Yep. As you may know, yesterday was "National Ride to Work" day. As I no longer own a car, every day is "Ride to Work" day, but I digress. So, there I was, minding my own business when all of a sudden... POP! My rear tire blew. I was on a hiway, traveling at about 70mph. Fortunately, I was going straight and was not in the middle of a turn. I have to hand it to my bike, she stayed steady until I was able to slow down and pull off the road. Once I got down to lower speed however, she started to get pretty squirrly. Still, I managed to get the bike stopped safely. I gave the HOG Roadside Assistance folks a call and they sent someone to tow the bike to the local dealership. 5 hours and $211.00 later, I was back on the road with a new found respect for the engineering that went into my bike and the tires.

Typically, I'm not what you would call superstitious or even religious in nature. However, after yesterday's mishap, i decided to get one of those little bells. Can't hurt, right?

Pucker factor = elevated.

 

Glad nothing real bad happened. Sucks about the tire. Doesn't your HOG membership cover at least $100 of the tow?

 

I'm a newb Crux. Whats the significance of the little bell? I saw one on one of my MSF instructors VTX1300 customs and figured it was just a personal thing. Now I see it has much bigger significance..

Glad you made it! Things like that are scary [:@]

 

Thanks!

The bell is what I would call a part of biker mythology.

It is said there are little Evil spirits - or gremlins that can make an otherwise nice ride horrible. It is said that these little gremlins can't live on the bike if there is a bell as their hearing is very accute and the ringing of the bell hurts them. Eventually, the ringing is said to make the gremlins falll off the bike or become trapped inside the bell.

Now, I'm not saying that gremlins caused my tire to blow - unless you'd call something sharp on the road a gremlin, but like I said, it can't hurt, right?

 

Oh yes. HOG covered the tow. The $211 was the cost of a new tire.

 

The fact that you got her shut down safely means that you were skillful enough to handle the bike. Don't put a lot of stock into the Guardian Bell.
The bells are pretty cool to have and tell people about but I wouldn't depend on it to save my life. I've got one myself, given to me by a couple of friends.

 

https://www.hdforums.com/m_601779/tm.htm

 

That's the secret to the bell, there's no majic to it if you buy one for yourself.

 

Any idea on the cause? How old/many miles were on the tire?

 

i have two bells on my bike so i'm double safe. you sure need it in northern alabama. you can be assured that if a car is waiting at the stop sign, he's waiting for you to get closer before he pulls out in front of you. i think they wait for you so they can be sure you saw them giving you the finger.