Post by scrap on Aug 27, 2018 23:27:51 GMT 10
Despite being on two wheels for over 40 years, I still attend advanced rider courses every few years - although its getting harder to find good new ones.
A few months ago, I was travelling up one of the nicest windy roads in the area. An Alfa Romeo sports beat me into the corner so I had to "follow" him. Despite the low posted speed limit, the road affords open speed limit conditions. The Alfa set some challenging speeds as I chased him up the hill, completely forgetting that the "direct of finance" was pillioning, but she leaned into the bends well and only smacked the helmet once when I got very close to the Armco fencing.
The Alfa turned off so I eased off to about 80kmh on a straight stretch on road that was open, up and down the valleys. Coming over the last rise, the rear of the bike jumped. Initially I thought the pillion had moved in the seat, but eh steering became unmanageable and the bike veered across the road towards opposing traffic.
I realised that the rear tyre had collapsed and the rim was riding on the bead, steering the bike. Training kicked in
- No rear brake
Ease on the front brake
Steer - List item 2
- List item 3
The bead/rim forced the bike to go right, but I had little time as there was a line of traffic approaching. I turned harder right, directing the bike towards the right hand verge. Having mad it that far, I dropped the bike into the culvert which controlled the direct of the bike and helped wash off more speed. I managed to miss the traffic by a few metres. When I finally was able to stop the bike, my pillion was sitting on the left saddle bag, the bike lying on the right on my right leg.
The pillion climbed off with a comment "That was fun!" but she hadn't panicked, kept calm and trusted me to sort out the situation. I managed to extricate myself from under the bike, stand the bike up and checked the rear tyre. Bits of torn tube were showing between the tyre and rim. The tube had blown. It had been pinched at installation.
Thankfully the tube lasted until I was on a straight stretch of road and thank heavens for advanced rider training.