It’s important to know your motorcycle, on the road and off. If something doesn’t seem right, it’s ok to have it looked at.
I was riding my street bob through town one afternoon, and it just didn’t feel right. I knew something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t figure it out on my own. Every time I would take this “said route” through town, I encountered two big curves back to back. Once to the right and then immediately to the left. It felt like my bike was going to pull right out from underneath me. My now ex-husband kept telling me that nothing was wrong. It got to the point that I didn’t even like riding any more. I would get a pit in my stomach and was tired of getting yelled at. One day when messing around, it occurred to me that the adjustments I made when drag racing this bike in Sturgis wasn’t getting set back to original settings for riding on the street. I knew we dropped a few pounds of air out of the rear tire at the strip, but always assumed that when we got home, it was re-adjusted. Especially when I was told it was “ready to go”. Once the proper amount of air was put back into the rear tire, BOOM! New bike.
A friend of mine was on a long trip with her husband. They stopped along the way because something didn’t feel right to her. She said it feels like my rear tire is moving. He had her pull in at a shop and have someone take a look at it. Nothing. It looked ok. Pressure was good. They sent her on her way. They had 200 miles to make it home, and they decided to get home and then deal with it. When they got home, they unloaded the bikes and went to move them around. Her husband then noticed the rear tire was uneven. He moved the bike forward just a little bit, and the rear tire looked fine. The tire was coming apart from the inside causing it to shift back and forth as she was riding it. If the tire had stopped at just the right spot when the mechanic took a look at it, they would have found this when she stopped. So make sure to move the bike around a little when checking the tires. I’m glad she made it home in one piece!
Until next time……..Ride Hard or Go Home!
There is an excellent article on Bikernet Baggers from Avon which covers all aspects of tires and tire maintenance – to read CLICK HERE
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