mbp
Guest
I was riding home down the Old Pacific Highway north of Sydney last month. It's a beautiful twisty, hilly road: most of the traffic is down the new freeway but they've still kept the road in prime condition.
Near the top of one of the hills I got a metal shard in my front tyre, and heading downhill in a more or less straight line I didn't feel the handling change. But I did see a blinking red light in my peripheral vision, with RDC warning me it had gone nearly flat.
I gently braked and pulled over and I could certainly feel it, the steering was very wobbly indeed.
If I'd had no warning and just braked into the downhill corner even at a moderate pace it could have been very nasty indeed. Particularly because I would have been asking "wtf?" as the steering wobbled around, rather than fairly calmly thinking through "oh, the tyre's flat, I'll very gently pull over". Years ago I got a rear flat on a Kawasaki, and I'd say it's not at all obvious what's wrong -- at first I thought something strange had happened in the steering bearing or there was oil on the road.
I'd like to think if I had gone into the corner with no warning I would have been calm and smooth enough to not fall and gradually slow down, but I'd rather not take the chance. I was riding within my limits and vision - but within the limits for a bike with two working wheels.
So I'm heartily glad I got the option on my 07 GS, and would recommend it to anyone. $350(?) to avoid crashing just once in a good deal.
There's just one annoyance which is that in combination with wire wheels you have a long, rigid stem poking up between the spokes, and it's almost impossible to get some service station air hoses to connect to it. I bought a little foot pump for home. Maybe they fixed it for 08.
Near the top of one of the hills I got a metal shard in my front tyre, and heading downhill in a more or less straight line I didn't feel the handling change. But I did see a blinking red light in my peripheral vision, with RDC warning me it had gone nearly flat.
I gently braked and pulled over and I could certainly feel it, the steering was very wobbly indeed.
If I'd had no warning and just braked into the downhill corner even at a moderate pace it could have been very nasty indeed. Particularly because I would have been asking "wtf?" as the steering wobbled around, rather than fairly calmly thinking through "oh, the tyre's flat, I'll very gently pull over". Years ago I got a rear flat on a Kawasaki, and I'd say it's not at all obvious what's wrong -- at first I thought something strange had happened in the steering bearing or there was oil on the road.
I'd like to think if I had gone into the corner with no warning I would have been calm and smooth enough to not fall and gradually slow down, but I'd rather not take the chance. I was riding within my limits and vision - but within the limits for a bike with two working wheels.
So I'm heartily glad I got the option on my 07 GS, and would recommend it to anyone. $350(?) to avoid crashing just once in a good deal.
There's just one annoyance which is that in combination with wire wheels you have a long, rigid stem poking up between the spokes, and it's almost impossible to get some service station air hoses to connect to it. I bought a little foot pump for home. Maybe they fixed it for 08.
Especially glad for you.
