One Dead Stone

Warchild

Banned
This past weekend (Jun 13-15) was the "Cal 24" Endurance Rally. I was Staff for this event.

So I get down to central California (Dunnigan, right on I-5) late Friday morning after running straight through the night through eastern Washington and central Oregon.

When I get down there, I am a bit surprised to see the rear BT-015 is just barely touching a wear indicator, though only right in the center. Between my Staff duties and the ride home, I still had 700 miles to go, so I thought I had *really* better take it easy on the throttle the rest of this trip, and even then, I'd probably be showing a little cord by the time I got home.

Shyeah.... nice try, but it didn't quite work out. I was exactly 115 miles from home when the magic PSI pixies where allowed to escape....
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It was a grim scene.....


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It took the magic PSI pixies exactly 15 seconds to go from 42 psi down to nothing. Fortunately, I have some amount of experience with flats over the past several decades of I've been doing this Endurance Riding stuff, so I was over to the side of the road and a yard away from white line by about the time I was riding on the rim.

Called a 'bro from home who has a small flatbed trailer, he came and rescued me. So this really wasn't any drama, just an inconvenience.

Meah.... live and learn. My error was forgetting that I wasn't riding on the normal sport-touring tires I tend to use (Avon Storms, Michelin PR's, etc), where a wear band indicator in the center means you have about 800-900 miles remaining until cord shows.

When a indicator band pops on these OEM BT-015's, you will show steel in about 200-300 miles, and fabric at the 500-600 mile mark. This fabric is the last line of defense before exposing the final inner butyl liner that actually contains the magic PSI pixies. Once the fabric wears away, the first sharp little pebble it encounters means the ball game is over.

When happened to me just 115 miles from home. Oh, well....
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At least you were able to get home safely.
Most definitely. There wasn't that much concern on my part.... when I saw the steel had worn away at a refueling stop, I knew it was only a matter of time, so, it was a slow ride from that point on, waiting for the inevitable.

I know most would never ride a tire this bad off, but I have a fair bit of experience taking a tire past it's normal wear, and knew what to look/listen/feel for when the tire finally gave it up.

This isn't a recommended practice, BTW.
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That very same thing happened to me last year when I went on a 2K mile ride. Thouht the tires were plenty good to go and learned I needed a tire some 200 miles from home. Thankfully, I had a friend in Tri-Cities who had a PP take off I mounted in his garage to get me home.

The BTO15 did exactly what it was designed to do, get you about 2-3 hundred miles from the wear bars. The 15 is an increadible performance tire.
 
glad you made it home
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i blew the front tire on a '68 Triumph chopper once and that is not an experience i want to repeat
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You know that is a subject that I bet alot of us would like some coaching on.
What can a rider expect when a front or rear tire goes flat?  What are the first indicators in a slow leak situation and on a outrite blow out how does the bike react to that and what do you do to stop without being a casualty?  I am a rider that on the street has never had a flat while rolling, only come out to a flat overnight. Lucky I guess
 
99busa scared the crap out of me and Proud Dad a few weeks back. His front went flat and I looked in my mirrors and he wasn't there anymore. Thankfully, he was safe by the side of the road.

Glad you made it safe War.

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You certainly got your $-worth out of that one!

Love the mondo-trips...
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You know that is a subject that I bet alot of us would like some coaching on.
What can a rider expect when a front or rear tire goes flat?  What are the first indicators in a slow leak situation and on a outrite blow out how does the bike react to that and what do you do to stop without being a casualty?  I am a rider that on the street has never had a flat while rolling, only come out to a flat overnight. Lucky I guess
Never had an actual blowout but in 04 the rear on my 79 CBX went flat in seconds as I prepared for an uphill 75 mph curve. I was committed to the corner but the rear was wobbling, almost like fishtailing. At first I thought it was the road surface but only the rear was wiggling. I just kept the throttle steady and made the corner. Luckily the tire stayed on the rim and I was able to scrub off speed as I was already heading uphill. Turned out that the hole in the tire was too big for even a temporary patch so I called for a tow thru RVRoadhelp, BTW, the best towing outfit around. New tire the next day and I was back on tour!
 
Some advice please - have done 2k on my tire - am about to do another 1k at least on a trip to France. Will i get 3.5k out of a tire or do i need to replace it now?

Jza
 
V.interesting  
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How many miles did the tyre last?

How many miles on your k8 dude?
This BT-015 gave it up at 4,939 miles.

My K8 is just shy 17,000 miles right now.

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You know that is a subject that I bet alot of us would like some coaching on. What can a rider expect when a front or rear tire goes flat?  What are the first indicators in a slow leak situation and on a outrite blow out how does the bike react to that and what do you do to stop without being a casualty?  [/quote]

The first sensation is that of a "heaviness" feeling, as if the rear tire in rolling through cold mollasses. If you are traveling excessively fast at the time of the flat, there is a chance of fishtailing until you can get the bike slowed and to the side of the road.

Once the air is completely gone, you are DONE riding any further. The bike exhibits extremely sloth-like properties; it is an absolute PIG to try to roll it any distance. If you try to ride it, you stand the chance of unseating the bead, and that's only going to make things go from bad to worse.

<div class="iF-Passage"><div class="QUOTEHEAD">Quote:[/Quote]<div class="QUOTE clearfix"><span class="quoteBegin"> </span>
Some advice please - have done 2k on my tire - am about to do another 1k at least on a trip to France. Will i get 3.5k out of a tire or do i need to replace it now?[/quote]

The answer depends on how much of a discipline throttle hand you wish to employ on this trip. If there is going to be a lot of twisties in run to france, think hard about it, because you don't want start sweating the rear tire halfway or 2/3's into your trip, that will just bum you out.
 
Same thing here, past weekend, after 6000 miles there were some cords showing up on my rear tire, I was at the beach 400 miles away from home and on my way back it was rainning badly!
Saying all the prayers I know, I barely made it back home and immediately put a new Pirelli "shoe" to my little poor Zephyr.

Darn with those stock rubbers!
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tisk, tisk ... U should called me when u was down here. Dunnigan is a bit south of me but Orland and Red Bluff ( on I-5 ) is close, I coulda took care ya.

Glad your in good shape now
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The bridgestone sport tires don't last for squat. They come with the wear bars almost flush with the tread (made to wear out
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) And evaporate on a high hp bike. I won't be running any more. The only bridgestones I'd ever try again would be their sport-touring line
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Well i just saw my local tyre man (i trust him completely) and he said theres no way i'll make it there and back so its a new tyre for me next week... he thinks i have 500 miles left in it... so i'm gonna go around my home town doing burnaouts at the lights (im hunting women in convertables
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) etc.

Guess ive been a bit abusive with the throttle
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Cheers guys,

Jza

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I got to tell ya good people, I am forever a fan of the legacy Hayabusa stock Bridgestone Battle-ax BT-56. When I bought my 04 hayabusa it had 13,100 miles on it I am sure that it was the second tyre for the ride. dont know how long it was on the bike when I got it but long story short I had over 19,000 miles with plenty of rubber left. Only indication that it was time was the miles that I put on that tyre. So big ups to the BT-56. That BT-015 on the New busa's are too soft all I hear is how fasdt they wear out, always stick with what works.
 
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