Rear tire woes

[Tcontrol]

I know this isnt a roadstar rear tire (my goldwing) but i need to vent…
Was riding down the interstate at a “do not run me over” speed… and the back of the bike felt a little off… about what you expect when getting sucked into the tire tracks of an older road.. i shall call them “tire ruts”…
Since i happen to be running a “darkside” tire i dismissed the slightly “squirrely feeling and pressed on… at least another 7-8 miles at excessive highway speeds….. then the telltale smell of burning rubber greeted my senses…
“Odd”, i thought… there are no cars around me and i do not see dark smoke from a fire anywhere around me… hmmm!….. and then it hit me… i am running on a flat tire and it’s getting a bit more squirrely… stopping on an interstate highway for a flat tire was not in the realm of something i was going to do so i slowed it down to about 50 and hit the shoulder/emergency lane…
Rode about 2 more miles to the next exit and got off the big road… now when you get below about 40 … thats when you really feel the back of the bike get extra “squirrely”… brought it to a gentle stop and called a buddy with a trailer..
heres what the tire looked like when i swapped out to my spare rim…
Dropped it off at a shop yesterday… $386.00 for dunlop elite 4 with mount/balance/tire disposal fee.. i pick it up next week after the ordered tire arrives..

lesson:…. If the back end feels a bit squirrely… maybe stop and take a look before you kill yourself… or be like me… “no common sense”..!

[Moser39]

Yikes! Glad you are safe, thanks for sharing.

[davej]

glad to hear you got it stopped safely. $391 total. $386 for new tire $5 for a new pair of underwear, $0 for an experience to never forget. lol

[KFallsRider]

Was it an eye opener ?

[Tcontrol]

Thank you for the well wishes… i am fine and there was no pucker factor involved…

The back tire flats are the fun ones… gets a little squirrely in the back… kinda like riding a dirt bike in mud… easily handled… my post was trying to acknowledge that i should have stopped and checked it … not ride for 7-9 more miles until the tire looked like the picture…… i pressed my luck.. stupidity at its finest… DO NOT REPEAT MY STUPIDITY…!!!

Now the front tire… that is a come to jesus moment… you do not ride those once they show the slightest sign of flat… back brake only real gentle like and gear down gently… and try to calm the pucker factor down as you slow that baby down…

[Shotround]

i have an elite 4 on the rear of my roadstar. about 11,000 miles so far and looks like more to go.

[Duke]

Thank you for the information. It's good to know for our knowledge.
It looks like the tire was worn a lot on that side??
How many miles did that tire have on it?

[Shores]

If you said so, I didn't catch it. What was the cause of that catastrophic failure? Could it possibly be that it was rubbing on the subframe, swing arm or rear caliper stay causing excess heat, etc? Car tires shouldn't just blow like that on a motorcycle.

[Tcontrol]

shores called it right…

i am guessing that this little finishing nail started the whole process of the dreaded “flat tire”… riding 7-9 miles on a flat tire caused the excess wear leading to the major seperation of the belt/sidewall split… rubbing on subframe/swingarm… Just as “shores” has deduced…

The car tire was on a spare rim that i purchased for $100.00…. It had never been on the road when i acquired the rim.. when my last tire was worn to the point of replacement… i just swapped out the rims and used the car tire… probably about 3000 miles… i didnt really note the mileage… put the rim on around march of this year…

i had a dunlop elite 4 installed on the “worn tire” rim for future use… storing the rim in a back corner of my garage out of any sunlight to preserve the tire integrity…

my opinion of the “dark side” car tire… it did not seem to make much difference with the handling of the bike… i ran it at about 40 PSI and examined for odd wear patterns… 3000 miles did not seem to allow enough wear to determine much of anything… would i buy another car tire to continue my foray into the “dark side”…? Nope… but $100.00 is $100.00…. Thats why i used it to begin with… my experiment in the “dark side” has now been officially terminated… i will stick with what the original engineer has specified to use…

[Lug Nut]

my experiment in the “dark side” has now been officially terminated… i will stick with what the original engineer has specified to use…

I certainly understand after an experience like that wanting to stick with a motorcycle tire. However I don't think it was the issue of having a car tire but maybe the nail that caused all of this. Many people especially on Goldwings have run car tires for years and millions of miles. I think it's a great idea for a big heavy touring bike myself. I'll probably switch out my rear Dunlop for a car tire on my flamer bike soon Like I did on my purple Road Star I sold recently.

[Tcontrol]

I have nothing against car tires… just not for me… it was an experience to get the rim with car tire installed on the hub… i had to deflate the tire just to get it to fit up in the fender with enough clearance to get the rim on the studs… then i refilled it with air…

of course i tried a new method of setting the bike down on its side in the grass to install the “darkside” rim… figured i would give that method a try since i was absorbed watching youtube videos regarding that particular method… i wasn’t thrilled with laying a 900 pound bike on it’s side either…. I am not knocking the “dark side”… it just didn’t impress me enough to bother with it again…

and yes… that nail was the just the introduction to my “darkside” flat tire experience… what i realized most importantly was… “the rear end squirrely feel with a car tire” was too easily dismissed as a road “tire rut” issue… had i kept riding on that tire until catastrophic failure… it may have resulted in injury that was easily avoidable…

A regular rear motorcycle flat tire is a bit more obvious to me as a rider… i have been riding bikes about 45 years now and i have experienced flats on both front and back tires… now this is my first experience running a flat “darkside” …

My conclusion of mileage benefits of a car tire versus a motorcycle tire just did not satisfy what i consider a safety risk… the fact that i easily dismissed the “darkside” tire feedback from a flat tire was somewhat eye-opening…. Other riders may be a bit more meticulous on tire feedback than i was…

the general consensus regarding “car” tires… it’s just not for everyone… ride what you’re “comfortable” with…. I have no regrets regarding my experience… just additional knowledge…

[Shores]

Is it just the photo or is that nail into the sidewall. I don't see how the nail could have gotten into the sidewall.

[Tcontrol]

I do tend to lean… the tire was pretty badly damaged… there might be another nail in there somewhere and that particular nail was picked up after the flat…. With all the steel belts exposed… it wasnt worth identifying further possible nails…
i wasnt about to stick my hand in there… call me “chicken”

[Brad_G]

I worked with a lot of tires both as a gas station attendant and my own personal fleet. I've stuck myself many times with those steel belts. I don't blame you for not searching further.

[MidnightRide]

Thanks for sharing. Some members of this site have actually reported only running 15 lbs. of air in their tires. Can you imagine that, not even taking the time to check your tire pressure until the bike starts feeling off a little bit at highway speeds through the twisties?

I think some of us who've been riding for decades tend to feel, "Hey, still feels manageable to me, I'll check it later (if I remember)". I had to force myself to pull it over while leading Starfest 2022 after feeling some weird front tire shuttering over a mountain highway. Anne was riding double with me so figured, for her safety, I'd better have a look. Not sure what it was, but thinking a front caliper, or both, were hanging up a bit.

I don't recall ever having a flat on the road, so that's one thing I've been able to avoid. But a front tire at speed? Haven't gone that route yet, and hope I never do.

Dirt bikes are another story.

Anne has a terrible time with this. She's shredded three Z-rated FRONT tires on our Z3's at highway speeds, one just this month at 1 AM coming home from the airport in the middle of nowhere. It was 6 AM before she got it home via AAA; I was three hours north at our summer home. Spare tire was flat as well. Two guys stopped to help her at different times, the first couldn't figure out how to get the spare tire out, the second did but had to run a 30 mile loop to try to find a gas station to try to get the spare to hold air, which it wouldn't. The tire was good when I put it in there, five years ago... Why would I ever check it? Sheesh.

The first time she did it was on the freeway in the center of Vegas, center lane (front tire). Car did at least one full spin, maybe two, before it literally parked itself on the shoulder of the road, just like it was planned. Skid marks showed the spin(s). She had no idea the tire was running low; totally shredded it. Next was soon afterward, another front tire flat on the freeway, this time she kept it straight and pulled it over. Shredded. This last time, in our other Z3, she felt it acting weird and pulled off the highway. By that time it too was shredded. And the fourth time, after being parked at the airport for days, she noticed it was going flat, but despite my advice of airing it up or putting the spare on before driving it, which she assured me she would, she drove on it flat for a couple of miles to a gas station, ruining the tire. It was virtually brand new, on a matched set, and an uncommon brand that was hard to find a replacement for. Anyone need a set of four rims with three brand new tires and a damaged fourth? They've been sitting in the back of my warehouse for three years now.

On a BMW Z3, is it THAT HARD to figure out that you've got no air in your tire? And how does she keep getting these flats?

Priced any Z rated tires lately? Next set's going to be H. We don't run those cars above 130 anyway...

I don't know that I'll ever be a darkside fan. I prefer running corners with sticky tires, and that's where my focus will lie. I should be on the road running Lolo Canyon in Idaho today, but am scheduling that for the next good weather window due a mountain pass forest fire that may soon be threatening my brother's home in Western Washington. Fire held well overnight, so the threat to his home likely won't materialize unless high winds come up in the next few days.

[Tcontrol]

It would be a lot cheaper to buy her a honda accord…
lol…!

[Brad_G]

[MidnightRide]

Yeah, she hit a deer at night with her Z3, and finding a new hood has proven virtually impossible. She has no business driving at night; she can't see at night worth a damn.

I spotted a small Toyota car at an estate sale yesterday for only $1500, 32 mpg, and nearly bought it for her. Ready to sell the BMW's just to be done with them. They still hold some good value.

She wrecked my Z3 a few years ago so we had to bring hers up from Vegas after a year in storage down there. Mine's sitting on stands in the warehouse. It needs a hood (and more) as well. They had them online in carbon fiber, and I was going to buy two, but can't find them any longer. Pretty frustrating. They were both absolutely pristine before our move to Washington.

Yes, I'm pissed. It's not just the money, it's the time. I have zero time for this kind of thing.