Nailed It

Is this a case of "No good deed goes unpunished" or "Virtue is its own reward"?

So about a month ago I caught a screw in my rear tire on the way to work. If you are a rider you probably already know that no vendor recommends riding on a patched or plugged tire, so I dutifully ordered a replacement. The twist this time was that I had been thinking I wanted to up my motorcycle maintenance skill set to include replacing my own tires for some time now. I had not expected to do it quite so soon, as mine were at about 50%, but now the heat was on.

A call to some local shops put the replacement at about $385 while the tire itself could be had, all in, for $188. Add about $18 for Ride-On balancing gel to finish the job and the almost $200 in labor felt a little abusive. Fortunately Harbor Freight had their manual tire machine on sale, so for less than $100 I was able to bolt a new tool to the garage floor (using drop anchors, so I could unbolt it and store it between jobs, without having any studs sticking out of the floor) along with the motorcycle tire change attachment bolted on top. Cool so far. Next came the Mojoblocks and Mojolever (google them) for another $130, a little tire mounting soap and I was all set. Now I can change tires with the pros. (The Mojoblocks and Mojobar allow working with the aluminum motorcycle wheel without digging giant scratches in it with the stock Harbor Freight bar.)

Long story short, got the job done. Not too tough, even for a first timer. Put it all back together, torqued everything back to spec and had a happy two tanks of riding done before taking the photo above. Yep. That's a 16d nail. Straight into the bottom and right out through the sidewall. Double whammy. Total loss with less than 500 miles on the new tire. 100% road riding and not through construction areas. What the heck! And how in the world does a nail go straight into a tire like it was shot there with a nail gun? Sheesh.

Good news? I am getting faster at doing tire changes...and I already had the tools. Bad news? I am getting too much practice changing tires.  Here's hoping the new one goes the distance.

So back to the opening question...I am going to claim that, at least in this case, the virtue of self-reliance is indeed its own reward. The second tire was a $188 repair, not a $385 repair (I reused the still new balancing gel.). That's my story and I'm sticking to it.