Red Light

[Skywagon]

Do you know what the red triangle 🔺 flashing light is without looking it up?  Unfortunately I do as it has happened twice. Today on Texas highway with speed limit 85!I went from completely calm to emergency in less than 10 seconds. I hope you never see it

[Boxflyer]

Hi David,

I guess you are not going to be waiting until the UN Rally to get your tires installed now...?

Or are you going to plug this one?

Brad

[Aussie Mark]

Ouch

Sounds like you had no time to reset the Master Caution light, but got the bike stopped safely..  

 

[Lowndes]

You OK??

[Skywagon]

1 hour ago, Boxflyer said:

are you going to plug this one

I had to plug to get home. I was 180 miles fro home and about 50 miles from nearest town. It plugged nicely, but I don’t know if I want to ride 10 hours In July on a plugged tire. I’m still thinking about it. How much do you trust a plugged tire for a long ride?

 

Lowndes… yep ok. Sure did get squirrelly fast. I saw the light come on and by the time ( a couple of seconds) I figured out what was happening the display was reading zero. Unlucky/lucky day

[reg26]

Happened to me once. Doing about 70 mph and the wonderful red light came on. I was lucky I had taken the MOA tire insurance as the tire had maybe 1500 miles on it. MOA paid for the new tire so it was only about a three hour delay to my ride but definitely gets your attention when cruising at high speed. 

[Boxflyer]

23 minutes ago, Skywagon said:

How much do you trust a plugged tire for a long ride?

 

David,

Life is too short to ride on questionable tires.  The consternation it would cause between now and the UN Rally the first week of July is not worth it.

Buy whatever flavor tire you think checks the most boxes for you, whether it's performance, life of the tread, comfort, cost per mile...whatever, get a professional installer to mount/balance them and enjoy the rest of your summer!

 

I've ridden too many miles on plugged tires...never had a failure of the plug, but I was WAY to distracted day in and day out thinking about it.

At our age, reduce the number of things that contribute to "brain fatigue" and enjoy all the things that make you smile, or hum, or keep you from gritting your teeth when the pucker factor is ticking upwards!

 

I'm sure you will do what's right for you.

Brad

[Skywagon]

Brad...you confirmed what I was thinking.  I was nervous all the way home.  One eye on the road and one eye on the TPMS the whole time.  It was a bigger hole that it looked too.  This happened to me several year ago on a new Michelin 5Road.  It had about 150 miles on it.  I wrote Michelin a note an ask if they recommended patching or just get a new tire..They sent me a new tire for free...still had to pay to have it put on.  So........I'll do new tires as soon as I can. Next week is MotoGP in Austin and I was going to ride there, but taking the cage is fine.  The following 10 days I'll be fishing in Belize...Then an offshore red-snapper trip out of Freeport.  You might gather it's fishing season.  

 

I'll call the BMW shop in the morning and see what they can do. Since retirement 5 years ago now...I don't worry about anything anymore...no time to increase the pucker factor with a compromised tire.  Thanks for getting me back to my instinct.

[MichiganBob]

It's a sensible solution. At 75 and retired, I want nothing to interfere with my bike trips. When I was young and dumb, I had to be more frugal. Now I get to enjoy the fruits of my hard work. Maybe it is about deserves. And there's no Brinxs truck behind the hearst. Just saying. Ride safe. Catch fish. 

[Dave_in_TX]

About two years ago, I picked this up in my rear tire in Clovis NM on a Sunday morning, on my way home, about 500 miles away. I inserted two strings from my Nealey patch kit and after airing up the tire I was able to ride home on it. It did have a slow leak so I stopped twice to add air when the TPMS let me know it was a couple of psi low.

 

 

 

A

 

A couple of years earlier, I was on my way to Ashville NC, only about two hours from home when I got the flashing red triangle with the air pressure in the punctured tire displayed on the dash. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was loosing about one psi per second.  That warning was enough for me to pull over to a safe place before the bike got "squirrely". I patched that tire (also using the Nealey kit) and continued on with my trip. I kept my tire pressures displayed for the reminder of the trip there and back but fortunately, that tire held air as good as before the puncture. I rode that tire until it needed replacement due to wear.

[Rockosmith]

I feel your pain. This got into a tire with 500 miles on it. Happened at 10 mph instead of 85 so the pucker factor was eliminated. Took 2 plugs to seal it enough to get home. 

[Dave_in_TX]

10 hours ago, Rockosmith said:

I feel your pain. This got into a tire with 500 miles on it. Happened at 10 mph instead of 85 so the pucker factor was eliminated. Took 2 plugs to seal it enough to get home. 

I'm surprised that two plugs were enough. 

[Red]

The local tire shop has a jar at the front desk with things they've pulled from tires.  Amazing and entertaining.  Well, unless one of them came from your tire I suppose.

[Wayne Johnson]

I can remember as a kid riding about 10 miles home from work after midnight on a flat tubeless front on my honda 750f !  Corners were a little hairy but the faster you went on the straight the smoother it was!!  Tire plugs didn't exist to my limited knowledge back then. At the Great Falls rally i picked up a screw hours after the show closed up sat and decided not to attempt to plug it and have to wait however long to get started home. I kept an eye on the tpm and only had to add air every two days coming home but the screw was nearly impossible to find after getting home.