Bald FJR Ft Tire, Breakfust, Canadian GS800 & Good Deed

Saturday was a mini-tech day at Panman's awesome garage. Jealous I am.

We [Panman, escapefjrtist, Curly Joe and I] changed tires on Pan's S10. After 19 days 6000 miles of riding in Alaska, the tires were spent.





After taking a good look at those tires, the boys were very lucky because the rear tires had some pretty bad gashes in the tread space. Hopefully Pan will post some pictures in his ride report.

Curly Joe [Rich] bought a used bar back setup on the forum last summer and decided it was time to install it on his 2016ES. escapefjrtist [George] and Rich had that replaced in pretty short order.

George happened to look at my front tire and then gave me a liver lecture [that's what my brothers and I use to call lectures from my dad because a lot of them involved drinking]. George, "I can't believe your riding on that tire. Get your butt up to my place in the morning and we will put a new tire on it before you die". I like to get my dollar's worth but I think the trip to Kennewick Iron Butt check point was a few, okay, a lot of miles to far.



What say you FJR Forum tribe?

George and I replace the old tire in record time. That might have been because the old tire was like a rubber band but I like to think it was because we have done so many before. Then Kevin showed up, our best tire changing tool. "We don't need any stinking levers or bars to put a new tire back on. Just lube that tire up and give it to Kevin and he just strong arms the tire on.

We decide we earned a breakfast so we drove and rode, the big fella was on his FJR, to Snohomish. After solving all of the worlds problems and taking about their Alaska ride George and I headed back to George's home. On the way there on the freaking busy Hwy 2 we saw a rider sitting on the side of the road. When I say side of the road I mean maybe to feet of highway and a deep ditch. Just not a good place to be with traffic going back at 60 or 70 miles per hour. George and I turned around and went back to see if we could help.



The BMW had a flat front tire and was in a bad place. I think I'll let George take over from here on this ride report.

To be continued:

Flat tire and Bring More Oil?

dcarver said:

Flat tire and Bring More Oil?

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If you look to the left of the oil you will see where they are grinding away asphalt for rumble strips. Most likely a heated spot where the machine sat.

That damm garage and my yard are what keeps from finishing the ride report to Alaska, that and my task master wife.

We like you has you are Dave. Eat more pie and ride less on bald tires.

We know George is always right but this time he was even righter. That front is beyond toast, good thing it doesn't rain up there with that bald sucker.

Mike is from Vancouver BC and was heading home from the Touratech Rally in Plain WA. Plain is east on Hwy 2 less than two hours from mi casa. Sounded like he had a great time camping and exploring portions of the WABDR.

Flat front tire. He was stuck in a terrible spot on the road. Small shoulder right next to a ditch. Cars whizzing by a few feet away. In addition, it was Sunday and Hwy 2 is especially busy with folks returning to Seattle from the east-side.The bike had already flopped into the ditch once and he got help from another Good Samaritan to right it. He said it was all he could do to get the bike stopped and miss that three foot ground out strip from an ongoing resurfacing project.

Before we stopped, Mike was trying to find something, anything to get the front end off the ground. He scrounged a couple tires from the weeds and was trying to jam those under the skid plate. Once Dave and I stopped, we got the bike jacked up, front tire off and him packed in the car and headed to my shack in the hills just a few minutes away. Both of us told him we were set up to change MC tires. I don't know what Mike was thinking as we headed to my house. For all he knew we could have been a couple axe murders!

We arrived at my shack and I went around and opened the garage up. Rolled the old ratty FJR out of the way to make room (in the shade) for my POS HF changer. Five minutes later we had the tube out, pumped up and found the leak. A previous patch had rolled off what looked like a big gash in the tube. On the way up to the house, Mike said he had extra patches if needed. Don't think they would have worked on the gash a second time. We aired up Mike's "spare" tube and it was a patch job as well. No leaks so it was the one installed. I didn't like the looks of it...

All buttoned up, we piled in the car and headed back to the bike. Luckily it was still standing and no one had lifted anything. Spread the calipers and front tire easily goes back on. Couple minutes later Mike was loading up and we said our good-byes and took off.

Later last night Mike texted me and said the second tube had given up on him in the Bellingham area. He wife was in route with a trailer to make the rescue this time. Last I heard from him he was loaded on the trailer and finally headed home. What started as a four hour trip turned into something like 12 hours.

Not a day I would have liked to have but at least Dave and I got him fixed up and somewhat closer to home. A new tube would have made all the difference.

~G

~G, Looks like you guys got Mike out of a bad spot. Thank goodness for tires in the weeds.

Nice Job! Karl

escapefjrtist said:

I don't know what Mike was thinking as we headed to my house. For all he knew we could have been a couple axe murders!

~G

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I'm not sure what axe murderers look like but I am reasonably sure it's not you two.

Nothing better than banking good karma. Nice job boys.

I had a guy on a DRZ run out of fuel on a busy highway across from where I was working. He was surprised to see me drive over and pull out a 2 gallon can from my service truck, had him on his way in a couple minutes. .

Nice post and pics. Question about the wear on your front tire. From the photo you posted it looks like the wear on one side of the tire is considerably different from the other side. Maybe its just the angle on the photo. Of course, you could have been riding in the same direction in a circle for hours on end.

-DL

We stopped to assist a guy stopped up against an ALCAN guard rail last night about dusk.

He thanked us for stopping, but was only stopped to photograph a moose in the stream below.

Saw him at breakfast again this morning and he thanked us again.