On the way to work this morning I got some full-frontal re-tread from a Semi. Traffic was bad and it was dark so I didn't see it until it was flying at me.

I thought I made it through OK, but then I heard a clanging and felt something metal scraping under my pegs. Turns out it ripped off the spring from my jiffy stand off. Fortunately, I made it off the road without further incident.

Once I saw what happened, I thought I'd just zip tie the stand to the frame. Only I didn't consider how I was gonna keep the bike upright while I did it. I screwed around with that idea until the sun came up and I found an old bungee cord in my bag. It was black so I didn't see it at first. It's the kind with the ball on the end. It took me a few minutes to figure it out, but this is how I was able to limp to the nearest shop.

While sitting on the bike, I kicked the stand back with my heel and caught the little ball in my hand. It was an easy reach down to hook the ball end around the frame.


Figured I pass the idea along for your emergency road kits. It will always be in mine.

Everything else worked out well. No other damage. The Indy shop had a replacement spring in stock, although they charged me a 1/2 hour of labor for a 5 minute job...I wasn't in the complaining mood considering how bad things could have gone at 80mph, in the dark, surrounded by zombies and trucks at O-dark-30.

 

Nice little improv there!

Lucky the alligator hide wasn't a few feet higher....

 

Wow squid, glad your okay. We see those on the side of the freeway everyday.

 

Glad it worked out OK for you!

I'm sure if that had happened at a dealer, from some members here we'd be reading about the crappy tactics of the "stealership".

 

Been there done that. I keep plenty of zip ties in my bag. Last time it happened I found a 4X4 post to lean my bike against and zipped it up. BTW, maybe a local thing but we refer to those truck throws as gators.

 

Wow that is scary.
by the way, we don't call them gators down here because we don't want to confuse it with the gators on the road.
We call them tire treads;-)

 

Glad to hear you made it out ok. That woulda left a mark for sure. Nice MacGyver job on the stand

 

Glad you are ok, that has always been one of my dreaded fears while riding behind or along side those tractor trailers...tire tread flying back at me.

 

I took a chunk that was almost 3/4 of the thread of the tire into the windshield of my truck a few years back. Shattered the windshield and pushed it in a full 8 inches, but didn't come all the way through. Highway patrol in the next lane saw it happened and hit the party lights and stopped the truck whose insurance repainted my hood and replaced the windshield. All that I could think of was had I of been on the bike, it would have killed me!

I won't stay close behind a truck for long...

Your lucky, bubba! Glad it wasn't 2feet higher and a foot to the right!

 

I sometimes lose those jiffy stand springs on speed bumps. I carry a bungee cord for the same reason.