Great ride ended with hail, blown tire, and ...

[ButterSmooth]

Rode ~200 miles today with another 18 in a Jeep with my Spyder on the trailer behind us. Almost made it home on the bike before disaster struck.

Started out as a beautiful day 75-84 degrees and patchy clouds. 22 miles from home there was a sudden marble sized hail storm. It was small and I could see the sunlight on the road a half mile ahead. I scrunched down behind the wind screen and rode on toward the 'light'. With all the hail and rain my vision was obscured and then it happened. BANG!! I was then riding on the right front wheel alone; The left came down quickly and finally the rear. Never saw what I hit, but I'm assuming it was a rock.

I pulled to the shoulder and two brothers that had been cutting firewood instantly came around the bend. It was so quick that I didn't have much time to check out the Spyder, but it wasn't going anywhere with a shredded rear tire. The tire had just over 6000 miles on it and looked to be less than half worn. Got to a place with cell service and called my son to come with the trailer to haul us home.

So, the RT is out on the trailer and I'll get a look at it tomorrow. It's somewhere between needing a new tire and totaled with frame damage.

Funny part is four days ago I rescued a BMW rider who had a rear wheel bearing failure. Quickest payback I've ever had!

 

[Peter Aawen]

Ouch! :yikes:

I can't say I liked to hear that, but thanks for posting it anyway, and glad to hear you're OK!! I hope that it's just the 'new tire' fix option (is it just one new tire needed, or the rear tire and a front left tire?? ) and not anything worse?! :dontknow:




I know you're usually running pretty close to 'appropriate pressures' in a/mkt tires, but can I ask if you know what pressures you were running in your tires when this occurred, & what they were?? They were after-market tires, weren't they?? :dontknow: . I have a vague recollection that you were running Vredesteins up front & a Yokohama on the rear... but my 'forgettery' is working progressively harder & more often as time goes by.... :banghead: . I reckon this's gotta be something to do with my memory getting too full - if I take in any new stuff it seems to be pushing out some old stuff just to make room, only it's not always the oldest stuff that goes first! Now where did I put my morning coffee?? I'm sure I had it here just a moment ago!? :cus:

 

[ButterSmooth]

Ouch! :yikes:
...
Can I ask what pressures you were running in your tires?? They were after-market tires, weren't they?? :dontknow: . I have a vague recollection that you were running Vredesteins up front & a Yokohama on the rear... :cus:

Your memory is actually quite impressive Peter. :bowdown: You nailed the tires and I run 19.5 psi in front and 16.4 psi in the rear. The Yoko was holding up very well -- it's early demise is a shame. As luck would have it, I had a new Vredestein mounted on my spare wheel two weeks ago.

I couldn't stop myself from taking another look this evening and it looks like the rock (or whatever it was) slid under the plastic nose and then rolled under the frame, launching the Spyder and me skyborne. Deep scrape on the plastic and a nice dent in the main frame tube, which looks otherwise straight. The straight edge will tell the rest of that story.

I can't see any rear wheel damage, but it wouldn't surprise me if it is bent. The sidewall of the tire has a big tear.

The good news is the way the Spyder handled the flight and landing. When one front wheel hit the ground it went straight -- I expected it to turn in and flip the whole bike. With both undamaged fronts on the ground the flopping/flapping rear tire was easily controlled to a stop.

 

[Peter Aawen]

Thanks for that! ^^ :thumbup:

Sounds like there's not much else you could've done, and it's probably good luck more than anything else that the result/damage wasn't markedly worse!! :shocked: And it doesn't bear thinking of how bad it could've been if you hit said rock while riding a 2 Wheeler!! :yikes: These Spyders of ours really are surprisingly stable things, even without the Nanny intervening, aren't they!? hyea:

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Glad to hear you survived that .... I'm quite surprised that this occurred to a Yokohama tire, the rock (?) must have had a nasty shape ...... Mike hyea:

 

[ButterSmooth]

Glad to hear you survived that .... I'm quite surprised that this occurred to a Yokohama tire, the rock (?) must have had a nasty shape ...... Mike hyea:

Thanks Mike. I had to laugh at my signature line since I have now flown a Spyder. I'm going back in the morning to see if the rock (or whatever) can be found. If so, I'll post a picture. There was one suspect back up the road a ways, but it was about the size of a 5 gallon paint can. This is volcano country and there are some very nasty rocks. The tear in the tire sidewall looks like a spear puncture. I didn't see any tread face damage -- closer look tomorrow.

 

[Mikey]

I would love to see what you hit.

 

[Pooch]

As soft as the paint is on the 2020’s and up I am curious if the hail chewed it up very much or if it survived pretty well.. ?
That was intense… glad you are ok.

 

[liv2cod]

I once ran over a piece of angle iron in my car. As the tire passed over it, the angle part came up and ripped out the sidewall. Bye-bye tire. Look for a funny shaped rock or debris. A hook shape can leave the tire intact and rip out the sidewall.

 

[ButterSmooth]

Went rock hunting today. As it turns out, there was a rock slide (storm induced I assume) where I hit the rock. The slide must have happened between me and the truck that was about 500 yards ahead. I looked for one with paint or scrapes but there were far too many to make a positive ID. Most of them were about the size of a cinder block, a few larger and not many smaller. They were all jagged and it's easy to imagine one of these rolling onto it's long side and popping me up in the air. There is damage on the wheel and it looks to be bent. Fortunately I have a spare. It was one hell of a BANG when I hit it, but the front lip wasn't damaged so it must have been less than 8" tall when flat on the ground -- contact was made about 1/2" back from the front of the lip. The hail didn't damage the paint or windshield, but there are numerous flattened fins on the radiators. Going on the ramps and jack today for a more thorough inspection and wheel change. Hope the pulley/belt and disc/caliper escaped damage.

 

[ButterSmooth]

Unloaded and jacked up the RT today. Much worse than my initial impression. The front of the frame is bashed in and curled up. It is out of it's normal straight alignment, bent up about an inch based on a straight edge. The bottom of the frunk is gone and the frame is well above the nose skid plate. The two 'wing' sub frame sections that mount the skid plates are curled up and the upward deflection of the frame box section is obvious. The skid plates are toast.

Looks like a total to me unless the frame can be replaced. My assumption is that all the required parts won't be available. That being said, the insurance adjuster will be calling...

 

[budvoss]

Wow, sorry to hear that. You are very lucky as in no damage to you

 

[Peteoz]

Wow, Butter, you don’t do things by halves, do you ? It’s good to hear that YOU escaped unharmed. Here’s hoping that the repair/replacement goes very smoothly for you :thumbup:

Pete

 

[Columbia]

Bummer about the bike.

Not a bummer: you're well and able to investigate the bummer above.

 

[Raven]

Bikes can be replaced, people can't.
Glad you are ok.

 

[ARtraveler]

Another card on the pile for...glad no one got hurt. That was truly a "bad one." :bowdown:

 

[Tango]

Wow that's insane! Hope they deal with you honestly. :thumbup: Tom :spyder:

 

[FrogmanDave]

That's plum crazy!

 

[UtahPete]

In retrospect, is there anything you could / would do differently?

 

[ButterSmooth]

In retrospect, is there anything you could / would do differently?

Every bit of my experience from 60 years of riding (as of May 20, 2023) and 30+ years of Engineering tells me this was the rarest of rare double events. The first event was the timing of that rolling rock and the second was me surviving without a scratch. This was a double 'Black Swan Event' if ever there was one. What an opportunity for stoicism. While not looking forward to the insurance battle that's ahead, I'm not at all upset -- I got the BIG win.

As Peter pointed out, this is a tremendous endorsement of the Spyder's robustness, stability and safety. The same situation in a car would have had the airbag breaking my face. The RT paid the full price and I, none.