Hill country blowout and GREAT help by a towing service!! (long)

If you ride Texas hill country, put this number in your wallet.
1-830-792-4240 Jimmy's Towing Service/Kerrville. Above and beyond
service. (I have no association with them or MTS)

Saturday afternoon about 3:00 just west of Medina. 25-30 miles from
Kerrville) our GoldWing GL1800 had a major rear tire blowout. Wife on
the back, we were going 70mph. Bike started to handle funny. Had to
slightly steer left to go straight. I was looking thru fairing openings
at the front shocks, thought I might have blown a fork seal. Marie just
said "does it feel rough...is that the road?". I let off the throttle a
bit...was going about 60 I'd guess when BOOM.... rear tire completely
blew. We started to fish tail. Back end came around...could see the
trunk way around off to my right ..right...left...right. Friends/riders
behind said we were also leaned over quite a bit (don't remember feeling
this). Into left lane and back as we fishtailed. I was wrestling the
handlebars...steering into the rear end slide (like driving on
ice...that Chicago training, felt like the natural thing to do
actually). It took some strength to hold it and fight the sliding to
each side. Thought we were gonna go completely sideways at 50-60 mph.
But suddenly it stabilized after 3 waggles. Ground to halt in our lane
after about 10 seconds & 100 yards of excitement. While fighting the
handlebars...I apparently opened the throttle ... spun the rim in the
tire (I think)...completely separated the tread from the sidewalls. My
rear was now in 3 pieces. In the middle of no where, now what????

Called my towing service ($15/year for 2 bikes... I pay for the tow).
They located one of their towing companies in Kerrville...about 25 miles
away. I called them. This was Sat afternoon...maybe 3:00

Above & Beyond service

They put me in contact with Jimmy of Jimmy's Towing Service in
Kerrville, towing service guy/owner. Jimmy called around... found a
GoldWing tire, bought it at a Harley dealer (they wouldn't stay open
late on Sat night to mount it). He called around to someone else in
Kerrville that would come back & open his shop & mount it.

He sent the flatbed. Dave the driver (owns 2 bikes) did a good/careful
job of tying the bike down. Took straighter roads back to Kerrville.
Jimmy met us at the 2nd cycle shop (mostly scooters maybe some smaller
sport bikes, manual tire changer like I have) with the tire . Got it
mounted. (had to help....they had no idea about doing a GoldWing tire.
Easy to dismount.. no axle, but they're like mounting a car tire
manually). I knew the torque values.

Found a small nail hole in the tire with 6200 miles on it. Must have
gone down enough slowly to overheat and blow the tire. I may have had
Ride On (the good stuff) tire sealer in it...not sure. Didn't look very
messy inside, but there was some material on the rim & inside the fender.

Back on the road by about 7:30, got back to Uvalde about 9:00. Drank a
lot!!!! A very scary 10 seconds for all of us.

If you ride the hill country...put this number in your wallet....
1-830-792-4240 Jimmy's Towing Service/Kerrville. Above and beyond
service. He only charged me $140 for the tow + cost of the tire and he
located & picked up the new tire. Saved us a LOT of hassle and got to
enjoy the ride home the next day. And get a towing service. I use
MTS: http://www.mtstowing.com/ (mention my name, Michael Adkins, Texas.
Think I get a free month or something). I only pay $15/year for 2
different brand bikes (I pay for the tow). Cheap insurance when you're
stranded away from home and they can locate someone for you! (at least
one of our cell phones worked there). It worked for me this past weekend.

Lesson Learned: if you think you bike isn't handling well...STOP NOW!
Don't try to analyze it while going 70MPH.

 

Good story, it's the kind of thing we all(at least me) have
nightmares about. The expediency with which you were
restored to riding position is commendable but, the most
important thing is that you/passenger were not injured.

Gary

 

blowout: my theory.....

I believe the tire went down enough for it to overheat while being run 2
up @ 70mph.

Found a small hole in the tread. I believe (although the inside tire was
quite clean, but rim had some stuff on it) I had put in Ride On Tire
Sealant. Possible that the tire went down some, then the Ride On sealed
the hole, built up pressure & heat...boom.

I really couldn't tell it was low (probably the stiff sidewall). Felt
fine @ 70mph until the last 20 seconds (lesson learned: should have
stopped right then. Don't try to diagnose @ 70mph). Then it started to
pull left....wife mentioned some roughness....I let off the throttle,
probably down to about 60mph and then BOOM (quite loud) and the fun started.

Here's a pic of the tire....3 separate pieces!!! Quite amazing. No
wonder it fishtailed!

http://www.thepartyfowl.com/misc/uvalde/images/IMG_5277.JPG

http://www.thepartyfowl.com/misc/uvalde/images/IMG_5278.JPG

Mike

 

also... the tread torn from the sidewall so cleanly was probably caused
by me throttling up while fighting the handlebars. My wife said she
heard the engine rev up. I can't imagine anything else. No rim damage
at all. The bike slowed down quite quickly. No more than 100 yards I
wouid estimate. We could see the black swerve marks on the road from
the fishtailing.

 

also... the tread torn from the sidewall so cleanly was probably caused
by me throttling up while fighting the handlebars. My wife said she
heard the engine rev up. I can't imagine anything else. No rim damage
at all. The bike slowed down quite quickly. No more than 100 yards I
would estimate. We could see the black swerve marks on the road from
the fishtailing.

 

tube tires are supposedly known more for blow outs. Often tubeless seal
around the object or go flat slower. Tubes loose air FAST (so I've
read...no direct experience)