Yup. About 2/3 of the way home from work (which is 11 miles from home), I hit a 16 penny nail on the shoulder of the 50mph 6 lane, of course at the bottom of a long hill... The rear tire went out immediately, almost like a blowout. Scared the bejesus out of me, had to bring the bike to a stop with the rear end fishtailing around at 30-35 mph...
I've only had this bike for about a month. I've been replacing cables and carb jets, installing an aircleaner that was missing when I got the bike, polishing the wheels, decorating her with jewelry, trying to make her look tough... A couple of weeks ago, I bought her a new cable lock, a 10-pack of bungee cords (which I keep in the left saddlebag), and a tire repair kit. I carry tools, spare parts, a flashlight, an extra gallon of gas, a couple of bottles of 2-stroke oil, gloves, etc...
Anyway, I found the nail in the tire, pried the tire off of the rim at the fault (on the shoulder, with traffic whizzing by at 50mph at 6:20pm, and it is starting to get dark), found two holes in the innertube and patched them up with my new patch kit.
Guess what?
A patch kit will do you no good if you have no source of air to re-inflate your tire.
So, I pushed the bike up the hill, which I could reasonably call 1/4 mile, with a rear flat. No fun.
Fortunately for me, there is a used car lot with a repair shop at the top of the hill, and a couple of guys were still there, after hours, with the shop doors open.
"Got an airhose I can use?" I asked them. I pulled my bike into the 2 bay garage and filled the rear tire. Air hissed out of the tire, and it went flat again.
My bike is shaft driven, and the rear axle bolt is only attached on one side, so I was able to completely remove the innertube without removing the wheel. (Damn that's smooth!) I pulled the innertube, over-inflated it, and found ANOTHER hole near the two I had already patched. Patched that one up, no more hissing, thanked the guys that were just hanging out there waiting for a friend, made some small talk about VWs...
"That's a cute little thing," one of them remarks. I've heard the work "cute" several times since I got the bike, and it doesn't help that it is a Yamaha QT 50 (get it? "Cutie")... Shit. Oh well.
I stopped by Kmart and bought a bicycle pump, and mounted it to the bike when I got home.
Can you carry enough tools and parts to be prepared for anything?
david