On my way home from work yesterday the scooter was making a funny noise from somewhere behind me. I supposed that something was wrong with the exhaust system because it sounded like a big cruiser farting as I went along doing anything over about 20 mph. By the time I got home the sound seemed to have disappeared. I parked. I had dinner. I went back out on the bike to see if the sound would come back and I was hardly at the end of the street when I heard the same telltale sound of something wrong.
I decided that I'd head to the parking lot of the supermarket that's not more than a mile away so I could give the scooter a thorough eyeball figuring I'd see maybe a loose connection to the muffler, but when I swept around a wide turn and leaned, the rear end of the BV did a shimmy. "Tire!" went off in my noggin like one of those big light bulbs going off over some cartoon character's head. When I got to the parking lot and pulled over I set the bike on the kickstand rather than on the center stand to keep the weight on the rear tire. Sure enough. It was as flat as a pancake! There's a gas station two doors down from the market so I filled the tire and hurried my baby home. I'm quite surprised that except for that single slight skid going around the corner to the supermarket I couldn't tell that the tire was flat, and equally amazed that the bike ran with the flat almost as well as it does with the usual PSI.
Not your Mr. Fixit type I refilled the tire when I got home from work today and ran the bike down to Team Effort. They'll have a new tire on it and change the oil by the time I get out of work tomorrow so I won't have to spend the holiday weekend on four wheels.
Because I don't have any new road photos, consider this a shameless plug for Pepsi Throwback - the kind of Pepsi you folks who are as old or older than I am remember from when we were kids. It's made with real sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup, and the difference is remarkable. I've complained for years that today's big name colas don't taste as good as they did back then because of the sweetener swap and I'd give anything to have a Coca Cola made with sugar again. It had a certain "bite" to it back in the good old days, and a few swigs out of a glass bottle after setting the bowling pins in a semi-automatic alley for a few hours straight were all I needed to be totally refreshed. Seriously, if you miss the old Pepsi, treat yourself to a can of this Throwback stuff. As with many of the best things in life, (like McDonald's McRib sandwiches), it'll be available for a limited time only.
1 comment:
Have often wondered what a flat tire would feel like. Hasn't happened to me yet. Glad it didn't cause too much trouble or an accident.
I like this post, short, sweet, fun and informative. Gave me a couple of ideas.
Post a Comment