Canon PowerShot SD700 IS
ƒ/2.8
5.8 mm
1/160

We were bombing down the trail along Purissima Creek and taking a series of big jumps. Then I heard an explosion that sounded like a pistol shot.

My rear tire blew out in a most dramatic fashion. There was a 4 inch rip in the tire sidewall, and the inner tube somehow wound itself tightly around the axle and rear brake. It took an 80 foot skid to come to a stop, and the rear rim struck a rock and ripped off about a quarter of the outer metal rim.

It was one of those times I really wished I had some duct tape.

6 responses to “Freaky Stop”

  1. JeffSech Avatar
    JeffSech

    What? No drogue chute?

    Glad you’re OK, though.

    Reply
  2. !MimosaMicheMichelle! Avatar
    !MimosaMicheMichelle!

    Oh, Steve, you inadvertently get yourself into such potentially dangerous situations! I know it is fun, and risk is the best part, of course. I am so glad you are again fine. Maybe some scratches and bruises? It is a good thing you were over dirt and grass. Concrete would have been hard to fall on.

    Luckily, all I ever had happen was chains falling off such as once when I was rushing to a class in a daily one-hour ride. I was on a very long ice-breaker bridge in the middle of the St-Lawrence river with no one in sight.

    Yours was quite a "messy accident". Poor bike too. For me, it would have been one of those times I wished I had done some other activity.

    Reply
  3. BenODen Avatar
    BenODen

    That’s a truely impressive failure! Will you have full causality chain prepared for us in the morning? After you get done shaking from the near miss, and recovered from the long hike out, I suppose. I do hope you escaped even scrapes, that would add to the feat.

    Reply
  4. Jef Poskanzer Avatar
    Jef Poskanzer

    Negative structural coherency.

    Reply
  5. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    BenODen: Yeah, it was a scrape free-incident! (If the front wheel had popped, it would be a very different story.) I managed to stay balanced and upright as the rear end groaned and flopped and fished-tailed about. The guy behind me kept expecting a tumble (he’s the "snake charmer" who went back to measure the skid length).

    Lacking duct tape, I could not repair the tire, and lacking a rim, I could not inflate a spare inner-tube more than a few pounds. Luckily, it was a couple of downhill miles ahead of us and I was able to disengage the brake and bike down on the wobbly tire/rim.

    Reply
  6. benjiman Avatar
    benjiman

    Yikes. Thats a bad blowout. Glad you were able to bring it down safely.

    I learned the Always Carry Duct Tape lesson in a similar fashion. Now I carry a bunch spooled around my pump in addition to a couple of tubes AND a flat kit. Not that the flat kit would have done anything for that tube!

    Reply

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