Birthday ride......FAIL !!!

Evitzee

Evitzee

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So on the 18th I get up on my BD and have a nice long ride planned on the FZ1.......no worries and a glorious spring day here in the TX Hill Country. Put on all my gear, load the tank bag with map, water, and snacks. roll the bike off the centerstand and get that sinking feeling with a completely flat rear tire, with just 3350 miles on it. Damn.....what a way to start the day. Put the bike back on the stand, rotate the rear tire and find a 1 1/2" wood screw embedded completely at a 90 degree angle to the tread. Amazing, how the hell does a screw angle itself in like that? So I extract the screw (had to physically unscrew it), plug it, reinflate the tire and drive 27 miles down to the dealer, and of course they won't plug any tire for liability reasons, so the lawyers claim another scalp. There just aren't that many shops in this part of the world so I don't have many choices. I shell out a total of about $300 for a new rear hoop and I'm good to go. Life is a crapshoot, and I really don't like to ride on a plugged rear tire so it is what it is. The good part is I had them put on the 90 deg aluminum valve which I bought off a vendor on this site so it will make it far easier to maintain pressure in the tire. It looks cool at least, like a Moto GP machine.

How the hell does this screw wind up completely embedded at 90 deg in my rear tire?
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Functional and cool looking:
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I've had that happen on the car before...if there's a screw or nail in the road, I will find it!
That valve does look very cool though!

And Happy Belated Birthday :)
 
Dustin said:
Yuck, happy birthday :(

I'm curious why you don't like to ride on a plugged tire. Is there some reason or just cause?
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On a bike I won't compromise on two things: brakes and tires. They are the two most critical items on the machine. Sure, a properly plugged tire SHOULD be fine, but when you are out 50 - 100 miles from help on a Sunday or Monday when the shops are closed I don't want to have that in the back of my mind. And by the time you pay to have the tire dismounted/remounted it just isn't that cost effective to have it plugged, all things considered, imo. And I'm not about to do a dismount/remount myself, I'm beyond that.
 
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Not sure what you mean by the screw at a 90 degree angle but the front tire can kick the screw up where the rear can grab it at funny angles.

Happy B. Day!

You did get to ride at least 27 miles to the shop and back. Any farther?

That's 54 miles more than I did today. :(
 
OneSizeFitsAll said:
Not sure what you mean by the screw at a 90 degree angle but the front tire can kick the screw up where the rear can grab it at funny angles.

Happy B. Day!

You did get to ride at least 27 miles to the shop and back. Any farther?

That's 54 miles more than I did today. :(
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I mean the screw was driven into the back tire completely straight, no angle, it was like I drilled a hole in the tire and screwed it in. Yes, I know the theory is the front tire can kick the screw up but I do find it odd that with a rotating tire a 1 1/2" screw would go in at that angle. You would think it would get kicked out from the rotating mass. Instead it must have been driven in completely in a few rotations of the tire. From a physical standpoint it would be intereting to see exactly how the process works. 27 miles down to the dealer and about 60 miles back taking a more leisurly route back, so not a total loss.
 
Happy belated birthday, I feel your pain. When I brought my brand new Tenere home from the dealer something poked a pin hole in my rear tire. Same deal, they wouldn't plug it. It took several days for me to figure it out as it was a very slow leak. So with less than 300 miles on the tire I had to buy a new one.
 
That sucks, but sounds like you made it out ok. What kind of tyre did you put on? I think it cost me $248 to have a rear PR3 put on last time.
 
i feel your pain$, i have had to dump many a new tire over the decades.
both on the bike and in the varied cages i have owned.
even a over sized tire ($400.00usd just for the tire) on my cj-7 it ate a long chunk of re-bar in the tread, then ate a chunk out of the inside sidewall and still long enough to come out of the hole in the tread a good 9 - 12 inches long.
tread hole could have been plugged..but not the sidewall damage. it was only like two or three months old. less then 1K miles.

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Happy birthday! Sorry about the flat! I just went through that this week, leaky valve stem. Where did you buy those 90's? I'd like some!
I got a screw in the stock tire when I first bought my FZ1 a couple years ago, I had it plugged, and ended up getting a little over 10000 miles off that tire. I have no issue with it but can respect where your comin from. Hope you get a chance to enjoy a ride!


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Dealers are the same about tires here, no plugging and no patching. I had the same thing happen on the bike that Dustin now owns. I swore next time it happened that I would plug the tire, ride to the dealer and do one MONSTER burnout in the parking lot. That way at least I would get some satisfaction out of the rubber.

On the bight side that valve stem looks cool and matches your tank cap bolts. :cheers:
 
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