A couple weeks back Suraklyn and I decided to prove our worth by doing an "official" Iron Butt ride. We left out the Monday before Memorial Day at 06:00 and headed west. Both Sura's R1200ST and my R1150RT-P were both fairly freshly serviced and all tires and fluids were topped off.
The first half of the ride went off without a hitch and we were making excellent time but at around the 600 mile mark things went south on me. I thought the RT-P was feeling a bit squirrely so I flipped it around a bit and everything seemed OK. About 20 miles further I definitely felt something was not quite right so we pulled into a rest area. Just as soon as I started slowing down I felt a thumping in the back and new immediately I had a problem.
We pulled into a parking spot, I popped off the bags, and one look told me that my day was ruined. The Dunlop Sportmax was starting to fall apart! Suraklyn said he had been hit by a couple of chunks of rubber a while back but thought it was from the truck we were passing!
I called the wife at around 16:30 and she hit the road to come rescue me. Suraklyn hung out, cat-napped a little, and gave me moral support until about 22:00 and he left to finish his ride. About 22:30 Barbi gotr there, I loaded my rear wheel and stuff into the car ans we headed back to Crowley. We got home about 04:00 and we got a call from Suraklyn about the same time letting us know he made it home in one piece. I grabbed about 2 hours of sleep and dragged my a$$, and wheel, out to the shop.
My new No-Mar tire mount/demount bar made quick work of removing the old tire and the new tire went on smoothly. After popping the beads I noticed a "hiss" and found the valve stem leaking - I musta bashed it demounting the tire or something. I cursed for a while and de-mounted half of the tire, removed the old valve stem, and went up the road to the neighborhood auto-parts house. I picked up a nice metal valve stem, headed back home, installed it, and put the rest of the tire back on the rim. I aired up the tire, seated the beads, and this time all was airtight.
It was now between 08:30 and 09:00 and Suraklyn pulled up in his Outback so we threw the repaired tire/wheel in the back, along with my saddlebags, and headed 400 miles west to where my bike was. We got there, put on the rear wheel (along with new rear brake pads since the caliper was off and the pads were pretty thin), and I think we were back on the road around 16:00.
The rest of the trip was uneventful and got home about 23:00. Suraklyn made his 1000 miles in 24 hours - PLUS another 800 chauffeuring me around - and I put on a combined 1800 miles in 41 hours. Suraklyn told me, with a wry grin, that there's always this fall! I'm not sure about that...
Here's what a Dunlop Sportmax looks like after running 600 miles at 80 mph...
