A funny thing happened on the way to today's ride

[melissam]

Alternate thread titles:
- Best.Excuse.Ever (for not doing a ride)
- Flat tires - they're not just for bicycles anymore



My plan for today was to ride to the beach. I figured I'd get in a good 60-70 miles with a bit of climbing, as well as beat the heat and get away from the smoke. Maybe meet the housemates in San Gregorio for lunch at the General Store.

Well you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men. Actually, what is the end of that quote? (Oh, I reckon I could google it.)

Ahem, anyway, there I was, driving on the good ol' 280 freeway to my starting point at a nice clip (oh maybe 70 mph or so), when my car adopted some mighty peculiar handling dynamics. With the funky handling and the sound emanating from the floorboards, I was pretty sure that I had a flat tire, so I pulled off to the shoulder and put on the hazard signals. Got out of the car, walked up to the hood, and peeked at the passenger front tire.

It was shredded. Not only that, but the smell of burnt rubber was overpowering.

At this point, I should mention that since I had been driving, ahem rather fast, I'd been in the left lane. So, I'd pulled over to the left shoulder of 280. Cars were whizzing by at oh, 70 - 80mph. Not only that, there's 5 or 6 lanes of traffic whizzing by. Basically, I didn't want to change my tire right there or try to get over 5 lanes of traffic so I could exit the freeway with my shredded tire.

What to do? Well, I called my housemates to let them know that I wasn't going to be meeting them in San Gregorio for lunch. They suggested that I call the CHP to help me get out of my predicament. So I did. CHP sent an officer (really nice guy who confirmed that my tire was indeed shredded) and dispatched a AAA truck.

Meanwhile, my housemates passed me on the freeway -- honking and waving. Then they passed me in the other direction. I think they got a kick out of seeing me stopped on the freeway with a CHP car behind me. Oh, and during all this, my brother called and by coincidence was driving in the area. "Well, if you see someone stopped in the center divide of 280 with a CHP behind them, that'd be me!" He offered to come and help, but really, at that point there was nothing he could do.

The AAA guy came, surveyed the situation, and decided to tow my car to the nearest offramp. He certainly didn't want to change the tire with the traffic whizzing by his ear. He hooked me up (by the way, it's possible to tow your car with a bicycle rack attached to a hitch.) Then he had the unenviable job of merging over 5 lanes of fast-moving, uncooperative traffic. Fortunately, our friend the CHP officer was still there, and after it became very evident that people weren't going to yield out of the goodness of their hearts, the CHP officer turned his lights on. Funny, it was like the Red Sea had parted.

We got off the freeway and found a nice spot for him to change the tire. I was hoping we'd find a spot with shade for his sake, but he wasn't that picky. In a jiffy, the space saver spare was on my car, and my old tire (minus several chunks of rubber) was in my trunk. The smell of burnt rubber was overpowering.

From there, I took surface streets to my neighborhood tire dealer. Since I have almost 40,000 miles on my car, I figured it was time to treat my car to a new set of shoes. We decided on a nice replacement set, and I went for a nice little 30 mile bike ride while they mounted the new set of tires on my car.

[jobob]

Wow, what a day!

[kjay]

What do you suppose could have caused that tire to be shredded like that? I mean a flat is one thing, but a totally shredded tire is yet another. Sure glad you're safe and even had a chance to ride 30 miles yet. What a goer!

[ilima]

I've never seen anything like that. You should definitely see if you can get some $$ towards tire replacement.

[RoadRaven]

Good gracious Melissa!

I dont think I have ever seen anything quite like this either

So pleased you got to the side safely, got to the garage and (MOST IMPORTANTLY) still got to go for a decent ride

[lph]

"go oft astray".

Gah, that tire is SCARY!

[Mr. Bloom]

melissam: many of us who live in less developed areas often don't understand how serious and treacherous a flat tire can be for "city folk". It's great that you were able to get off and get help safely!

What could it be?

• Road hazard? - there may be some evidence of that upon inspection of the tire
• Product Flaw? - tread separate was a serious problem for steel belted radials 20 years ago and that's what they looked like

I'd investigate a bit more if the tire is still around...I've never had this happen like this. Probably shouldn't have unless you had driven on it for some distance at high speed.

[sfa]

Yikes! That's a bad blowout--I'm glad you got off the road safely and got the professionals to help.

The ending of the quote is "gang aft agley" but no one knows what that means unless they're a Scot so mostly you hear "go oft awry" or some such variation. If you want to read the whole poem (because who has anything better to do?) it's here: http://www.robertburns.org/works/75.shtml

Sarah

[melissam]

sfa & lph, thanks for the info on the literary quote. "Gang aft agley" sounds like something I'd mumble after having a few too many post-ride beers!

Now, about the tire...true confession time. I've been really, really slacking on my car maintenance habits. The last time I checked my tire pressure on the TSX was a couple of weeks ago. My tires were holding their pressure well, so I wasn't dilgent in checking them. Yesterday I was in a rush to get out of the house, get to the starting point, and get on my bike & out to the beach -- I don't even think I glanced at my tires.

My driveway had a slight trail of rubber where my right tire would have traveled. I'm almost positive that the tire was dangerously low when I left the house. Not only did I not see the problem, I didn't even notice issues with handling problems on the way out to the freeway. As someone who considers herself a car enthusiast, this is more than a little embarrassing.

Well, it's a good wakeup call to do a better job on car maintenance.

Also, I'm really, really grateful that:

• I was able to get over to the shoulder without hurting myself or anyone else on the freeway
• I had really great help from the CHP and AAA
• My wheel was not damaged
• It happened when it was time to replace the tires anyway
• I have the $$ to replace all four tires
• And yes, most importantly, I STILL got to go for a bike ride!

[Tuckervill]

You can check to see if your tires were recalled at this website:

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...callsearch.cfm

We had a Ford Explorer with the exploding tires. The replacement tires were not any better. Worst tires EVER. But I didn't have to buy them..Firestone did.

Karen

[Geonz]

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men/Gang aft agley.

That's a tired tire. Glad you didn't get creamed!!

[melissam]

You can check to see if your tires were recalled at this website:

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...callsearch.cfm

We had a Ford Explorer with the exploding tires. The replacement tires were not any better. Worst tires EVER. But I didn't have to buy them..Firestone did.

Karen

That's a great website! Thanks for the link!

I have to ask, though, what kind of tires were on the Ford Exploder...er, Explorer? I've had a couple of tires that I haven't been too fond of, but nothing that I absolutely hated.

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men/Gang aft agley.

That's a tired tire. Glad you didn't get creamed!!

Yeah, I really dodged a bullet on this one! I'm still thanking my lucky stars, believe me!

[Tuckervill]

It's old news (from the '90s), but here's a quote. Ever since this there has been extreme scrutiny on tires.

The Firestone tire recall is perhaps the most deadly auto safety crisis in American history. US regulators on 16 October, 2000 have raised the death count to 119 (the death count has steadily risen from 62, later to 88 and 101 deaths reported on 9/20/2000). Experts believe there may be as many as 250 deaths and more than 3000 catastrophic injuries associated with the defective tires. Most of the deaths occur in accidents involving the Ford Explorer which tends to rollover when one of the tires blows out.

In May 2000, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration issued a letter to Ford and Firestone requesting information about the high incidence of tire failure on Ford Explorer vehicles. During July, Ford obtained and analyzed the data on tire failure. The data revealed that 15" ATX and ATX II models and Wilderness AT tires had very high failure rates: the tread peels off. Many of the tires were made at a Decatur, Illinois plant. Worse, when the tires fail the vehicle often rolls over and kills the occupants.

[kacie tri-ing]

How scary!!!

Way to go for hopping on the bike anyway....

[aka_kim]

Very scary! And good thing you drive a well-handling sports car and know how to use it! Are you going to follow up to see if the tire was defective?