over to swap bikes. It would have lost all of it's air instantly.
Normally, I would have gone ballastic, but I didn't. There were several reasons why. First, he didn't have that much "hyperbike" riding experience and he's never experienced a flat. Second, there was no damage to my rim and the tire looked fine (except for the slit). Third and most importantly, he didn't wreck my bike. Actually, I was blown away by the fact that not only did he not wreck my bike, but he passed a car and still kept the bike under control. That's why I thought it was just low on air. My baby still looked rock solid steady at 80 MPH, even though the tire was completely flat!
The was a "bonus" in the fact that we were only about 45 miles from my house. My daughter and her boyfriend had my truck and trailer there in less then an hour. Within four hours of getting the flat, I was "rescued", went home, yanked the tire off, went to my dealer, grabbed a tire out of "Red Elk's Secret Stash" (an area in thier parts dept. where I keep tires so I don't have to worry about them being out of stock) and I had it mounted and balanced and hour before they closed.
What makes it even my amazing is that Michelin has a road hazard warranty on the Pilot Sports. Now, all I gotta do is figure out how to make the claim. My dealer normally doesn't carry Michelins and they don't have a clue. Fortunatly, one of the guys at LA Busa used to be a Michelin distributor and he'll know what I'll need to do.
After all that happened, I think I (AND my riding buddy) could qualify as... DAMN LUCKY!
____________
There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.
-Ernest Hemingway
   
|
zx9r
Expert Class
Posts: 227
|
posted December 10, 2001 09:48 AM
damn, what a story. Thank God!!!!!!!! your baby is still ok!!! it would have been terrible and your buddy would have felt so guilty and may have been smashed up himself...
he probably didnt know how the bike felt before. so he couldnt have know that it didnt feel the way it was supposed to. geeeeeeeze you guys are lucky..
____________
-----00 GREEN 1270-----
|
macnas
Expert Class
Posts: 102
|
posted December 10, 2001 10:40 AM
Do you get to ride his wife now???
|
zx9r
Expert Class
Posts: 227
|
posted December 10, 2001 10:51 AM
LOL ,,,,,,, if you do.... YOU BETTER HOPE SHE'S NOT LEAKING AIR!!! 
____________
-----00 GREEN 1270-----
|
DaveInDaytona
Pro
Posts: 1696
|
posted December 10, 2001 11:08 AM
Good story Red. I want to hear about the road hazard deal. I lost a rear tire too while I was at the speedway between sessions. There were two 30 minute morning sessions and two 30 minute afternoon ones. Right after the second morning one I road to my trailer, took off the gloves and helmet and road my bike over to the grill in the paddock to get lunch. After I ate I jumped on to ride back to the trailer and get my gear and when I leaned a little the back end felt like the tire was made of clay. I stopped and hopped off to take a look and it was flat. I took it back to my trailer, threw it on a stand and pulled the wheel and went to the Michelin garage. They slapped a new on on it and I was on my way. You know what a tire looks like after it's been melted on the track and all the rubber is sticking to it, well that was this one. Other than that it was on good shape, it still had plenty of tread.
I was pissed at first, but the more I thought about it the more I felt glad that it let go a few minutes earlier than it did. Going flat while I was choking down a chicken sandwich was a lot better than going flat at speed on the track.
Funny, the Michelin rep didn't mention road hazard while he was swapping the tire, I guess racing conditions don't apply. Let us know how you do.
Dave
____________
DaytonaSportbikes Forum
|
speedgeek
Novice Class
Fast Enough
Posts: 44
|
posted December 10, 2001 11:10 AM
Glad everything worked out!
Be thankful you didn't run into some serious curves!
|
12RPilot
Pro
Posts: 1094
|
posted December 10, 2001 11:10 AM
Sounds like side wall stiffness saved the day. I've often wondered what a blowout would do to me. Now I gotta wonder if other tires would hold up as well.
____________
If you aren't an AMA member, you're part of the problem.
NESBA #209
http://www.bikepics.com/members/12rpilot/04zx10r/
 
|
frEEk
Administrator
ummm... yeah
Posts: 9660
|
posted December 10, 2001 05:46 PM
wow, amazed it could run so well with a flat. ur buddy must be thinkin twice eh! flat tire & it still runs ok, just "twitchy"
btw, was that with the 180?
|
redelk
Moderator
Please... speak to the hand.
Posts: 3212
|
posted December 10, 2001 08:42 PM
Yeah, that was the 180/55
I believe there a two positive notes about it being a 180 versus a 200...
1. From the looks of the cut, it probably would have gone through the "extra belt" of a 200. If it didn't, it would have meant that I'd (or my buddy) would be riding 200 miles on a tire that would have been cut right to that "extra belt" and neither of us would have known it. If it blew out while one of us was riding, there ending might not have been so "happy".
2. The cost of replacing it (if I don't get to "claim" it) was a LOT less then it would have been, if it was replaced with a 200.
I've e-mail the guy about the road hazard warranty, but I haven't heard back from him yet.
|
ITrust
Parking Attendant
Posts: 28
|
posted December 20, 2001 07:21 PM
glad you and the bike are ok.
____________
Trust in the One and Only.
|
ZXtra
Expert Class
Posts: 490
|
posted December 21, 2001 12:04 AM
Wow! Lucky indeed!
This is really the only thing that worries me about riding: tire failure. It's good to know that there's not a complete total loss of control.
Thanks Redelk!  -ZXtra
____________
The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick!
|
Hawkman
Zone Head
Posts: 747
|
posted December 21, 2001 12:10 AM
I've had two instances when my rear tire went completely flat. There's no way you can keep it steady. The ass end is all over the fuckin' place. I'm talking FLAT as fuck/wheel off the rim type shit.
|
Red1
Expert Class
Posts: 442
|
posted December 21, 2001 08:50 AM
Glad that you and the bike are okay...that's the important thing.
|
redelk
Moderator
Please... speak to the hand.
Posts: 3212
|
posted December 21, 2001 09:39 AM
Oh yes there is, Hawkman!
It just requires something that just about no of the members here have... ignorance. I'm not slamming my buddy's intelligence, for he is far smarter then I am. It's just that he had no knowledge of what a bike would act like with a completely flat tire. This was not a slow leak. It was completely flat when he first started off. When I tried to put air in it, it went from close to 50 psi to 0 psi in less then 3 seconds. There was no way this tire would have held any amount of air.
I too, have both experienced slow air loss and a serious blow out on a tire. Serious as in a 3 1/2" slit across the rear tire, due to a metal banding strap. Needless to say, the air loss was instantanious. So, I am very familiar on a bike's handling characteristics under these conditions. This brings me to my point on "experience vs. ignorance".
I still don't see how there would be ANYWAY that I (speaking just for myself) could pilot a bike at speed, with a completely flat rear (or even worse... a front) tire. The act of just unloading my bike from the trailer and riding it into my garage was hard enough. This is what makes the event all the more amazing.
Here I do the unthinkable and let someone who's never been on a bike of the hyperbike class. I had just handed the keys to one of the world's fastest motorcycles to this person and the rear tire was completely flat! I wouldn't even hand the keys to MYSELF in these circumstances. To be able to go almost 10 miles and pass a car to boot is totally unbelievable. If someone had told me this, I'd have a simple response... BULLSHIT!
The thing is, I road his FZ1, right behind him, for every inch of those 10 miles and saw it with my own disbelieving eyes. The fact that the tail of my bike wasn't all over the place was the only reason I was questioning myself if the tire was flat or just low on air. Do you REALLY think that I'd let someone ride "my baby" with a flat? No matter how little or much experience they had? It's all so funny, but that is ONLY due to the outcome.
My buddy did not wreck thus he wasn't hurt (ore even worse) and my bike was undamaged. It's almost impossible to even imagine the outcome being anything even close to this. The only downside is that I have not been able to find out how I can possibly make that "road hazard" warranty claim. It looks like I'm going to have to break down and actually pay for the tire I replaced it with.
Now would I say that this proves that the 12R can be ridden with a flat? NO WAY!!! Just because I saw it done with my own eye, in no way convinces me that it could be done again. Nor would I EVER try to do it myself. To make the "story" even funnier, my riding buddy just picked up his brand new '01 silver 12R yesterday. Go figure.
____________
There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.
-Ernest Hemingway
|
|
|
|
|
HOME
NEW TOPIC