A testament to the Darkside!

[Ricky-D]

Here's a few pictures of what happened day before yesterday coming home on Interstate 77 from the VA.

I was cruising at 75 to 80 miles per hour.

,,

I ran over something really bad and the tire went immediately flat.

Why I say this is a testament:

I've had a rear motorcycle tire go out in the past (just the same instant decompression) and the motorcycle took me on a whoop-dee-doo where I crossed over three lanes of interstate traffic out of control and finally got the bike stopped. I was extremely fortunate to have survived that little exercise  that happened on I-95 in Connecticut.

Now let me tell you about this time.

The bike was very easy to control and there was very little oscillation. I was able to bring the bike to a point where I could get off on the shoulder without any traffic running over me. I felt the tire go flat and a little side to side wobble but absolutely easy to control.

The reason this was a good outcome was due to the wide flat tread on the tire combined with the shorter sidewall height as opposed to a motorcycle tire.  The tire simply collapsed and settled down on the wheel, something you will never find happening with a motorcycle tire experiencing the same type of decompression.

This car tire may have save my life.

Needless to say I'm going back with another car tire. Ordered it already, actually that same Wednesday night!

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[X Ring]

I'm glad you're alright.  Now we know of another way c/ts are safer.

Marty

[John U.]

It's sure hard to figure how a screwdriver could get in a position to do that, Maybe the front wheel kicked it up.
Glad you made it; exercised your pucker muscles I bet.
At least you got a usable screwdriver out of it. 

[houstone]

The sidewall looks to be in pretty good shape, considering.  Impressive!  Glad you're OK, and the Fat Lady, too!

[fudgie]

How many plugs did that take to fix?! 

[larryd]

John, I do not believe he ran over the screwdriver and it was the culprit.
 If you read the post he ran over something. The screwdriver was placed in the damage
to show entry/exit area. At 75-80 miles per hour the screwdriver would not stay in
the tire. Much less not contact the swing arm. I trust you knew that and your
answer to the post was a bit of sarcasm.  As sargent Joe Friday would say
just the facts man.

[Daniel Meyer]

How many plugs did that take to fix?! 

LOL! You beat me too it!

[Minnie Miles]

Looks like a bullet hole to me....who was he running from?

[Earl in Pensacola]

I've got a 205/65R16 Goodyear Assurance with only1000 miles on it for only for only $50. and that will include the shipping!! It's back in it's original shipping box ready to go.
Earl in Pensacola

[Chrisj CMA]

Ricky....Im glad you did well......that cudda been much uglier.  I know how disconcerting an instant flat at high speeds can be.  A couple years back I had a valve stem give way on I-95 going to Daytona (around 75mph).  Tire was an E-3 and performed much like your CT did.  I noticed a slight back and forth sway....thought it was a front tire blow out so I gently applied back brake and it got worse so I switched to front brakes and all was well, was even able to sustain 55mph for a few seconds to clear traffic before pulling over.  I think the E-3 has a tougher than normal sidewall and that is what allowed it to NOT put me down when instantly gone to zero air pressure

Change one........rethinking the timing....that tire had to be my last D-206Elite.........not the E3, however, I think either would have done the same

[f6john]

I've got a 205/65R16 Goodyear Assurance with only1000 miles on it for only for only $50. and that will include the shipping!! It's back in it's original shipping box ready to go.
Earl in Pensacola

     PM sent.

[John U.]

John, I do not believe he ran over the screwdriver and it was the culprit.
 If you read the post he ran over something. The screwdriver was placed in the damage
to show entry/exit area. At 75-80 miles per hour the screwdriver would not stay in
the tire. Much less not contact the swing arm. I trust you knew that and your
answer to the post was a bit of sarcasm.  As sargent Joe Friday would say
just the facts man.

10-4 on that Larry. Like any wise crack, it doesn't bear close scrutiny or explanation. A screwdriver would have made a much neater puncture.
In any case it sure is ugly.

[Earl in Pensacola]

F6John-----I rec'd your PM.  Did you get my response?  I kept getting an "error" message when I tried to confirm with you.

[1fastbob]

Ricky

That is NOT where to adjust the carbs!  Try a little higher and towards the front.

Glad you were uninjured, that's a nasty looking tire.

[Robert]

I wonder if with the motorcycle tire with the round edges you would have missed it and not come out the sidewall. But in any case I'm glad your OK that's a real pucker factor

[Rocketman]

Any idea what did that?

[Momz]

What?
No way,....you're supposed to "die a flaming death" according to the Darkside detracters.

Glad to see your safe and ya got the pictures to prove it!

[gordonv]

Glad to see your post and all went well.

I had my M/C tire blow and deflate within 3 seconds, while accelerating onto the highway just getting up to speed, 50 MPH, with my wife on the back of the bike. Not knowing what would make a sound like that on a bike, only being able to see the front tire (was fine), it wasn't until the ass end started wiggling that I started to slow down and pulled over safely.

Like already stated, it's great to hear of another reason to go the Dark Side.

[Friagabi]

Yep, we all know you should be on fire and dead. But I will still ride on the DS just to see. Still that must have given you thought of DEPENDS!

[Ricky-D]

To finish this up:

I received the Falken tire (Ziex ze-502  $87)same size as the other 205-55-16, mounted and balanced it.

The Hankook which I failed to mention, stayed true on the rim and since I was only about eight or so miles from home, I did end up riding home on the flat tire (staying on the road shoulder) at a nice slow speed. It was a slow going ride and I was kinda thinking it was like those ride flat tires like they use in the race cars. Yeah, what a laugh!

The tire (Hankook) showed very little damage to the inside from riding it flat, maybe some slight abrasion and polishing on the inside from the beads and sidewall rubbing on the flat tire. The wheel itself never touched the pavement, it was like riding inside the wide tread, kinda like captured almost, between the upturned part of the tread.

The only part I am upset about now is the fact that the Falken tire came with two painted dots on the sidewall, each about 180 degrees apart. One was yellow and one was red.  I installed the tire on the wheel with the yellow dot at the place of the valve stem. How was I to know it should have been the red dot instead on the yellow aligning with the valve stem.  I tested the balance before seating the beads but I just couldn't get the tire to rotate on the wheel as hard as I could try. I used liquid soap and muscle but I couldn't get it to budge. I wasn't going to un-mount the tire so I could rotate the darn thing, that was just too hard to do to begin with.  The result was a lot more weight than I like, to get the thing balanced.  If I have to remove the wheel in the future I may take it and get it rotated, just don't know!

Been riding it for a week or a little more now, on the interstate and local and everything is hunky dorry. No complaints at all.

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