It was 60+ degrees this afternoon in NC, so I went out for a little ride on the S1000XR. Went from Lexington to High Point on Business I-85, then headed for home on regular I-85. I was running about 80, in the middle lane (of 3). I put in an input to the bike, and it didn't react like it was supposed to. At all. I figured I had a flat, so I tried to get over to the shoulder with a minimum of additional inputs. There was a tractor trailer on my right, who saw that I was having some trouble. But he slowed down, basically preventing me from getting to the shoulder. Several cars came up hot behind me and passed on both left and right.. I finally got behind the truck and made it to the shoulder.. When I got stopped, I saw that there was basically zero air pressure in the rear tire.
My tire plug stuff was all in the R12GS, so I called Beth and asked her to bring it to me. It was sort of equivalent to if she had called me and tried to tell me how to deliver a baby.. But, amazingly, she showed up about a half hour later with the proper equipment . She got there right after a State Trooper pulled in behind me. Beth dropped the tools and then took off, but Trooper Lawrence stayed with me until I got rolling. Like I said, this was a first time experience for me, with a flat on the highway, so I'm not real familiar with how to operate the Plugger device that I have (a gift from Brian Smith). But I got it figured out quickly enough, and got a mushroom-cap plug in place. The Cycle Pump worked fine, and I got it pumped up. There was a bit of a leak around the plug, but not real fast. I told the trooper that I had to ask myself one question: Do I feel lucky, punk? I did, so I headed for home, 15 miles off. I had 42 pounds in the tire when I started for home, and 24 pounds when I got here. Clean living!
I think I'll be ordering a set of tires this week. If the hole's too big for one plug, I don't want to mess with it. Road 5s, right Mani?
Getting the bike to the side of the road and stopped was pretty squirrelly. It'll be all right with me if I don't have to do that again.
My tire plug stuff was all in the R12GS, so I called Beth and asked her to bring it to me. It was sort of equivalent to if she had called me and tried to tell me how to deliver a baby.. But, amazingly, she showed up about a half hour later with the proper equipment . She got there right after a State Trooper pulled in behind me. Beth dropped the tools and then took off, but Trooper Lawrence stayed with me until I got rolling. Like I said, this was a first time experience for me, with a flat on the highway, so I'm not real familiar with how to operate the Plugger device that I have (a gift from Brian Smith). But I got it figured out quickly enough, and got a mushroom-cap plug in place. The Cycle Pump worked fine, and I got it pumped up. There was a bit of a leak around the plug, but not real fast. I told the trooper that I had to ask myself one question: Do I feel lucky, punk? I did, so I headed for home, 15 miles off. I had 42 pounds in the tire when I started for home, and 24 pounds when I got here. Clean living!
I think I'll be ordering a set of tires this week. If the hole's too big for one plug, I don't want to mess with it. Road 5s, right Mani?
Getting the bike to the side of the road and stopped was pretty squirrelly. It'll be all right with me if I don't have to do that again.
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