i'll see your bat/bird and raise you a OMFG!

[aussieidiot]

long story short.

i quit my job and finished on thursday. drank solidly for a few hours to celebrate with the boys. woke up friday morning in the shower with no idea of how-when-why-who-fishnets?

had a meeting in the city at 930 friday morning. in peak hour in a car, the travel time is between 1 hour and 2 hrs. friday it was raining.......

woke up from bathroom floor. felt like a bus accident victim. since i no longer have a company vehicle, i needed to ride to my meeting.

got there somehow without throwing up in my helmet. parked in the street. had meeting. came out to a waiting parking ticket. bummer.

start riding home on the freeway home. i'm stuck behind a large dump truck who was dropping dirt when he hit every bump. eventually i get a chance to overtake.

as i change lanes and accelerate as hard as i could without losing traction. i hear a slight pop and the bike suddenly feels very strange.

this is where i realise whats happened. OH MY F"N GOD my rear tyre has just got a punture causing instant flat. AT 100MPH!!!!!

i have no steering, in traffic, with trucks, in the pissing down rain.

i force my way to the side of the freeway under a bridge to repair the puncture and find a hole you could stick a pencil in.

anyway i took my fishnets off, punched a laughing wallaby and repaired the tyre enough to get to a service station. all the time thinking how bad it could have got.

the scariest thing was instant lack of steering.

[jeffcoslacker]

Yikes.

I've only had one flat on a bike, my 1500 Vulcan caught a huge bolt in the rear tire, I tried to baby it home with the bolt still in, but it spit it out. But that was only at 40 mph or so...

Yeah amazing how much the rear can steer you with a flat...I was crabbing slightly sideways as I came to a stop...

[speediva]

WOW!!!! I don't look forward to ever experiencing a tire blowout on a bike. Glad it worked out semi-okay!!!

[jeffcoslacker]

The best way to deal with it is to work with what the bike wants to do, if possible. fighting it for control results in some very strange reactions. Kinda like it resists what you are trying to do until the sidewall folds the other way, then it "snaps" that direction suddenly...

The front tire blowout is what spooks me. Haven't had that pleasure yet...but a few long distance riders I know have. All were on straight highway cruising when it happened, so it was controllable (to some degree)...obviously if you pop the front while banked over into a turn, you're done for the day...at least...

Punching the wallaby

That's not like "waxing the dolphin" is it? Beacuase you'd get arrested for doing that on the side of the road here...I don't know how the law is down there...

[richtazz]

I'm still stuck on the fishnets, BAD mental image stuck in my head, someone get it out!!!!!

Seriously though, I"m glad to hear you're ok, flats on a bike suck, especially at that speed.

[knorwj]

wow sounds scary as hell. I hope i never get a flat. I've never even had one in a car let alone on my bike.