Lady on Motorbike

Our original plan for the weekend was to head to Gloucester but rain stopped play so we headed south, to the Crookwell area, one of our new favourites. Crookwell was booked out as a result of weddings or something so we stayed the night in nearby Gunning, along with our friends, Perry, Gordon and Lorraine.

Day two saw us retrace the route that had led us here (pretty much covered in day 1 of this blog post). We had just left Gunning and Gary was contemplating his next coffee when he commented that he had a problem with his bike. He quickly realised that he had a puncture and it was evident to me, from behind, that he was right as his rear tyre was looking pretty flat cos I’m smart like that. We pulled over and contemplated our next move. Our friends quickly caught up and, while Gary and I were working out where the number for BMW Assist was, Perry and Gordon leapt into action.

“I have a puncture repair kit”, says Perry, “Ah yes, so do we”, says I!

In case you’re not aware of what a motorbike puncture repair kit looks like, it looks a bit like this:

The first step was to find the hole. The bike was popped onto its centre stand (highly recommended btw) and the wheel turned until we could hear the puncture. The next step was to poor water and shampoo over it (obviously) so it would bubble up and reveal the culprit.

After finding the puncture, Perry took out the corkscrew/drill thingie and made the hole bigger. Er, what? Yep, to repair one must damage further. Ok, then.

Once the hole was bigger, there was some action with glue and a strip of rubber:

The rubber was then pushed into the hole…

and trimmed off, like so:

I missed taking photos of the next steps as I had to use the ‘local’ amenities but what happened next was that the gas cylinders were, in turn, emptied into the tyre to pump it up. Warning at this point, when the gas is emitted the outside of the cylinder freezes so it is most important to use the rubber sleeve that comes in the kit. Frozen fingers are not conducive to riding a motorbike.

Ever-prepared Perry had his own pressure gauge (note to self, pack one of the two pressure gauges that we have at home when we go out and about).

Here we are by the side of the road, Gary ‘supervising’ again:

Once the tyre had pumped up enough to ride on, we continued on to Crookwell to return the tyre to its desired pressurised state and grateful for the help of our wonderful friends.

The moral of the story is, if you’re out riding at any real distance from a town, pack a puncture repair kit, plus a tyre gauge, some water, some soap and a Perry, because it will save you an awful lot of time compared to waiting for BMW Assist.

PS just in case anyone is impressed enough by this post to use it as a guide to repair a puncture, don’t! I am flattered but am not responsible for your safety- read your manual and follow that!