70 MPH blowout....
Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 6:38 pm
I arrived at Laguna Seca on Thursday evening, and put all of my stuff in the motorhome. My friend, Larry had driven the beast out, to be used for accomodation during the weekend. Larry had no other transportation save a bicycle, so we decided to take my FJ 600 into Moss Landing for some reportedly very good seafood.
I can't tell you if it's good or not, because we never made it. About two miles from our exit, the rear tire quite suddenly released all of it's compressed air at once. Those of you who have experienced a blow-out know what that means. Larry and I weigh in at roughly 385 LBS. combined. That is apparently a lot of weigh for a 21-year-old Yamaha. Too much weight, in fact.
The tail section normally holds the factory tool kit in my bike, but that is long gone, so I took advantage of the space and stored my own tool kit. Just the basics - a bit-type screwdriver, two different size crescent wrenches, and a 3/8" wratchet with a complete metric socket set and a couple of extensions. A pair of channelocks rounded out the basics.
Unfortunately though, the additional weight caused the rear plastic under-side of the fender to be rubbed through, and the crescent wrenches (both of them) got wedged in the hole created by the tire.
Needless to say, it wasn't long before there was a very deep groove worn completely through my brand new Kenda. It was a cool night, so I was wearing a balaclava (covered my nose), or I might have smelled impending disaster.
When the tire blew, I immediately knew it had, although I've never had a blown tire on a bike before. IMPORTANT TIP FOR NEWBS: If you have a blown tire, do NOT apply the break for that tire! Somehow, I knew that instinctively and gently applied the front brake. We were fish-tailing so badly that I had virtually zero sterring control, so we wound up bouncing over a drainage culvert before coming to rest in the median.
We dismounted the poor, crippled FJ and made sure no blood was flowing. We were both amazed that we had just ridden out a 70 MPH blow-out with 385 LBS of rider and passenger. The bike never hit the ground with anything but rubber.
I think God is looking out for me.
Oh, yeah - The race was awesome too!
I can't tell you if it's good or not, because we never made it. About two miles from our exit, the rear tire quite suddenly released all of it's compressed air at once. Those of you who have experienced a blow-out know what that means. Larry and I weigh in at roughly 385 LBS. combined. That is apparently a lot of weigh for a 21-year-old Yamaha. Too much weight, in fact.
The tail section normally holds the factory tool kit in my bike, but that is long gone, so I took advantage of the space and stored my own tool kit. Just the basics - a bit-type screwdriver, two different size crescent wrenches, and a 3/8" wratchet with a complete metric socket set and a couple of extensions. A pair of channelocks rounded out the basics.
Unfortunately though, the additional weight caused the rear plastic under-side of the fender to be rubbed through, and the crescent wrenches (both of them) got wedged in the hole created by the tire.
Needless to say, it wasn't long before there was a very deep groove worn completely through my brand new Kenda. It was a cool night, so I was wearing a balaclava (covered my nose), or I might have smelled impending disaster.
When the tire blew, I immediately knew it had, although I've never had a blown tire on a bike before. IMPORTANT TIP FOR NEWBS: If you have a blown tire, do NOT apply the break for that tire! Somehow, I knew that instinctively and gently applied the front brake. We were fish-tailing so badly that I had virtually zero sterring control, so we wound up bouncing over a drainage culvert before coming to rest in the median.
We dismounted the poor, crippled FJ and made sure no blood was flowing. We were both amazed that we had just ridden out a 70 MPH blow-out with 385 LBS of rider and passenger. The bike never hit the ground with anything but rubber.
I think God is looking out for me.
Oh, yeah - The race was awesome too!
