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Riding on the tire cords

beemerphile said:
The OP started out with... "Only if you had to of course. Like in time of war etc. etc."

Then the pedantic among us chimed in that it should never happen and you should never do that or you risk instant death in a fiery crash. You should never cut a tracheostomy with a Bic pen tube either, but if you've got to do it and it's all you have, you go for it....

http://www.tracheostomy.com/resources/surgery/emergency.htm

OK, I'll plan better next time, but here I am with the cord of my rear tire starting to show. Maybe I didn't check as I should. Maybe my tires are wearing faster than I had accounted for because of temperature or road surface, or because I have never run this brand before and thought they would last longer. Maybe without a tread indicator I mis-judged how much was left. Maybe it is just a damned long way between tire services up here in Alaska / Canada / Egypt. On the Dempster Highway a tow truck is tomorrow and $1,000. If I determine that I need to travel on, how far can I expect to go, or should I park it here at nightfall with grizzly bears peeking at me through the trees and wait for help? It is a reasonable question seeking a reasonable answer.

I'm sure that seized final drives, flung chains, and exploded front forks are less survivable at speed than a rear flat - even a "catastrophic" one. I'm also sure that flats are significantly more common than the former. Given that any get-off at speed could result in a fatality, I am equally sure that there have been many more fatalities from flats. But I know of a fatality from running out of gas because the rider was looking between his legs for why his engine wasn't running right and he hit a signpost. Pilots have died from engine stops because they got caught up in trying to re-start and forgot to fly the airplane.

I have run 200 miles with cord showing. I'm not proud of it, I didn't plan to do it, and I've made changes to try to keep it from happening again. But given the situation I was in, I was prepared to ride it to failure if necessary to try to make safe harbor. I rode cautiously, at lower speed, and rode expecting that the rear could go wobbly on me at any minute. I've managed more than a few flats to the side of the road in my 50 years of this, all while not expecting it. I was mentally prepared for it to happen. If the guy who ran out of gas had watched his mileage and been expecting the power loss, he would have acted instinctively to turn the petcocks while keeping his attention on the road. It is not helpful to tell him he should never run out of gas. A better discussion here might be what to do if it happens so that you don't become another fatality for our trooper to write up and more next of kin to notify.
Click to expand...

Thanks for a very rational response.

In the days before TPM systems, long before, I once rode for several hours on tire that was very soft. At first I attributed the squirrelly ride to the road surface. Eventually, I stopped and discovered a rear tire that looked like a fringed leather jacket. There were strings of rubber hanging off the tire. At this point I was in the middle of Nevada, halfway between Lake Tahoe and Salt Lake City. I put some air in the tire and gingerly rode on that tire into Salt Lake City. It held air fine. I concluded afterward that probably someone had let the air out of it while I was parked overnight, as there was no leak.

As BeemerPhile says, "I didn't plan to do it", but sometimes you get into situations where your options are limited and then you do what you have to.
 
AntonLargiader said:
That tire got damaged, though; it didn't wear out. Maybe it sat flat for a long time. Looks like a cruiser size, so likely no centerstand and he never saw that damaged part when he looked at the tire.
Click to expand...

My thoughts as well, have seen older tires last longer.
I did ask if he bothered checking pressures..."sometimes" was the response on this bike. It was a heavy cruiser and with sidecases and fender out of sight out of mind!

He has many 'Wing miles and I was surprised knowing him that this happened.
 
OK
I got all of the above
Question:
If I have to ride on the cords what is best motor oil to use? Conventional or Synthetic? What grades? Normal for the season or something different??
 
Hey Nick, it should be easy for you to ignore all the grief espoused on this thread..... every morning you wake-up and you are in Telluride, Colorado.

Any knucklehead knows you use Moly Grease and not oil.
 
Tires

My holy crap batman moment! I had purchased a set of metzler z 6's on a close out sale because they were realy cheap the tires on the bike Bridgestone batlaxtive's were about 1/2 worn out so I rode and kept an eye on the back tire , checked the tire pressure a couple of times rode the 1994 R1100RS until the flat spot on the back was starting to get embarrassing and the cupping on the left front was getting annoying so decided to put new tires on. Took the front tire off first, took tire wheel and new tire to shop in town ( independent Harley mechanic ) let him put new tire on. Go to pick up wheel with new tire and pay him he holds up a finger and tells me he put tire on machine gave it a spin and got stabbed by some of the steel belt from the tire. The tires had about 10,000 miles on them which is the average wear I have out of three sets .
The good I will pay closer attention to my tires, and I don't change my own tires yet so the damaged finger was not mine.
 
I checked tire sitting in drive in Tennessee, it still had miles left. Rode to south Georgia, looked again and still had tread so planned to order tire for replacement later. I moved the bike a few feet and saw cords. One side of tire was good while 180 degrees had cord showing. I got scared after it happened. Others have said they had this happen as well. Now inspect entire tire before deciding on how much tread is remaining.

Bob
 
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