POT OF CROCK
That evening, I was eager to get
back home, smash some crock pot
dinner and get to an infant cognitive
function seminar, that my wife “highly
recommended” I attend. So, I got all my
gear on, swung a leg over the MT, and
fired it up… but as I pulled away, the bike
felt sluggish, and, umm... lumpy.
I kicked the stand down and stepped
off. Looking back to see... the dreaded
flat rear tyre.
Looking closer, running my hand over
the fresh rubber, it was decidedly flat –
but only at the bottom. That’s my best
dad joke. Sorry.
I rolled the bike forward a bit and
looked again, and yep, there was the
culprit, plain as day, a big ol’ rusty nail.
A few expletives followed... my brand-
new rear tyre that was only 37.3kms old!
I mean, you could almost do the maths
to work out how many times they had
32 KIWI RIDER
rotated, that’s how new they were.
I stripped off my gear, dumped it in the
office and headed off to the Wellington
train station, working out a plan as I
went. I was going to Wainuiomata to get
my station wagon and trailer, back down
SH2 to central Wellington to pick up the
bike and then to the workshop. Stewart
from TSS Motorcycles kindly offered to
meet me at the shop at 7:30pm to store
the bike until the workshop opened the
next day.
Talking to the guys at TSS the following
morning they were confident the nail
could be removed and the tyre plugged.
That afternoon I picked up the bike and
the bottom of the tyre was... no longer
flat! Bonus.
I’m over the nail in my new tyre now.
Kinda. For now I can report that both of
the tyres are holding air and I’ll update you
once I’ve got some kilometres on them.