I commute on I95 on my KLR from Bawlmer to Silver Spring. I'm gonna have nightmares from here on out - I have a used tube in the rear tire!
I had the same happen this spring on my beloved Elite 250. Got slowed from 60+ to about 20-25 with it fishtailing like hell when it finally pitched me off. No harm to me , a little scuffing on my boots and jacket and minor scrapes on the scoot. The psychylogical damage however was harder to shake. I swear ,everything I rode for a month afterwards felt like the assend was woozey.I bet I pulled over a dozen times and checked for low tire pressure in the following weeks. Weird how the mind works.
Well I finally got the wheel off and dismounted the tire. I was hoping for absolution and that I would discover massive damage from road debris. However, that is not the case. Tire is slightly mishapen from flatenning at speed but there is not a mark on it. Beads look good and interior seems fine. The obvious culprit is the valve stem that was completely yet neatly torn off the tube. Rest of the tube looks great and I could not discern any additional holes or punctures. My 2 ounces of dynabeads are still happily rolling around inside the stemless tube. Soooooo, my lesson here as the man earlier states is to use new tubes everytime I mount new tires. I made special pains to make sure the external valve stem nut was not tight against the rim as I heard that can sometimes lead to shearing if the tire slips on the rim. I think I'll try to remount the tire with a new tube and see what that looks like. The tire might be deformed or out of round. Toe color is more normal with less swelling, pain and throbbing. Still bleeding at the nail but seems to be getting better. Course of antibiotics complete and a big bottle of percocet left over for a "rainy day". Any other words of wisdom, possible hypotheses or general abuse? VAC
Hi Mike, WOW, sorry bout the crash.....glad you are OK. My 02 is to use GOOD brand name tubes...not Bikemaster or whatever is cheapest. Use tire brand tubes IE Dunlop, Metzeler, Moose, etc. Real good rubber tubes. I use the Moose heavy duty tubes in the dirt bike. Also, Install a rim lock.!!! I can guide you for the install. It keeps the tire from rotating and tearing the stem in the event of super power wheelies or low tire pressure..... CIAO Eric
Thinking the tire was low,maybe 10psi or less. Probably from a leaking valve stem. Tire migrate around the rim until it finally tore the valve stem completely off.
Those cursed beads! I've had the same thing happen with my front tire and I was even using those special filter valves. I was fortunate that I didn't go down. Dump the beads.
Hey, glad it was only the toe. I need to upgrade on footware for myself! Alot of bikers in this area, New Braunfels, Texas, wear sneakers, but for the most part I see cowboy or work boots, being worn. Always, go with the gear. Get better, and be safe.
I had a similar failure with a tubed race slick on my XR650R Supermoto when I was using it at the track- the rear tire suddenly went flat at speed and I drifted wildly through s few corners before successfully stopping the bike. Once back at the pits I found the stem had torn free of the tube and the tire had spun on the rim. I was also using Dynabeads, and I discovered a single bead to be lodged up under the Schrader valve when I fished all of the bits out of the tire. I suspect the bead got under the valve stem and caused the tire to gradually bleed pressure, and once sufficient pressure was lost the torque on the wheel was enough to spin the tire and tear the valve stem off of the tube, leading to an instant flat. I thought at the time that I may have caused the failure by adjusting the tire pressure with the valve stem at the bottom 6 o'clock position, and that in so doing may have blown a bead into the core of the schrader valve. However, I would think that this would have caused a persistent and audible leak, and I would hope that that's the sort of thong I would notice. So now I'm not certain as to the mechanism by which the bead got up under the valve core- but I do believe that this is what lead to the tire going flat. There had been endless discussion about the pros and cons of Dynabeads- and I'm not trying to add fuel to that fire. This is just a failure that happened to me, and it looks very similar to the one you experienced.
Do not discount chance during inflation as the mechanism. When I worked nights for QuikTrip, I once made a money drop into the safe, and it bounced just right and tripped the door open switch (normally operable only by a key possessed by the armored car company), leaving a couple of thousand dollars just sitting there in the open. I couldn't believe what happened, so I investigated the mechanism while the safe was open (and I had to yank the just-dropped envelope out of the back of the keyswitch, anyway). Turns out that the inside of the keyswitch wasn't shrouded and the contacts were exposed. I closed it up and pushed the Door button to re-lock the safe, then told my manager about the incident the next day.
I drive an18 wheeler for a living and cant think of many places worse than that to go down. glad you made it. Is progressive doing a good job getting you fixed up? if I had to guess, you're gonna end up with a little extra farkle money! interested to hear if afx will replace the helmet as mentioned earlier. keep us posted. john
