Bonneville America Forums Forums Rider Safety Forums Riding Technique Anyone have to dodge flying tires?

Has anyone ever had the experience of riding behind a vehicle that decided to throw a tire. Bob and I had that scare tonight on a ride. A pick-up pulling a trailer had a right rear tire on the pick-up just start shredding right in front of us. I was in lead so I just let up on the throttle and stayed as far the the left that I could. Thankfully none of the shredded tire hit either of us. Just small chuncks came out from under the trailer and lots of smoke. I believe that if the pick-up was not pulling the trailer, we would have been hit. The driver knew right away what was happening so he pulled over to the right pretty quickly. Nothing like a little eye opener to test your reflexes.

AmyLee

Never happened on a bike, but the wife and I had it happen in her Blazer on an interstate last summer. A tractor-trailer was losing his cap from one of his trailer's tires and there were big chunks flying everywhere. I pulled up along side him and tried to gesture to him but he was totally oblivious. Those caps can come right through a windshield and kill you in a car!, on a bike, it would be instant crash and burn....

I went on a run with the local HOG chapter. Some dude way in the front, the ENTIRE exhaust system came off his bike. I was like what the hell is that, until I caught up with it, sliding and spinning down the road, the pipe that is.

Nope never had to dodge tires or exhausts but once on a charity run I did have to dodge a helmet. The guy in front of me had one of those skid lid style helmets. He didn't have it strapped tight and it flew off his head and was bouncing down the road. Luckily before I got to it it took a nice bounce to the right and went off the road.

Amylee,

The first time it happened to me, ironically, was on Hwy99 in your neck o'the woods(central Ca), some 35 years ago.(as the camera soft-focuses we go back to the year 1970)

I was 18 and riding my '66 BSA 650 Lightening and my friend Kenny was on his '69 XLH Sportster. We were on our way to Yosemite to PAR-TEE with some other friends. Just before we hit Fresno, this semi merges onto the highway and BOOM, promptly blows one of his rear tires, no more than maybe twenty feet in front of us. Now this is 1970, remember, and what kind of self-respecting 18 year old biker is going to wear a "brain-bucket".

Well, long story(made mercifully)short(er), I sported a very nice purple-ish blue bruise on my forehead, just above my left eye(surprised it didn't spell-out the name...FIRESTONE), while trying to wow the "chicks"(as we called 'em back then)in Yosemite Valley, with my tales of how tough a guy I was, to be able to fend off an exploding truck!

Dwight
(glad you're okay)

(ps....Kenny? not a freakin' scratch)

Hi Amylee,

Not yet! But I do think about it. I dodge my fair share of smoke butts and food wrappings though. My sister in law lost a right front on her intrepid. Peeled her fender up and out too. A member posted how he had to ride over an a-lou-min-e-um ladder at speed.

Links to some archived, related discussions:

built like a tank

Flying camo tarp in road

I havent had to dodge any shredded tires yet, but I-75 is covered in bits of retreads every day. It is probably only a matter of time, so i keep on guard and dont hang around when passing 18 wheelers.

I was riding along one day with the visor on my full face helmet open and some jerk throw a cigerette butt out of the car window. Had to stop to take the helmet off to get the cigerette butt out. Oouch.

I've had a tire bounce over a medium and towards me on I75 in Detroit in my car. On the bike I've just bearly missed a ladder one early morning riding through some fog. I wonder what's planned for this year?

Isn't that a lot of fun? After I got the OL's bike hauled to Yuma after her mishap, checked into the room we had reserved and unloaded the bags, I made a quick trip back to El Centro to fetch her out of the ER. Trying to get her to the room so she could relax as quickly but safely as possible, I was following maybe 4 seconds behind a cage that was running at a decent speed. I was using the car as a curve and road condition guage. He went around a bend and, as I was leaning into it, I saw something square looking in the road. I didn't want to do any drastic manouvering because of having an injured passenger, so I was just able to miss it enough that it hit my footpeg. It turned out to be a bit of truck tire that had been set on edge by the cage I was following.

Scariest thing I've had to dodge was a trailer in Oklahoma. Seems some good ol' boys had bought (or found) a big flatbed and were dragging it home. The knob to tighten the trailer hitch was missing, so they tied a bit of rope around the thing to keep it on the ball. Unfortunately the rope slipped and they were speeding so, when they hit a bump, the trailer lifted off the hitch ball and headed off across the divider. I saw a dust cloud ahead and started braking and downshifting just in time to watch the trailer dart across the side of the highway I was on and peel the siding off the motorhome that I had been about to pass.

Hi AmyLee,
Glad you & Bob weren't hurt. The one incident that comes to my mind was hitting a coyote at 80 mph at night on Hwy 41 between Riverdale(?) and Caruthers on the way to work at the VA hospital in Fresno. It happened so fast, all I could do was hang on and try to overcome the high speed wobble that occurred. I stopped to look at the coyote, and found both of him on the side of the road at the edge of a vineyard. I was on my BSA 650 Lightning and the next morning discovered that I had some entrails to clean off my bike, along with the baked blood on my headers. No tires to dodge yet, thank God.
Ride Safe & Stay Invisible,
Dennis

AmyLee,

Yes, that happened to me. I think it was back in 1994. I was following an 18 wheeler southbound on I-5 when the thing threw a re-tread. I had to make a split-second decision, which was "swerve or hit it square." I chose to hit it square (I have dirt bike experience). My bike back then was a Honda ST1100, and the damage that resulted from that trucker shedding his bologna-skin was that I lost my entire fairing lowers. It cost me $450 bucks to repair (doing the works myself).

But, I did make the right decision. Same is true with, say, a small pet dog. If you're not sure you can swerve safely, I say, hit them square (and yes I'm an animal lover).

-BT

Dennis,

You gotta be kidding! I guess the moral of both of our stories is.....Steer clear of Fresno, if you're ever riding a 650 Beezer, huh?

Cheers,
Dwight

A couple of months ago while going down Hwy 400 North of Hwy 369, a truck hauling landscape materials dropped one of these round walkway stones about 50 feet in front of me, I do not know if it was pure dumb luck or skill but I was able to manueuver to kick it away with my boot when it rolled at me.

I've never had to dodge one coming off the truck, but there are plenty of thrown caps (road gators) on the road, so it may just be a matter of time. The strangest thing(s) I've had to dodge were probably potatoes. Riding east of Bakersfield (more central CA) on the 58 a truck ahead of me hit a bump in the road and what looked like dirt clods started to fall off, but they didn't explode. They bounced! Like footballs. Anywhere from 3 to eight feet high. At seventy miles per hour. Don't know how I managed to not hit any.

Not personally, but this guy sure did. Listen carefully.

No tires but..several years ago in Ca. I was tooling down the 405 near LA at a good clip and all of a sudden I saw a 4 foot 2x4 doing a helicopter impression heading straight at my head at about 70 mph. I ducked and it went right over my head, just barely clipping and cracking the top of my fairing windshield. I had to pull over and stop shaking and change my panties at that point. It happened so quick there would have been nothing i could have done if it was a little lower. Never did figure wher it even came from, spaceship maybe?

Dwight,
Not kidding. I love the central valley, but the foothills on either side are much better riding roads, especially between Coalinga and the coast. The first time I saw Yosemite was from the Search & Rescue helicopter that I spent many hours in. The place is breathtaking. My wife and I got married in the chapel there about 104 years ago.
I too, had an experience on 99 in a car - to make a long story short, I won't tell it.
Ride Safe,
Dennis

Pat,
If that happened in 1973 between Carson Blvd & Wilmington Avenue, I may know the guy who threw it. He lived in the Hyde Park area and was known for doing stuff like that. I'll tell you his name in Georgia (i dated his sister until.....).
Ride Safe,
Dennis

BT,
I believe the rule for road animals is, "If you can't eat it on one plate, try to avoid it, else hit it!"

Amylee,

Yep, last year on the way to Toronto. Semi threw its tire in the lane to our right. My brother in law, myself and the other rider could have reached out and kicked it as the chunks flew by.

Hardly had time to think about it though since the average speed on the QEW is about 80MPH in the middle lane. "Hey, wow...that was a tire." At that speed, luck was our only salvation....well that and divine providence.

BB