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General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> First flat @#*%&!
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Message started by Starlifter on 09/18/07 at 17:23:16

Title: First flat @#*%&!
Post by Starlifter on 09/18/07 at 17:23:16

Beautiful warm fall day here, so I tooke a ride hither and yon in Canada. 140 miles later I was pulling into my driveway and the bike started feeling squirrely. The driveway is 1000 feet long and by the time I reached the garage...rear tire was completly flat...bummer.
I cannot seem to find a nail or anything in the tire but it was getting dark.
I guess I will have to trailer the bike to the stealership tomorrow and get it fixed for an arm and a leg.
Removing the rear tire, belt, etc. looks depressingly difficult....sigh. :-/

Title: Re: First flat @#*%&!
Post by T-Mack1 on 09/18/07 at 17:47:07

Removing rear wheel is not difficult....just tedious. A lot of people take the wheel off themselves and take it down to the Stealership for the mount & balance. Would save some $$ on the labor charges...

Did you check the tech section for procedures??

Title: Re: First flat @#*%&!
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 09/18/07 at 17:50:06

NO way! YOu can do this, it's easy! All ya need is something strong to hang the bike from, pull the seat & run a rope thru the fram, hook a come along in it & hoist the thing off the ground. Loosen the adjusters for the belt tension,KNock the axle loose, remove the rear brake adjuster, start taking it apart, not zaklee a "piece O cake" the first time, but paying to have the wheel removed is a bit pricey.

How many miles on the tire? If it's very much used, slap a frsh one on.

Title: Re: First flat @#*%&!
Post by sluggo on 09/18/07 at 18:08:03

time to build yourself a bike lift as mentioned inthe tech section. real easy and cheep.

Title: Re: First flat @#*%&!
Post by thumperclone on 09/18/07 at 18:47:22

my driveway is the BEST place in the world for me to get a flat...

Title: Re: First flat @#*%&!
Post by Starlifter on 09/18/07 at 19:22:50

Hmm, some good avice on do-it-yourself here.
I think I will take a fresh look at the situation in the morning.
By the way the tire had only a tad over 4K miles on it.

Title: Re: First flat @#*%&!
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 09/18/07 at 21:35:24

Look at tread depth & consider the time needed to finish the tire off Safely. Then decide.
If you use a rope to hoist the thing, make sure the sling wont allow the bike to rotate & lay over. Use half hitches or whatever suits ya, but make sure the frame cant lean in the loop of rope, cuz it will if it can. The handlebars will seek the pavement while you wrestle the rear wheel out. I didnt let it smack, but I had to hustle once.

Title: Re: First flat @#*%&!
Post by Savage_Greg on 09/19/07 at 06:37:12

justin_o_guy2 wrote:

I love it. All this sounds easy? I think tire removal is easy. You think it's easy. I even know what half-hitches are, but let's face it, that doesn't sound easy :P

However, Justin is right. It's a matter of perspective. If you want to remove (or change) the tire, it can be easy. If you don't want to, it will be hard.

Title: Re: First flat @#*%&!
Post by Starlifter on 09/19/07 at 19:03:12

Ah, success! I took the bike via trailer to a friends house who has a kind of a block and tackle lift thing in his garage. He knew a bit more about what we were doing than I did and we got the tire off.
I drove the tire to the dealer where they discovered a small bent nail in the thing that had punctured the inner tube.
One new inner tube, a refinflated tire back on the rim, and we were in business.
Back to the friends house with the tire and a 12 pack for his efforts, some reassembly and everything is as good as new.
Was it easy? no. Did it work out? yes. Did I save money from having the stealership do the work? At $75.00 an hour for labor you bet I did!
I was suprised at how small the nail was that brought on the flat, but I am very glad that there was no catastrophic tire failure...that would have been the stuff of nightmares.
Thanks to all for advice and instructions. :D

Title: Re: First flat @#*%&!
Post by T-Mack1 on 09/19/07 at 19:33:18

So Starlifter, now that you saw how's it's done, in an emergency, do you think you would be able to do it by yourself? ? ? ?

Title: Re: First flat @#*%&!
Post by Starlifter on 09/21/07 at 09:47:00

Yes. ;D

Title: Re: First flat @#*%&!
Post by islandwahine on 09/21/07 at 10:14:04

You're so lucky the tire didn't go flat on you on the road somewhere!!! And double lucky that the axle bolt came off easily. I still haven't been able to straighten out the back tire. Axle bolt doesn't have edges on it anymore, looks pretty round, like someone use the wrong wrench. I'm gonna have to go to the stealership to get that one taken off. Is that just a bolt or is it actually the whole axle? If it is it means I would have to buy a new one :'(.

Title: Re: First flat @#*%&!
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 09/21/07 at 11:37:41

If you want to buy a new one, you can do that. I would be willing to haul mine to a welder & have the head ground down & weld a nut on, depending on the price of the new axle & the cost of having it fixed & then factoring in the "Ugly" of the fix. REally, holding the axle isnt that hard. You might be able to just reshape the head to accept a smaller wrench, if you are willing to spend the time. You would save all the $$ for the fix. If the edges are rolled & the metal is still there, quite a bit can be accomplished with a hammer & punch, to reshape the head of the bolt. The torque required to hold the axle while the nut is tightened is less than the torque to tighten the nut, since there is a washer under the nut & none under the axle. You can make that work for you by using a bit of antisieze or oil on the washer. You can do lots of things to the axle end that allows you to get hold of it.