OH NO, A BLOWOUT!!!! (don't try this at home)

May 2006

I worked hard Friday night and Saturday morning so that I could enjoy the one nice day of weather we were going to have for a while.  I cut the grass, cleaned up the garage, and got a little overdue maintenance performed on some of my lawn equipment.  I also took 30 minutes to debate the finer points of Christianity with the local Jehovah's Witness that stops at my residence from time to time.  By 1:00PM Saturday I was ready to ride.

My first stop was my local Honda dealer just to see what was going on.  I saw a couple of friends from my church motorcycle club as well as a co-worker who was buying his first street bike, a 2001 Yamaha V-Star 650.  After watching him nervously ride around the dealership a couple of times, I thought it best that I follow him home to make sure everything went smoothly.  He made the ride fine, I gave a couple of pointers, and got ready to move along.  We made a joke that his temporary tag read "060606" and how we hoped that wasn't some kind of bad omen.  Keep note of that for later.

Finally I'm off on my ride.  Today I decided to take one of my favorite routes up to a local lake.  This route has plenty of twistys and you're hard pressed to see any LEOs, so I was ready for a spirited ride.  Since I was riding alone, I made sure to tell someone what my planned route was and when I'd be returning home.  The weather was perfect at a nice 70 degrees and partly cloudy.  The roads were nice and clear and riding alone gave me time to just enjoy the sport of motorcycling.  I was really in my element. 

I arrive at a nice log cabin restaurant at the lake where I always stop to eat and jack jaw with the other riders who frequent this establishment.  The road to the restaurant is extremely curvy, rivaling Deal's Gap, only shorter, so I make it a habit to check my tires over after the run to see how much more of the "chicken strip" I've worn down.  Today I was glad to see the Michelin Man's head starting to go on my new Pilot Powers.  To my dismay I see a drywall screw stuck in the dead center of my tire.  CRAP, I thought.  Now what.  I felt the area and listened for leaking air and didn't hear anything, so I decided I'd eat lunch and check it when I came back out.  I  ordered up a chili cheese dog, iced honey bun, and a diet Rock Star energy drink to make up for all the calories in that dern honey bun.  I sat down and enjoyed my quick snack.

I stepped back outside with the remainder of my Rock Star and honey bun to ease back on the front porch of this cool little eatery.  I chewed the fat with another rider on an R1 and we discussed the finer points of our bikes.  I checked my rear tire and it seemed fine.  No discernable air had escaped and there was no sound of air leaving the area around the screw so I decided I'd continue my ride, but at a much more conservative pace.  I hop on my bike and start to tick toc down the road and notice my mileage is 6666 on the ODO.  Hmmm, second time today I've seen that pattern, I hope it's not a sign of things to come.

Now I'm by no means a superstitious person, but I decided I'd really take it easy at this point.  Instead of riding at 80-85% I cut it back to 50%.  I had about 100 miles to go to get back home and I'd told my lovely girlfriend Renee' that I'd be back by 7:00pm, otherwise send an ambulance.  I continued to ride the twistys enjoying the beautiful scenery and weather and waving at the occasional farmer out bush hogging on his tractor.  I came back into the town of Lebanon, TN right on schedule at 5:00PM and stopped to check the tire and hit the head.  The tire looked fine and with my other business complete, I was on my way.  I had a decision to make.  Either take the long back roads for their curves and scenary, or hit the interstate for it's efficiency and get back to the house.  With it getting close to dusk and the deer tending to wander quite readily this time of year I decided I'd hit the interstate, and thank God I did.

I started off on I-40 without incident.  I rode this for about five miles then merged on to I-840 which is a bypass and less traveled by motorists.  It's long and straight, but very efficient at getting me back to my house quickly.  I roll on the merge ramp and give the bike a little more throttle passing the two cars merging along side me.  I roll on to I-840 bound for good o'l Smyrna, TN.  The speed limit is 70MPH, but this is a pretty desolate stretch of highway, so I run it up to 80MPH on pace with the other cages sharing the road.  I'm cruising along doing my normal scan of the highway looking for debris, cars, people, whatever.  All of a sudden I feel the rear of the bike start to act up.  It starts off very subtle, swaying from side to side, then gets pretty violent.  I think OH CRAP the tire has blown.  I easily roll off the throttle and shift my weight toward the front of the bike.  I keep telling myself "no rear brake, no rear brake" as I gently squeeze the front brake lever.  I take a quick look over my right shoulder to check for traffic, hit the turn signal, and start to head for the shoulder.  Luckily this section of interstate sees light traffic and I made it to the shoulder without incident.  Things were OK until I dropped under about 40MPH and hit the rumble strip on the side of the highway.  At that point the bike started jolting all over the place and I just hung on for the ride.  Finally it came to a stop.  It seems that the tire spinning at a constant 80MPH was enough to eject the screw leaving the hole in my brand new  tire.

I hopped off and sure enough the rear tire was as flat as a pancake.  I took a minute to collect my thoughts and decide what to do.  I remembered I had an HRCA membership and decided I'd give Honda a call.  I'd just renewed my HRCA membership and thought now was as good a time as any to test out the service.  The young man that answered the phone took my information, asked if the vehicle and me were safe, and proceeded to get road side assistance sent my way.  This young man was very courteous, however it puzzled me that a Honda customer service rep had no idea what a CBR1000RR was, much less what color the Repsol Edition was.  Oh well, I explained to him that the bike was orange, blue, red, and white, and that it was one of their high performance sport bikes.  He then proceeds to ask me how big it is.  I was like HUH????  "Ok dood, it's small enough to fit in the back of a pickup truck", I replied.  40 minutes later a flat bed tow truck was there to get me.

After explaining to the 71 year old tow truck operator the best way to hook up the bike to his vehicle, we were on our way to my house.  I don't fault the driver at all.  He'd hauled a lot of bikes, just not any sport bikes.  He couldn't believe that my suggestion of hooking the ratchet straps to the handle bars actually worked and thanked me for teaching him something new.  Once we arrived at my residence, I snapped a couple of photos and we unloaded the bike.  He took my VIN and mileage so Honda could pay him for the tow, and off he went.  This one mishap paid for my HRCA membership as I did not have to shell out one dime since the tow was only 19 miles. 

At this point I can't even say I'm really upset by the flat tire.  Yes, it was a brand new rear tire.  Yes I did have to deal with a Honda rep who has no idea about Honda products, and yes I did have to sit on the side of the interstate for 40 minutes with a thunder storm approaching.  However, me and the bike made it home unscathed.  I was thankful that I didn't fall off the bike, and that the tow was on a flat bed truck.  My guardian angel was riding co-pilot today, no doubt.  I'm thankful I'm here to tell this tale and will be able to ride another day.  I've also learned a valuable lesson:  Ride VERY conservatively on a punctured tire, and get help immediately.  This could have been much worse, so those reading this learn from my stupidity. 

Now I just gotta decide what to do about this tire.  Get it patched, from the inside of course, or buy a new one.  This tire was just put on the bike 500 miles ago, so hopefully it can be patched safely.  I'm 90% sure I'll get a new tire just to be safe.  I'll research it a little and update this page with what I decide.

UPDATE May 31, 2006

I decided to replace the tire for safety's sake.  Just to be sure there was no default road hazard warranty on the tire, I decided to give Michelin a call to ask.  I was told there was no default warranty, however they offered to reimburse me 50% of the cost of my new tire.  I just had to fax them a copy of my receipt.  I was shocked.  I purchased my new tire from www.superbikesupply.com and faxed the receipt to Michelin.  I had a check for 50% of the cost of the new tire within a week.  This good will from Michelin, not to mention the Pilot Powers are awesome tires, have secured me as a loyal Michelin customer.

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