Coming back from Daytona early Sunday a week ago on I-95 in North Carolina going 70 mph my rear tire (Dunlop Elite 3) immediately went flat and separated from the rear rim. I encountered immediate severe wobble and "tank slapping" by the front handlebars. In approximately 2-3 seconds I & my Ultra was on the pavement on our left side.

The bike is totaled with over $11,000 of damage. I am being repaired and luckly not totaled!! I have 8 broken ribs, 1 broken collar bone, 1 separated shoulder & a bone chipped on my leg tibia.

Luckily it was a cold morning (in 30's when I left that morning) so I had insulated underwear, jeans & chaps on my legs. I had a t shirt, long sleeve shirt, Gerbings heated jacket, nylon rain jacket and my HD mesh riding jacket on. Also had my Gerbings heated gloves on. I had NO road rash! HD 3/4 Helmet was ruined with cuts/scratches/gashes all the way around it. HD mesh jacket was only slightly torn. Leather on chaps only roughed up. Interesting that Gerbings heated jacket had a 2 inch hole tore in it but did not cut through any of the wires. Tore a hole all the way through the leather of my Cruiserworks boots (don't guess they are waterproof anymore!).

Local dealer that my bike was towed to inspected the tire and did find what appeared to be a puncture in the tread but no sign of what caused it. I am "****" with my tire inspections. I had 40 psi in the tire that morning and it had between 4/32 and 5/32 of tread depth. I check my tires like this EVERY morning on a trip! I had around 13,000 miles on the tire. The real problem was that the tire immediately detached from the rim throwing the bike into a sever wobble.

Anyway, I am doing pretty good and hope to make a full recovery in a few weeks. Looking at getting a new 2012 Ultra Limited! Just make sure you check those tires. I just don't know what else I could have done to have prevented this accident from happening. It has gone through my mind many times over the past 10 days!

 

Glad to hear you are going to be OK. Sometimes when I am riding on the high way, I look at the ground rushing by and think "It is going to hurt if I go down".

On my Vulcan 750, I put Victor Tire Pressure Monitors, that you could look at whenever you stopped and tell by the green color showing that your tires were inflated properly. When I put them on my FLHTCUI, they got ripped off, and gave me a flat. So that wasn't an option.

I considered going with a Doran Automated TPM system but never did.
Anyone using that?
http://www.doranmfg.com/motorcycle-t...ng-systems.htm


Don't forget to post pictures of the new bike!

 

Any chance to get the date of manufacture from the tire sidewall? Wondering, not only about the actual age, but also how close to the same date mine is. Frightening story, I am way too relaxed under the same conditions, never know what might jump up and bite. Glad you are mending and still want to ride.

 

First off glad your ok.maybe something in the road cut the tire causing a blow out.im sure someone can look at the tire to see what the cause was

 

Damn, some people will do almost anything to get a new bike! I'm glad your hear to tell use about it.

 

Glad you are going to be ok.Sounds like you did everything right. No control when you are being steered from the back tire flopping.

 

I had bought and installed both front and rear Elite 3's last July 2011. I looked at the manufacture date on both tires when I bought them and they were both within the past year (one was late quarter 2010 and one was early 2011 stamps).

 

Any deflated tire will separate from the rim. What caused the immediate deflation is the question. How big is the puncture that the dealer found?

 

I have a tire pressure monitors but in this case I don't think they would have made a difference.

 

I am glad that you will be okay!
One thing that makes me wonder is the tire pressure, 40 psi appears high to me, but then I am wrong most of the time. My front tire pressure is specified to 36 psi.