| Author | Message | ||
     Hughlysses |
(edited re-post from SC Buell Riders in Stormfronts) We had a decent Buell gathering here in South Carolina yesterday with 10 Buells in attendance. I'm fairly sure that's an SC record, apart from possibly the demo rides truck. I wish it had been about 10 degrees cooler (it was in the 90's), but otherwise it was a great day to ride. We met in Orangeburg, SC for lunch and then 8 of us rode on up to Thunder Tower HD/Buell near Elgin, SC for their one-year anniversary festivities. There were hundreds of bikes there for the event. We were the only Buells we saw, but the dealer had a good selection of new Buells (8 or 10) and a Buell t-shirt rack with three different t-shirts. When we left, the other 4 riders from the Charleston area chose to take the interstate home. I opted for backroads to avoid heavy traffic, hoping for some cooler temps, and mainly for the scenery. I knew a good series of backroads for the route back; I'd been this route by car and bike many times. About 40 miles from Thundertower, near the very small community of Lone Star, SC, I slowed for a railroad crossing. All of a sudden the rear of the bike hits a sharp bump on what appeared to be clear pavement. "What the hell was THAT?" I thought, as I hadn't seen anything lying in the road. Well about 100 yards past the railway crossing the back end of the bike starts feeling squirrely and I think "Oh crap." I get off the road OK, and by the time I get off the bike, the tire is completely flat. I push the bike forward and look at the tire about 4 times until finally I find a 2 inch long gash between two of the tread blocks. I had a Stop-n-go tire plugger kit and an air compressor in my tailbox, but I had a feeling they wouldn't do much good. I put two plugs in it and pumped up the tire. It was leaking pretty good. When I cut the plugs off flush, they popped INTO the tire. I called home and told my wife to put the loading ramp and tie down straps in the truck and head this way. OK, I'm stuck in the hot sun with no shade visible for several hundred yards in either direction and it's gonna be at least an hour and a half before my wife shows up. It occurs to me I'm gonna have to try to get some air to stay in this tire or we'll catch hell putting it on my truck. This time I put three plugs into the gash, pump it up, and don't cut them off completely flush. Hmm, seems to be holding a little better. I remember a store at a crossroads ~1 mile back, I figure I'll limp back there and maybe I can at least find something to drink and a place to sit in the shade until my wife shows up. I suit up, fire up the bike, carefully turn around and ease up to ~45 MPH- the bike seems to be doing OK. I slow to about 5 MPH to cross the railroad (I sure don't need a bent rim now). Just past the crossing, I notice a ~2" square x 1/4" thick piece of steel lying in the road. I'd say that's what ate my tire. Another 1/2 mile up the road, and there's the store and the crossroads. Bad news- not open. Good news- massive hickory tree, nice concrete parking lot, plenty of shade and an old chair by the front door. They did have a working spigot on the side of the building; I didn't trust it for drinking water but I did use it to cool off a little. An hour later, my wife shows up and we get the bike loaded. I got home about 7 PM. Here's what my temporary repair looked like:  Looks like the steel chunk caught in the groove between the tread blocks and "stood up" as I went over it. The tire's a lot thinner down in the grooves and the steel had cut completely through the belts. The "sticky string" tire plugs might have held a little better, but this was pretty much an unfixable hole regardless of what I'd had. All things considered, I made out OK. I'll be ordering a new Pirelli Scorpion tonight, so I'm out of ~$135, but I didn't wreck the bike, get hurt, or die of heat prostration. Hey the bike is an "adventure" tourer, right? I guess that was my adventure for the day. | ||
| Reepicheep |
 And it looked so young... Hate to see a perfectly good sync struck down in it's prime | ||
| Hughlysses |
RIP. I had about 3000 miles on it, but at this rate it would have gone 6000 or more. At any rate, I REALLY like the Syncs and don't have any doubts about what to replace it with. |
