Saturday turned out to be a great day for a ride so we had decided to ride down to an estate sale in Lancaster that we knew a friend of ours would be at. I had to take care of some work before going so we did not get going until 1:30 PM. On the way there we realized we had not had lunch and we were hungry. We got down to 1382 (Beltline) and 67 and found a place called David’s which had a very nice deck. We wanted to eat outside so we pulled up and went in. When we asked about sitting out on the deck we were told they did not have an outside wait person. I could not believe it, it is now like 2:30 and they were not busy at all. You would think the wait person could handle the outside. After looking at the menu (it did look good and reasonable) we decided to leave. We really wanted to just eat out side. We kept going down Beltline and could not find a place to eat and we were now so close to our destination we decided to go to the estate sale first and then grab something to eat on the way home. It was a nice visit we met John’s brother sister and daughter. They were a bunch of very friendly folks.
The house next door had an old bomb shelter that I had to take shots of.
Val grabbed the camera and took this close up shot.
After about an hour we left to head back towards home and some food. At this point we were starved so my thoughts were let’s shag it to our neck of the woods and eat at the Southern Recipe Restaurant and if it was not too late we could ride someplace else.
We took off heading north on 35 and West on 20 and turned north on 360. Just before the Abram exit in the center lane with a bunch of traffic doing 75 miles an hour just to keep up with traffic the rear tire went flat within about 3 or 5 seconds. I guess I have earned my stripes on this type of incident. We each over the years earn different strips such as the riding in heavy rain stripe, the needing to lock up both tires stripe, the taking the shoulder of the road to avoid getting side swiped stripe etc.,. Well I now got the blow out stripe. I do not have the front tire blow out stripe yet and man as bad as it was with the rear tire I do not want to earn the front tire stripe.
Well here we are on the side of 360.
After I was done celebrating my big accomplishment of not wrecking I realized it was not me, but the good Lord. The chances of the cars all around and behind us seeing what was going on and take corrective action had nothing to do with me, all I did was keep the bike up and get on the side of the road. Normally on 360 with that amount of traffic we should have been killed.
So I quite the dancing and praying while Val was crying happy tears but she was shook up I decided it was now time to take some action like get a tow truck. I called AAA and they said they could have someone there in 45 minutes. They called me back in about 5 minutes to tell me I did not have coverage for motorcycle towing and would need to call the tow company myself. Now on 360 with the traffic and the wind I could barely hear her so I pleaded with her to call the towing company. I told her I did not have a way to write the number down standing as far from the bike as possible to hear her and I would most likely not get it right. Well she did but then she called me back again to explain it would be $100 bucks for the tow truck to show up and then $10 bucks a mile. I told her that the fact that I am alive to be calling her money did not matter at this point. So she called them back and said it was a go.
After I started to calm down and the cost sunk in I then went to my wallet for the Cyclone Motor Cycle Rescue card I remember getting but the numbers had wore off the card. Being in the state I was I thought what the heck what is a ton of money when I least I am around to spend it. The tow guy showed up about 45 minutes later and this was no fun at all. He had a great amount of difficulty with his straps and I did want my bike messed up. Well we finally got it figured out and as you will note by the pictures below I had my second scare of the day.
Notice how far back my legs had to be to hold the bike. This was one of those things that as he raised the lift the straps would tighten so as I am being lifted off the ground the higher I get the more stable the bike is strapped down. Now the problem is however as you go up the bike is being held by me and man I thought I used muscle I did not have to keep the bike up when the tire blew, this was even more drain on my old bones.
Well we finally get home and I get the bike motored up the drive way into the garage. We order some pizza for dinner and then Scooter Express calls and him and Tammy come over. I feel real sorry for them as they had to hear the story over and over and over again. Needless to say I dove into the beer and Scotch. Val took a shot after Jim and Tammy left of me and the tire.
Well a few lessons learned. Do not ride the center lane in high traffic situations, do not hesitate when you feel something wrong, just get off the road. I lost at least 2 seconds before taking action trying to figure out if I had a problem or not. Your first reaction is to wonder if you have a problem, just figure you do and get off the road till you confirm it is or is not.
Well Monday I will call the shop and get the bike down there to get a new tire, learn what went wrong with the tire, and get back on the road again.
Take care
Pj
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