Nail in the Tire

Wow - I dodged a bullet on this one. First of all, while I'm still working on my EV bike project, I do still need to get out and ride, so I do have an ICE bike. It's an old 85 Vulcan 700 - a cool bike. It was ahead of it's time in several ways (two spark plugs for each cylinder, auto canceling turn signals, hazard signal function, etc).

I just put this bike on the road recently and had to get a new back tire to pass inspection. No problem it's money well spent. Less than 200 miles later, I picked up a nail. What is more odd is the way in which it lodged in the tire. When I picked up the bike at the shop (they've been in business for years and have seen a lot of tires), they asked me if I had been shot at with a nail gun.

That tire was so new it still had the little nipple things in the center of the tire. *sigh*

The odd thing is that I remember when I picked it up. I was riding along the Blue Ridge Parkway, I started hearing a subtle but strange high pitched sound from the right hand side of the bike. Well, that's where the nail lodged. I had only been riding this bike for a short time, so I didn't stop and check. I wish I had - the last part of my ride had me doing over 60 MPH on a separated highway.

While I normally examine my tires from time to time to make sure that nothing is wrong, my wife beat me to it. She was down in the garage and said "OMG - look at that!".

So, I now have a new tire. I hate having to pay again, but it beats tire failure!