Took a Ride to get ready for the Wednesday ride to the Gap and....

[OldTLSDoug]

I got out riding one of the Super Dukes.

Great day for it, actually aired up the tires to factory spec before I left (35 psi)

Went out, had a great ride, on the way home oops, got a flat! Luckily Norton John (Zonie here) was available to come get me. Thanks again John. Tomorrow is a patch day!

And, a pro tip for folks trying to up their street cred. My daughter had some pretty big strips on her tire and I almost got rid of them on this ride. Apparently letting all the air out lets you easily and "safely-ish" get to the edge of the tire. Probably not the best way, but also not as fun as doing it on the track....LOL.

 

[Tourmeister]

I like that inflator doohickey!

 

[OldTLSDoug]

I wanted one of those forever, went in search of them and they are like $600-$800 for a proper american made one. I got the Chinese version for $180.00, so far, I like it. You set it, it fills the tire, then beeps so you can just go wheel to wheel and it beeps when it is right. Very handy especially for a car or truck. I find it is within about 0.1-0.5 psi of my spiffy expensive track day gauge I bought, so I am happy with it, bought it off of Amazon.

 

[Tourmeister]

I wanted one of those forever, went in search of them and they are like $600-$800 for a proper american made one. I got the Chinese version for $180.00, so far, I like it. You set it, it fills the tire, then beeps so you can just go wheel to wheel and it beeps when it is right. Very handy especially for a car or truck. I find it is within about 0.1-0.5 psi of my spiffy expensive track day gauge I bought, so I am happy with it, bought it off of Amazon.

A few weeks ago I was out in the garage doing the service on my GS. My son was out there doing something with his bicycle. I had the regulator on my compressor set to 120 psi as I was using my lift table. Little did I know, but he had apparently been setting the regulator to 35 psi to air up his bike tires and not using a gauge. Without thinking about me using the compressor for the lift table, he started airing up his tire. I was doing something else and did not see what he was doing. The next thing I knew there was a LOUD POP!! I spun around to see him laying face down on the concrete with his hands over his face. The rear tire on his bike had exploded. It ripped a seriously large chunk right out of the side of the tire facing him. I was able to get his hands away from his face to inspect for damage and all appeared to be good. I think in the end he got REALLY lucky and it just scared the crap out of both of us. His eyes and cheeks were real red the rest of the day, but he was fine. One of those compressors might have prevented that issue if he was in the habit of making sure it was set to the right pressure (or using a freaking tire gauge ).

 

[OldTLSDoug]

It isn't a compressor, just regulates output based on downstream pressure. Thank God the kiddo got off unscathed. He learned a very hard lesson in doing things the right way. I usually keep the shop around 100 psi so everything works. Sometimes I set it at 120 psi, but I never just hit a tire up to system pressure. That would be tough to do I'd think. I also wouldn't have thought to do that for inflating tires. Sounds like he is definitely a creative thinker. Always need to temper our creativity with a smidgen of reality in the shop. Sort of why I am so careful with cutting tools these days. I have seen the inside of my fingers on way too many occasions. Be safe.

 

[OldTLSDoug]

Got her done, good thing I am riding my other Super Duke. LOL. First world problems. I forgot to mark the weight location when I took the tire off, so I just guessed when I put it back on. It came out 0.00 oz so I switched to "Fine" and grams and it read "000". Sometimes old guys make good judgement calls or the wheel was out of balance and the tire was perfect when I installed it. Probably the case. Next time I will find out.