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So...Yesterday I'm going down the interstate, 3-lane wide at 75 mph (the speed limit) in the middle lane, moderate traffic, slower vehicles in the righthand lane (can u believe it!!} and of course people in the lefthand lane going 80-90 mph, anyway I'm following a car where I feel comfortable I could take evasive action if need be {3-4 seconds behind} and all of a sudden the car I was following whiped it to the left and dead ahead was a full recap truck tire as long as the width of the lane, no way I was going to try and whip my ultra and wreck let alone hoping no one was beside me so I hit it straight on, a couple of bumps and safely came to a stop, bottom of front fender into the tire and curling up under, pulled it out and on my way, feel the fender saved me from doing a Evil Knievel over the bars...lesson learned...even tho your following at safe distance don't assume the car your following is paying attention, if he were, he would merge to avoid and so would I with plenty of time..just had to say cause glad I'm here to ride another day..
Here in Fl we get lots of those type 'gators. As far as outlawing retreads ... most folks in the know will tell you for non-drive wheels a good recap is fine.
The real problem is more along the lines of (lazy?) truckers a)who don't check inflation; b) who overload; c)travel at very high speed or d) combinations of the above.
So...Yesterday I'm going down the interstate, 3-lane wide at 75 mph (the speed limit) in the middle lane, moderate traffic, slower vehicles in the righthand lane (can u believe it!!} and of course people in the lefthand lane going 80-90 mph, anyway I'm following a car where I feel comfortable I could take evasive action if need be {3-4 seconds behind} and all of a sudden the car I was following whiped it to the left and dead ahead was a full recap truck tire as long as the width of the lane, no way I was going to try and whip my ultra and wreck let alone hoping no one was beside me so I hit it straight on, a couple of bumps and safely came to a stop, bottom of front fender into the tire and curling up under, pulled it out and on my way, feel the fender saved me from doing a Evil Knievel over the bars...lesson learned...even tho your following at safe distance don't assume the car your following is paying attention, if he were, he would merge to avoid and so would I with plenty of time..just had to say cause glad I'm here to ride another day..
Years ago I had a car passing me on the left hit one of those and it came up out of nowhere and went about a foot through my windshield and scared the $h!t outta me. My first thought was I was glad I wasn't on my bike!
Here in Fl we get lots of those type 'gators. As far as outlawing retreads ... most folks in the know will tell you for non-drive wheels a good recap is fine.
The real problem is more along the lines of (lazy?) truckers a)who don't check inflation; b) who overload; c)travel at very high speed or d) combinations of the above.
I am over shipping at a steel plant and when I started here all 55 trailers had re-treads. I was replacing tires all the time, almost daily, they were coming apart and even tearing the lights off and ripping floors out of the trailers.
Talked the owner into using virgin tires as replacements until we got them all replaced. Now I hardly ever replace a tire from a blowout and none have separated the tread. This changeover was a little expensive to start with, but has saved the company thousands of dollars over the long run.
Agree on keeping the air pressure checked, but a virgin tire is way, way, less likely to separate the tread from low air pressure.
Like I said, they need to outlaw the da** retreads.
My brother and I were headed for Cherokee NC ( about 30 years ago ) from Detroit for a "Turn and Burn" in the Smokies ... Friday evening about 6:00 outside of Knoxville a Semi ( just ahead of us one lane to the right ) had one explode and it was like a scene from a movie ... There was tire "raining" everywhere .... Still to this day we don't how we didn't get clobbered with "Baby Gators" ... Just lucky I guess !!
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