Saturday's 650 mile ride and front flat tire story.

Left my house (Toledo area) around 9am heading south on I75 toward Cincinnati, crossed over the bridge then headed east along the Ohio river. Half way between Covington and Portsmouth,Ohio I notice it is starting to steer like a tank. I pull into an empty church parkinglot and discover my front tire is down to about 20lbs. I scan the tire for about 20 minutes but can not find anything in it. I get my Slime air pump (don't buy one) out and plug it into my accessories cig plug and it runs for about 30 seconds and stops. CRAP, fuse blown, no glasses to see, and no GPS. I figure I will roll slowly over the next hill and lucky enough there is a station with air. I blow it up, look the tire over again, find nothing, then roll on to the next station about 20 miles down the road. As I pull in I feel it steering like a tank again. At that station I discover the Valve stem is leaking. I talk to a local officer who tells me the Portsmouth is about 20 or so miles away. I limp into Portsmouth where I go to an Advance Auto Care parts store. It is about 5:30pm now on a Saturday. Nothing there to help except I decide what the hell, I buy some Seal All and smear it around the stem. While waiting for it to dry several Harley Riders come and go. All very friendly but not from around there. (Funny all were having motor issues). Then a local Harley rider come to the store. I get to talking to he and his freind and I tell him I am about 250 miles from home and you can see the wheels in his mind spinning as he is trying to help me. Finally he remembers this guy who works on bikes but can't remember his last name. Then he finally says he knows where he lives and it is not far. I tell him I might as well follow him since I have done everything here. I reminded him about my front tire as we pull out of the parkinglot. All of a sudden he takes off and is riding that old Harley like it's a CBR1000. Finally a red light where I tell him to slow down some, he says ok. Next we make a right and I notice a sign that says 19% upgrade. Once again he hits the throttle and is up and around the twisted road like a bat out of hell.

Finally we arrive at the mans house where he is in his front yard. Very nice man named Mike. I tell him my story and he says he can help. Tells me his shop is around the next corner. About 90 minutes later I am leaving his shop with a new valve stem, fuse, and GPS that is working. We worked togather using C-Clamps while the wheel was still on the bike. He would not let me leave unless I took a spare new stem also.

Some of you may know his shop and I can not thank him enough for opening his shop and helping me when no others where even close.

He owns,
Mike's Power Sports
1791 State Route 139
Portsmouth, Ohio
740-456-3000

And he puts a lot of car tires on bike. Just a good ol boy.