Scary Rear Tire Deflation at 80mph

[DaveDragon]

On I75 just South of SR50, while at or very near 80mph the back tire of the DragonFly attempted to pass the front!
It felt like I was sliding on Ice.
One heck of a lot of traffic and I had visions of Griff & Barbara flashing through my mind.:eek:
I managed to get the LT off the side of the road and stopped to find the rear tire had four (4) punctures!
Three had sealed from the Ride-On TPS but the forth would not.
Dug the tire plugger gun out of the tool kit and worked in one of the mushroom plugs, slapped on the compressor and it held firm at 48 PSI.
Total side-of-the-road time = 25 minutes.
I then road the rest of the way into the office in Tampa (35 miles), checked the pressure when the tire cooled down and it's holding at 47psi.

I have a new set of BT020s in the garage so I'll swap them out this week before heading to Hotlanta Friday for the show.

What a day.

[shakatac]

Glad to hear you made it in safe.

[DavidTaylor]

That's a scary one, Dave. Glad you made it through that OK.

[lavamanz]

Dave, glad to hear you were able to get it under control after the blowout, and that you had everything to take care of the flat. Has anything like this happened before where you had to fix a flat along side the road?

[nawlinsjohn]

I managed to get the LT off the side of the road and stopped to find the rear tire had four (4) punctures!
Three had sealed from the Ride-On TPS but the forth would not.

I have a friend who uses Ride-on. Do you use it also to balance the tires?

[DaveDragon]

Dave, glad to hear you were able to get it under control after the blowout, and that you had everything to take care of the flat. Has anything like this happened before where you had to fix a flat along side the road?
This is the first time I've actually had a flat on the LT!
I have been running Ride-On TPS for two years now and have pulled several screws, nails, wire, etc from the tires without a flat.

The four holes were just more than the TPS could handle I guess or the one that didn't seal was just too big for the TPS to deal with.

[DaveDragon]

I managed to get the LT off the side of the road and stopped to find the rear tire had four (4) punctures!
Three had sealed from the Ride-On TPS but the forth would not.

I have a friend who uses Ride-on. Do you use it also to balance the tires?

I balance the the tires using a Marc Parnes Balancer, then pull the valve stems and insert the TPS.

So I guess I use it more for the sealing qualities.

[DaveDragon]

That's a scary one, Dave. Glad you made it through that OK.

Thanks, Can Rick Mayer replace the dohnut holes in the saddle?http://www.bmwlt.com/forums/images/icons/icon10.gif

[DaveDragon]

Glad to hear you made it in safe.
As we said before you left Lynn's "God Willing", I guess he was!http://www.bmwlt.com/forums/images/icons/icon7.gif

[afrobiker2]

Glad to hear you're still here! Thank God he watches over us. Keep the Tank Bag side up bro.

[messenger13]

Would've happened with Metzelers! :D :D :D

Glad to hear you're still in one piece Dave . . . and Dragonfly too.

[DaveDragon]

The rear tire was still holding 46psi this morning, but I decided to take the truck.
No need to push my luck, I'll swap the tires this afternoon.

[messenger13]

Wimp! :D

[DaveDragon]

Wimp! :D
Yup, thats Me, Wimpy http://www.bmwlt.com/forums/images/icons/icon12.gif

[DaveDragon]

Got home and yanked the wheels off to make a discovery.
I thought it was 4 punctures, actually 7! :eek:

Still holding 49psi.
Anyone doubt Ride-On TPS works? Not Me!

#3 shows a nail still in place.

[messenger13]

Anyone doubt Ride-On TPS works? Not Me!What?! The title of the thread is "Scary Rear Tire Deflation at 80mph". :eek: If it worked so great...why the flat tire?!?! :confused:



Of course...I'm only joking. Lighten up people! :D

[meese]

Geez Dave, what the heck did you run over? Or was it that shortcut through the scrap yard / construction site that did you in?

[tazz56]

Hey Dave,
Glad ya made it. I'm defintely putting that sealer stuff in my tires when I get another LT. I'm still using a cane, but it's better than the wheelchair, altho not quite as fast downhill.
Take care,
Jeff Johnson

[rdtebeau]

Dave,
Glad you were unhurt. Hope you get the seat repaired.

I was thinking that the tire sealants were supposed to seal the tire quickly to prevent this type of deflation from happening and one of the reasons for using it. Course, then you wouldn't know that your tire was full of screws,etc or punctures unless you performed a perodic inspection. I guess there are benefits and drawbacks like everything else.

Again, glad you are okay and thanks for sharing your experience.

[DaveDragon]

Dave,
Glad you were unhurt. Hope you get the seat repaired.

I was thinking that the tire sealants were supposed to seal the tire quickly to prevent this type of deflation from happening and one of the reasons for using it. Course, then you wouldn't know that your tire was full of screws,etc or punctures unless you performed a perodic inspection. I guess there are benefits and drawbacks like everything else.

Again, glad you are okay and thanks for sharing your experience.

Under "Normal" single puncture events the TPS seals it and you never know about it until you inspect the tires.
The TPS sealed all but the largest puncture, the one I had to plug.
It was spitting out of the hole when I got the LT stopped.
I'm really surprised the Mushroom plug sealed the #2 hole.

[dshealey]

Geez Dave, what the heck did you run over? Or was it that shortcut through the scrap yard / construction site that did you in?

Shhhh. No one is supposed to know. (Spike Strip). Hope they don't find you Dave. Wanna hide at my place for a while? ;)

[tmgs]

Got home and yanked the wheels off to make a discovery.
I thought it was 4 punctures, actually 7! :eek:

Still holding 49psi.
Anyone doubt Ride-On TPS works? Not Me!

#3 shows a nail still in place.

Awesome Dave, that sounds like good stuff, i might jujst look into that soon

Tom

[beemerlt]

Under "Normal" single puncture events the TPS seals it and you never know about it until you inspect the tires.
Exactly the reason I'd never use the stuff. I'd rather know, and admit to being lazy about checking my tyres at every pitstop.

[DaveDragon]

Exactly the reason I'd never use the stuff. I'd rather know, and admit to being lazy about checking my tyres at every pitstop.
I do check my tires before I ride and had just left a Tech Session where several folks had crawled all over the DragonFly as we tend to do http://www.bmwlt.com/forums/images/icons/icon10.gif checking out each other's Farkles.

I stopped for petrol 10 minutes before I entered the Highway where the "Event" happened and at that stop I kicked the Tires, Front & Rear again.

There had been no indication of low tire pressure from the handling/performance and I Ride-It-Like-I-Stole-It, so I think I would have noticed a low tire pressure condition.

The Front tire had punctures as well but never lost pressure.

When I fitted the new tires Wednesday I had a chance to examine the inside of the old carcasses and found a few nails, screws and a piece of an aluminium wall anchor (The type that spreads when the screw is run in, used to mount things to a wall).

I installed the TPS in the new tires as well after balancing them.

I have no affiliation with this company, just enjoy it's proven track record.

[beemerlt]

I stopped for petrol 10 minutes before I entered the Highway where the "Event" happened and at that stop I kicked the Tires, Front & Rear again.
I'm glad your story had a happy ending Dave.

I picked up a nail in my rear tyre last summer while riding back to the B&B and luckily did check pressures before setting off the next morning. I thought the gauge was faulty when it gave such a low reading (10 - 15 psi IIRC), as the tyre looked fine. No noticeable 'bulge' to suggest it was low on pressure, and I even tried kicking it, again no indication anything was amiss. A closer inspection turned up the nail and luckily there was a nearby garage that agreed to patch it for me, allowing me to ride home (gingerly). There were no suitable replacement tyres available locally.

What this episode taught me was the futility of depending on tyre-kicking to detect punctures and the only visual cue that's useful is if you actually see a foreign object stuck in your tyre. So I bought and installed the SmarTire system. This should flash a low pressure warning well before things become dangerous, allowing me to fix the problem. I would not be happy riding around unwittingly with a chuck of metal stuck in my tyre, hence my preference not to use any sealant, as they just mask the problem. I don't believe the SmarTire system is compatible with any tyre sealants anyway.

This solution suits my less-than-rigorous tyre-checking lifestyle.