NOS88

I'm on a short vacation in Red Rock, Columbia County, PA, and went for an early morning ride today (trying to beat the thunder storms that are forecast). As I was headed down a pretty steep section of road I was hitting 28 -30 mph by feathering the brakes. There was a lot of traffic this morning and I couldn't cut and carve down this hill any faster, which is what I usually like to do. I've ridden this stretch of road hundreds of times. There was one section where heavy rain a few days before caused some gravel and sharp bits of red shale to be washed onto the road. When I went through this some of the shale punctured my side wall and blew my rear tire with a bang. This caused the rear end to start fish tailing back and forth. I hung on and tried to keep a straight line (there were cars to the left of me and a steep drop off over the guard rail to the right of me - maybe 125 to 150 feet straight drop). I finally got stopped, but not before brushing into the steel cable guard rails, getting a nasty burn from the cable, and almost going over the side of the guard rail. Talk about getting your heart rate up!

The tire was blown too badly to try and put a boot on the inside with a new tube. So, as I walked back to where we were staying I contemplated just how lucky I was to avoid a real disaster. Didn't make it back before the rain started, but actually didn't mind it. I was thankful to be able to walk. Now I find myself wondering who makes a puncture proof sidewall and where I can get a skin cleaner with some lidocaine in it.

jppe

Good to hear it wasn't disastrous. Gosh that's scary just reading about it. How far did you have to hoof it?

I had a rear sidewall blow out......I had just come off a descent where I hit 45+. I was only doing about 20 and got the shivers thinking about what it would have been like if it had blown on the descent.

NOS88

It was only about a four mile walk, I was just about at the end of my loop when the tire went. This particular road is a pretty fun one when you can let it fly. Too much traffic today to do that, and it turns out that this was a very lucky thing.

Allegheny Jet

That was one memorable ride and you got to choose your posion. Good thing you got control and only got some brush burns. A 4 mile walk must have been tough on your cleats.

A few years ago I was bombing down a hill along the Allegheny River, near Emlenton PA, and was attempting to ride my age in mph. The roadway is partially tree covered resulting in sun lighted patches of roadway. In my aero position what I thought was a shadow ended up being a shallow pothole. When my front wheel hit the pothole I was sure I was going to flat and crash but didn't and I also kept control of the bike. Once down the hill I checked my maximum speed at 52.8, not quite my age at the time. Later when putting the bike on the car rack I noticed a smile shaped crack in the handle bar about 1' from the stem. Whoa, that was a close call.

Hermes

Glad you are okay and reading the post was pretty scary. Heal up fast.

kjc9640

dang man, I'm sure glad you are still here to post about your ride. Hope you heal up quick.

StanSeven

You wouldn't like the ride of one. Fortunately sidewall punctures are extremely rare. About the only way to get one is sharp road debris cutting while on a turn.

kr32

Wow! Glad you made out with some scrapes and a long walk instead of a ride in a medical vehicle.
I have often wondered what would happen in a highspeed blowout.
Not sure I ever really want to find out firsthand.

Kurt Erlenbach

Glad things worked out well. That sounds like it could have been a whole lot worse.

Where I live, there are no hills. The I-95 overpass is the biggest hill around. Twice recently I've ridden hills where you can get your speed up - over a bridge in Ft. Myers onto Sanibel Island, and a loop north of Tallahassee. I have learned that I get scared like a little girl heading downhill fast, for fear of exactly what you describe.

John E

... like the front tire instead of the rear ...

stapfam

Had plenty of rear tyre blowouts- but always on the tandem offroad. Plenty of room to swerve all over the trail and if we had fallen- It would have been a softish landing. But the one that did hurt was a front tyre going. Pilot had enough time to yell- "we've got a" And we hit the deck at 35mph on a flint covered track.

Glad you managed to control it- and I have to admit that a 4 mile walk back is better than a few days in E&R recovering.

cyclinfool

Good job wrestling that thing to a stop. I am not as brave as I use to be on rapid decents. This will make me even more cautious.

maddmaxx 

Good job on using your experience to stop safely. Get back on the horse as soon as your feel comfortable and get your confidence back up.

NOS88

No problem there. I was back out this morning on the same ride. This time, however, I knew to slow down and avoid the washed out shale.

DanteB

I know exactly how you feel, I had a very similar experience Saturday doing the Grand Tour Double Century at mile 88. This is part of what I posted in another forum:

"The next big challenge is Grimes Canyon and on to Santa Paula. I was supposed to meet my wife at Moorpark, but she got held up helping someone with a flat. No problem, I re-watered and went on. She called me and said she would meet me some where on or after Grimes. Just as I topped Grimes my wife passed me. Halfway down Grimes she was parked along the side of the road, but I didn’t stop. I was in a line of traffic with a horse trailer in front, 3 cars behind him, another rider and myself and a van behind me. My wife quickly pulled in behind the van. Grimes is a twisty downhill, but can be fast. The horse trailer had been only going around 30, but were now close to the bottom and the road was opening up with one last right hand turn before the straight-away to the bottom. As I entered the right turn, a nice open turn with great banking, I was rolling along at 40 mph. Suddenly I heard a noise that chilled my poopy-doo, it was my rear tire exploding. The rear wheel of my bike took and immediate left turn, remember I was in a right turn. I looked down and all that was going through my mind was how hard the pavement was going to be and how much skin it was going to eat. I quickly steered left and caught the bike before I went down. Oh hell, now the rear wheel went right and I’m steering left. Damn the ground again and it looked harder this time. I caught the bike again and was thinking about the van behind me and if he was braking or just figuring on hitting me. I got the going straight with the flat tire and the tire hadn’t peeled of the wheel yet. As I started braking the bike decided it wanted to go across the lane and into the head-on traffic. Lucky no one was coming up the hill, I let it go and found a small driveway to finally stop the bike in. What a ride, I don’t ever, ever want to do that again. My wife pulled in behind me, jumped out and wanted to know just what the heck I was doing. She had watched the whole thing, but didn’t see the now exploded tire. I was visibly shaking, I could hardly talk. I asked her for my spare tire, a tube and my pump. Quickly I changed the tire and off I went."

The rest of the day I just didn't ride the downhills as fast as I usually do.

Monoborracho

I recently asked a bunch of tandem riders what sort of top speed they had hit. The answers ranged from 50 to 63 mph. I asked them their top comfort level and most of them said "20's".

High speed riding is akin to riding a pace line IMHO. It just a thrill/risk/reward thing largely controlled by probabilities and NOT by the people who are doing the riding.

HiYoSilver

Strange no one made the correlation: heavier braking with rim brakes increases tire heat and can lead to sudden failure. Fix is: A) reduce speed {not too likely}, or B) insist on disc brakes.

Monoborracho

My understanding is that the heat/friction can be a big deal with the higher mass of a tandem on downhills. An alternate (and heavier) fix on a tandem is a drum brake.

George

Ouch, yes I bet you did get your heart rate up. I was going down a hill in west Texas and the front started to wobble and it took me a while to get it under control, but nothing like what happened to you. I'm glad you were able to get in under control. Good riding

twinrox

As an example of what can happen in a high speed blowout, read the book "Tumbling After: Pedaling Like Crazy After Life Goes Downhill". Here's a quote from the book jacket: "Suzy Parker and her husband, Ralph Hager, spent every free moment together biking, skiing, and hiking. All that changed in a split second when a freak cycling accident left Ralph permanently paralyzed below the shoulders."

stapfam

Thing I find about Tandems- is that they take a different line to solos on corners. On the offroad organised rides we have done- with a mixture of wide trail and single track- It is surprising how many solo's put themselves in the wrong place once we have committed ourselves. Doesn't matter what speed- high or low- the other riders don't make that mistake twice.

But comfort speed for us is as fast as we can get it without the bars trying to be wrenched out of the pilots hands. With Stuart on the front- that speed is easily 10mph higher than with me attempting to steer it.

Monoborracho

I recall you saying, when we bought the bike, that it would go a lot faster than we had it on our initial ride. You were right.

You also said top speed was limited by the decibel volume from the stoker. Right again.

You and Stuart are a tough standard to measure up against.

JanMM

As long as it feels smooth, it's not too fast. Of course, we've never been close to 50.
Happy to say I've never heard a "Slow down!" from my stoker/wife. Partly because I resist the urge to go nuts downhill on rides like the Hilly Hundred where the road is often crowded and with many inexperienced riders.

Good recovery, NOS88!

Mojo Slim

Aaaack!! Scary. Good job of getting only some cable rash. This will either make you feel more confident because you know you can handle anything, OR you'll always be thinking about it when you're heading down hill. I'm in the latter mode right now and I don't like it.

Grunt0302

A few years ago I was descending a long hill at 25 - 30 mph on a solo ride. A slope up to my right and a steep drop off to a canyon on my left. The rode made a sweeping turn to the right. I don't know if the front tire blew out or I hadn't noticed it going flat, but as I made the turn the tire rubbed off of the rim. I tried to stay with it because I didn't want to go straight and fly off into the canyon. The rim caught on the asphalt, jacknifed the front and over the bars I went. Landed on the left side of my head and left shoulder. My helmet probably saved my life, or at least serious head injury. But I broke my collarbone that required a plate and eight screws. Also lost a lot of skin. I drug myself and bike out of the road. A motorist came by but didn't stop. A second came and stopped. The lady turned out to be a volunteer EMT. She took charge and stopped other motorists to go get help. Had another hold my head still. She had chemical ice, a sling and bandages for the rash. She was an angel and I never got her name.

Russ