My first flat...
Was out on a celebratory ride to blow off steam after completing my tax filing. Everything was going great until suddenly it felt like I was running out of gas on an uphill (eastbound 134 fwy, after Harvey exit) and the bike started puttering out, so I pulled over safely to check what was going on. Put the petcock on reserve and kicked like mad. Nothing. Fiddled with the petcock some more and nothing was working and I was kicking like crazy and getting a good workout in the dark - cars and semis whizzing by me at high speed. Battery started running low, almost down to 10.9v and I felt helpless, took a deep breath, gathered my wits and started examining deeper. I then noticed that my fuel line to the petcock was bottoming out at the base of the insert - this had been a problem before where I think the inside of the fuel line was cutting off the flow of fuel to the carbs. I pulled the hose back off the nipple slightly to allow some clearance so it wouldn't kink and voila! A couple of kicks and she started right up. Next effort was to ride to the nearest gas station to fill up.
I'm nearing the gas station and that's when my back end starts fishtailing and I immediately feared that my wheel was gonna pop off but I looked down and oh wow, it's a flat! Luckily, I rolled the bike into the gas station and planted her next to the air pump and examined and lo and behold a nail plugged right in the center between some tread on the rear. Ugh. I imagine the puncture happened when I pulled off the fwy shoulder where a lot of debris can be found. I was lucky to make it about two miles to the nearest gas station; on a flat.
The gas station mini-mart had some of that tire foam seal in a can so I gave that a shot but it appeared that my tire tube was far gone and the stuff oozed out between the tire and the rim. Luckily I have AAA motorcycle assistance and had a tow truck come out - not a flat bed, btw. The driver came and looked confused and asked, "You called?" I said, "Yep! And this ain't no Civic." He said that his report said "Honda" and no other distinction so he assumed it was a car and not a motorcycle.
He said he'd try something he'd seen some others do before and lowered the rear tow fork and told me to ride the bike up the narrow bar so that he could strap the front tire into the tow arm cavity... I know he had never done this before but I just wanted to get the hell outta there and back home.
Here's me riding up the rear. He joked that it would be a good photo opportunity so I took him up for it:
How it ended up strapped down. Gulp.
So far so good, taking very bumpy LA surface streets.
I'm safe at home and exhausted. Ohh, what a night.
