Story by Doug McPeek
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published the July 2014 edition of the MSTA Ohio Chapter newsletter, The Ohio Rider. The story has been edited to match the MSTA website’s style.
On the way to TriSTAR over Memorial Day weekend, I got a flat tire. It was my first on the bike. I know how lucky I have been. Twenty-five years and nearly a quarter million miles I have ridden without a flat on the road. I think this one made up for a good bit of that luck.
Bil “Woovis” Swartz and I were traveling along West Virginia State Route 16 between Welch and War when it felt like I had run over a rock with the rear tire of my R 1200 GS. A couple of miles later I could feel that the rear was soft. I pulled into the first gas station and asked, “Do I have a flat tire?” Woovis looked and confirmed that the rear was looking pretty low.
We dismounted, undressed, pulled out the tools and began to examine the tire. I had not hit a rock, but a bolt. A bit of it was protruding. With Woovis’ trusty multitool pliers I pulled it out, and out and out. What emerged was 4 inch long J bolt that had wallowed out a big hole in my rear Pilot Road 3. Luckily, we were well equipped for this mishap. Just because it was my first flat doesn’t mean I was not prepared. Besides, I have had to assist friends with their flats.
Woovis wanted to try his mushroom plug device. I have always been skeptical of a plug without glue, but I was just as interested to see how it worked. Well, it was a little fiddly but it eventually stayed in place. The hole was too big, however, and air rushed out around the plug. From there we went with proven technology. BMW used to sell the best tire repair plugs. They were thick rubber ovals, and they could fill a good sized hole. I put two of those and a whole tube of glue into the puncture and it sealed very nicely.
Every half hour or so I stopped to check the pressure and it remained steady, and it carried me through to Sparta without issue. Once there we saw that the plug was very ragged. I worried that it would not get me home. I checked with the local auto tire shop. The casing was ripped and there was no repair available. I had to get a new tire on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend or stay until at least Tuesday. I also had no cell phone service being an AT&T customer in Verizon land.
Luckily, MSTA members stepped up big time to help. Galen Diehl had all the tire tools and experience that was needed to remove the tire. He also had a working cell phone and called around to track down a tire. One was found – a Shinko 003 Stealth. It was a 150/60-ZR17. The stock tire was a 150/70, but close enough! At that point I needed to get to the shop before they closed. “Iguana Joe” Thomas, TriSTAR organizer, and his girlfriend Anita stepped up to drive me to Mt. Airy, N.C. There was a wait, so we perused the dealership and had lunch next door while we waited. Galen, Joe and Anita saved the weekend for me, and I am grateful.
I took a fair bit of ribbing about the Shinko. It just didn’t look right. Shinko says, “The Stealth Radial has a slick/dimple design great for production racing, drag racing, or serious sport riding.”
It would get me home. But would it ride the dirt roads as well as the paved? There’s only one way to find out. On Sunday, I followed Galen on a dirt road route around the Mount Rodgers National Recreation area.
The Shinko performed as well on gravel roads as any other street tire in my estimation. That got me thinking. I paid a premium for the tire, being as it was from a dealer, and I did not want to toss it as soon as I got home. I figured it would get me to STAR and back. The only issue was my plan to participate in the Black Hills Adventure Ride that John Boyd had arranged. I decided to see how the Shinko would do. I still had a Pilot Road on the front and decided to stand pat on tires.
In South Dakota we rode gravel roads with some soft parts here and there for over a hundred miles. I never had an issue with the tires. Even when our guide forgot who he was leading and took us on a muddy logging road, the Shinko provided enough traction to pull the Beemer through.
On pavement the tire has performed well. The handling and traction have been great in the wet and dry, in the curves and on the interstate and on the steel grid of the Mackinac Bridge.
Now that I am home and the Shinko has over four thousand miles on it I can see that it is getting bald in the middle. Nonetheless, it served it’s purpose and then some.
Would I recommend it? Not for the R1200GS. For a sportbike? No problem.
Thanks again to those who took time from their own riding to help me out. I won’t forget you.
