In my years of riding the only times I have ever been stranded on the side of the road or out in the boondocks was because of a FLAT TIRE!

Well, I did run out of gas a few times but that was my stupidity.

A flat tire is a major pain in the ***. It can happen anywhere at any time. Back in the day most if not all wheels were spoke, meaning you had a tube, a balloon if you will, ready to pop.

Today I will not ride out of town on a spoke wheel. Cast Wheel, Tubeless Tire and a Plug Kit with compressed air is how I roll. I love the look of spokes and my vintage bikes retain their original wheels, but I don't ride them far or fast.

I still see a lot of Harley's running spokes. Old style, Classic, Standards. When you get a flat you are kind of stuck. I don't think most of you carry a tube patch kit and the tools to change a tire on the side of the road. Anyone done that lately?

Today we have cell phones and roadside insurance. Still a pita. In the old days we had neither. I guess I have been lucky, in 40 years I have had that can be recalled , 8 flat tires.

I have vivid memories of the 2 high speed deflation"s , near death. 3 flats became adventures, and the last 2 were Plug and play. My favorite was pulling into the garage and seeing a huge screw poking out of my sidewall just after doing a 100mph romp over the bridge, yep LUCKY.

So I just wanted to hear some of your stories, If you would, Please share your Flat Lines. Good and Bad.

 

Ohio to Tennesee via only backroads to meet my wife already there for vacation.

Picked up a nail in Harlan, Ky, ( Coal Country.) Nearest HD dealer 165 miles away,(Cincinatti.) Used a can of Fix-a-Flat to try to get to the nearest town, made it maybe 10 miles. Coal mine foreman stopped and gave me about 100 lbs of air out of his truck's compressor, and I followed him to a closed for-the-night gas station.

The mechanic was still there and told me " I don't know nuttin' 'bout Harley's but if ya' give me that tube I can surely fix it."

I used their auto lift to raise the bike, ( balancing act!) and pulled the rear wheel off and got him the punctured tube. ( All the while running back and forth to the lift because it kept dropping slowly to the floor every couple of minutes.)

He did a great job of repairing the tube, ( I should have carried a spare, I know, more on that later.) and I got it buttoned up and gave him the world's biggest tip.

Back on the road and 20 miles later, the tire went flat again. ( Turns out that Fix-a-Flat goop eats Tire Cement!) Hoofed it 2 miles to an all night gas station, bought all their cans of Fix-a-Flat, ( doesn't matter now!) and walked back towards the bike.

A Sheriff saw me and gave me a lift the rest of the way to the bike, telling me where the only hotel was, 8 miles or so down the road. ( It was pushing midnight by then.)

Here's what was pretty cool: I'd dump the Fix-a-Flat into the leaking wheel, drop the empty can on the ground and hop onto my idling Ultra and blast down the road for a mile or two before it went flat again, and the Sherrif would pick up my littered empty cans and follow me with his lights on!

Repeated the process and got another mile or so, this time running a red light with him right behind me.

Made it to the hotel on the third can. He pulls up along side me, hears it still leaking and remarks " Hell boy, you coulda made it another couple hundred yards!" Laughs and
shakes my hand and drives off.

Next day my wife and her girlfriend in Tennesee drive our Suburban up to meet me (about 125 miles.) We rent a U-Haul trailer, buy a 2x12 for a ramp with clothesline and haul the bike to Tennesee. The bike stayed in the U-Haul for the week until I drove it back to Ohio to replace wheel, tire and exhausts...( Gooped beyond belief from Fix-a-Flat.) All in all about a $1,200 experience. ( And a wrecked vacation for me.)

I don't run tubes anymore.

 

About 1-mile from home the clutch throwout bearing disentegrated while easing out on the clutch lever at a stoplight....It was a challenge getting home with no clutch and several stop signs on the way...Luckily the traffic was light yet my nerves were awful heavy!!! Forty-five minutes of work and the bearing was replaced. Luckily all the the needle rollers/retainer were laying at the bottom of the trans cover when it was removed!

 

Only time I've been stranded (knock on wood) on the big bikes was when my 1980 Low Rider acted up one time. I was in Tulsa, but stationed in OKC. My new wife and I were taking the bike down there when it started acting up. For some reason, it wouldn't go over 50 mph (not a big deal as the speed limit was 55 at the time, even on the turnpike). And, the damn thing would run out of gas about every 35 miles. Had a trooper stop twice and give me a gallon of gas each time, and the wife kept having to run a big circle on the turnpike to fill up the gas can. Finally got there and parked it. A few days later, a biker without a bike (neighbor in our apartments) took me (he rode bitch) to a indy to see what was wrong with it. Guy came out and said fire it up. As soon as it started he said, "you're only running the front cylinder". HUH?? How the hell could he tell that?? I couldn't hear any difference at all with the bike just idling. Sure enough, he put a new plug in the rear cylinder and the bike was like new again! (seems those 1st gear putts around the driveway with my 5 year old step-daughter sitting on the tank caused me to foul a plug).

On smaller bikes, I've had several instances of clutch cables breaking on me. Getting home wasn't too bad as long as I didn't hit any red lights. Unfortunately, every light in town turned red just as I'd get there usually.

 

Coming back from Rolling Thunder (1,000 mile round trip), developed a flat. Tooling along in the left lane, do'n about 80, the back end developed this wierd squishy feeling. I realised I was in trouble but wasn't sure why. My first instict was to slow down and hit the brakes. Then I remembered don't hit the brakes. Traffic was flying by me on the right so I couldn't head for the shoulder. There was a guard rail on the left so I couldn't go that way. Fortunately as I slowed down the guard rail ran out and I could head for the grassy median. As I came to a stop I was headed down hill. As you know a bike doesn't like to be parked headed down, and this was pretty steep. By this time I new my problem was the rear flat. I tried to slide the rear around so I could face uphill. The tire spun on the wheel, but I eventually got it headed uphill. The problem was that the grass was soft. If I put it on the jiffy stand it was going to fall over. So while I was straddling the bike I took my chaps off, folded them up and put on the ground under the jiffy stand. I could then get off the bike.

Fortunately I had my cell phone with me. I called HOG roadside assistance and they got a flatbed headed my way. Then I called my wife. She had driven to Rolling Thunder to accompany me on the parade and was now driving back. About 5 minutes later I waved to her as she passed. As it was a holiday, the nearest HD dealer would not have been open. As I was only about 30 miles from home, I had it droped off at home.

I considered myself very lucky. It could have happened anywhere on the trip, but it waited until I was nearly home. There was no significant damage to the bike, and Rolling Thunder was awsome! What a trip!

 

They do make tubeless spoked wheels, these days. Ya know...just in case you were interested and perhaps unaware.

 

On my 79 shovel with no starter, doing the nudie bar hop, heading from 1 to the next. Went over a rr crossing and my bud came flying up next to me yelling at me to pull over, I did and he was throwing dirt on my bike yelling "It's on fire". The ignition switch had shorted out on the rear fender over the crossing(I didn't notice as I had rolled out of the throttle) and sparks caught the oily mess on my oil tank on fire. Wrapped the switch up with electrical tape so it wouldn't touch the fender, kicked her over and headed to the next bar.

 

........... well, actually it was just once, ....... but definitely stupidity.

 

In 2006, I hit reserve coming back from Sturgis between Wells, NV and Elko. Ran out of gas approaching an off ramp to Halleck. Bike coasted down the off ramp and I walked up to the BP station. Unfortunately, it was under construction but a worker gave me a 1 gallon can of gas. It almost got me to Elko before it ran out again. But, a friend I was riding with rode into Elko, filled up his gas tank, got some PVC hose for syphoning, and rode back to me and we got another gallon in my tank for the 2 mile ride to an open, working gas station.

 

I will add, one of the times I ran out of gas was while I was test riding a Bike, Note, always check gas before test ride.

My luck I just got over the hill, pushed it back to the top and coasted the sucker in, bought the bike and got a full tank of gas to boot