Brigitta gets a ride in the Trailer

Yep, once again, Brigitta, my '87 BMW R80 Airhead had to be taken home by trailer.  Last time, the transmission input spline had worn away to the point it no longer engaged.  Today, it was a flat rear tire.

I was motoring home eastbound on 17th street heading away from Downtown Denver, as I neared Peoria Street, I hear a loud noise and it felt like my rear tire had clipped some object on the road.  I distinctly remember seeing a dark object flying across the street in my left side mirror.

Nothing felt wrong at the time so I didn't stop.  I continued for perhaps two miles, the rear of the motorcycle feeling a bit "squishy"....I stopped after turning right onto Smith Road from Peoria and checked the tire.  It felt soft to the touch so I knew it was low on air.

I rotated the tire at least twice looking for punctures and finding none.  I was perplexed since my air gauge reported zero pressure in the tire!  I broke out my electric air pump and aired up the tire, it never got above 20 PSI even though I let the pump run for at least ten minutes!  Weird.

I decided to head back towards a gas station I'd seen on the way to Smith Road, thinking perhaps my air pump wasn't up to the task of inflating the rear tire to 32 PSI.  And yes, the mystery of where the air had gone and my not seeing any punctures nagged at me.

I rode slowly, the rear end feeling quite squishy, for perhaps a half mile and then I spied an air fill up station at a 7-11 convenience store so I stopped there.  After $1 and five minutes of pumping air into the tire, it still wouldn't rise above 20 PSI.....hmmmm.  I rotated the tire some more and this time I managed to hear air escaping and found this:

One heck of a cut isn't it?  No way I could repair that with my

tire puncture kit!

Apparently the tire has some strong sidewalls, this is without any air!

First move was to call roadside assistance, after navigating through the automated voice prompts, finally got a live person and they promised to send a tow truck my way.  I called Martha to let her know what was going on.  

I got a text message soon afterwards advising it would be about and hour and 45 minutes before the tow truck would arrive!  The neighborhood I was in proved a bit "sketchy" for me so after talking it over with Martha, it was decided they'd hook up the trailer and come get me.

I am happy to report that Miles was able to move the trailer out of the backyard and hook it up with some assistance from Sean, our next door neighbor to make sure all hookups were correct!

A bit over 30 minutes later, my rescuers arrived in the form of Martha and my youngest son Miles, driving Schnitzel the BMW X5 and pulling the Aluma trailer.  Yay.

The following shots were I suspect gleefully taken by Martha as Miles and I rolled Brigitta onto the trailer and I tied her down with straps.

 Miles and I felt all 532 pounds of Brigitta, not counting the stuff in the cases, as

we rolled her up the ramp and onto the trailer bed.

 Here I'm position Brigitta onto her center stand in preparation for the straps.

A later discussion with Oscar over the phone reveals that perhaps the best way is to not use

the center stand but to tie her down on her two wheels, using of course

four straps to the four corners of the trailer.

I am going to have to research proper tie down of two-wheeled motorcycles to be sure.  Still, she was tied fast while on the center stand and her front wheel was in contact with the trailer bed.  I also made sure to secure the center stand to the front wheel so Brigitta wouldn't come off her center stand while being moved!

Upon a safe arrival home, the boys held Brigitta steady while I removed all the straps.

 We carefully rolled her backwards down the ramp, me using the front 

brakes to keep her from gaining any speed or getting away from us.

Safely on the ground, we pushed poor Brigitta into the garage,

there to await Friday when I can remove her rear wheel and tire

and take it to performancecycle to get a new tire.

I am kind of bummed that this happened on what was basically a brand new tire with less than 2000 miles on it!  But, the fact that it held up enough to allow me to slowly ride it to the 7-11 is truly a fortunate thing.  I am glad I stopped to check instead of ignoring the squishiness and attributing it wrongly to bad pavement conditions!

So, a successful test of the Chang Rescue Team in coming to pick me up!  I had intended a rehearsal to work out procedures but I think we'll call this one good.