Sometimes You Get Lucky......
When things go wrong on a motorcycle ride.
Went to the Reunion yesterday and had I a great time seeing Family I haven't seen for too long.
Slept on Surly's couch last night and had a good breakfast this morning with him and his Family.
The weather was absolutely perfect this morning for the ride home. 72 and sunny.
So I headed out for home on the scenic route. Kinda just following my nose heading South in a meandering route.
Things were going pretty well till I got about 100-120 miles from home and I got a - "Houston. We have a problem." message coming out of the front end.
Things got real mushy and difficult real quick and I was wondering just WTF was going on when it hit me.
My front tire is going flat!
Oh Shit.
I was right by a gas station and pulled in and sure enough, the tire was damn near flat.
I catch a lot of shit from a couple of the guys I ride with because I carry around lots of shit with me.
Stuff like- A tire plug kit, mini air compressor, duct tape, wire ties, wire and connectors, fuses, wrenches, sockets, flashlights and the like.
I had some junk as motorcycles in my youth and I guess the habit of lugging all that shit around just stuck with me.
I figured I'd picked up a nail in the tire and would have to plug it.
No such luck. The valve stem was partially torn and leaking.
I wasn't gonna be fixing that myself.
And You know your shit is weak when Duct tape ain't even gotta chance to fix your stuff!
I said the hell with it and aired it up and decided to see how long it would go.
Made it about 10 miles is all before I had to fill it up again.
Not good. I'm at least 40-50 miles from a town with a motorcycle dealer. Which is sure to be closed on Sunday.
I repeated the 10 mile air refill trip a couple more times. Worrying that I was gonna tear the rest of the valve stem worse each time I messed with it.
Not to mention what the sidewall of that tire was going through.
I limped into a small town and pulled into the parking lot of a Dollar General and sat there trying to think of the best way to deal with the problem.
And that's when my Latent, Hillbilly Gene Expression decided to kick in!
I went into the Dollar General store and spent $3 bucks on a couple of tubes of Krazy Glue
I figured I didn't have anything to lose by trying.
So I cleaned up stem and the rim as well as I could and let a bunch dribble on to the area that was torn (Worse by this time) and held the tip of the stem forcing the areas to seal. I sat there holding it for about the time it takes to smoke 2 cigarettes to give it the best chance of working.
I then rolled the bike forward and ran a glob around the whole thing hoping that I'd either seal anything I missed or stiffen up the whole mess.
I hooked up the compressor hose as gently as I could and let 'er rip.
There was some old fart in a pickup watching me do this whole thing and he got out and came over about then and offered the opinion that I was a "Dumb Sumbitch" for thinking that was gonna help. I was as polite as I could be when I explained that I didn't have to many options at that point.
He wandered back to his truck and took off while I was filling the tire. That little compressor works well, but it ain't too fast.
I overfilled the tire by 8-10 pounds and thought about going back in the store and buying a can of "Fix a Flat" for insurance, but decided against it.
I poured some water on it and damn - No Bubbles!
Now I don't know if, Billy Mays ever did a pitch for Krazy Clue, but I sure as hell will.
That Shit Works!
That tire is still holding air out in the garage right now. Unbelievable.
No, I'm not gonna ride it any further, but I believe I could have if I'd needed to.
I ended up passing that old Bastard that called me a "Dumb Sumbitch" about 4-5 miles down the road and flipped him off too. That was nice.
On the first or second refill of air a fella from Peoria, Illinois stopped to see if he could help.
He's a BMW rider and while he couldn't help, he was damn nice and offered moral support at least. Not like that other old bastard.
So my faith in other motorcycle riders remains.
Gratuitous Picture for a Sunday Evening-
