Don't tailgate trucks!!!

[chameleon]

I was cruising around this arvo and on my way home up the SE freeway when a semi blew a retread up in front of me. I was a good 300 meters back and from there it looked like an EXPLOSION! 3 cars right behind it were darting all over the place and 15 seconds or so later I passed the derbies, some bits as big as fry-pans and the major piece was a third the size of my farking bike

I dread to think what would have happened had I been directly behind him in that wheel track. Freaky stuff boys and girls.

[John H]

Sheesh - you could have been taken out by that even if you were keeping the "safe" two to three second gap.

The other day I was stuck in slow moving traffic (15km/h-ish) on the Bolte behind a nice shiny stainless steel oil tanker. The entire back of the tanker was a giant convex mirror, so I could see what was happening in both lanes behind me without needing to look at my mirrors. Possibly the only time it might have been safe to tailgate a semi!

[red_dave]

Seen that happen before...

Prolly a good thing you weren't behind it.

[Smitty]

I was cruising around this arvo and on my way home up the SE freeway when a semi blew a retread up in front of me. I was a good 300 meters back and from there it looked like an EXPLOSION! 3 cars right behind it were darting all over the place and 15 seconds or so later I passed the derbies, some bits as big as fry-pans and the major piece was a third the size of my farking bike

I dread to think what would have happened had I been directly behind him in that wheel track. Freaky stuff boys and girls.

lucky mate.............

there was a guy killed 2 or so years ago on the western side
of Westgate when half the tyre (from the explosion)
went thru the screen on his van.....not nice

all becoz the trucking industry allows cheap shit retreads
...what you get is the tread laminating off the carcass
which promptly goes bang....which lets the tread fly further

take it easy out there


cheers

[Shifty]

You would be the first to complain if everything you bought went up 25% to cover the increased cost of new carcasses every time a 70T double needed a new set of rubber. Retreads are a necessary evil I'm afraid.. and they also save the environment to a degree.

On the danger side of things, i was following a truck at 40-50km/h when it hit a low bridge. Let's just say I stay even further away than I did before.

The other danger is stuff being picked up between dual tyres and spat in your general direction. Plenty of capacity to pick up large rocks/bricks/sticks/metal or whatever else is on the road, and then hurl it at your head.

[mike-s]

I think i showed a few guys here the gouge in the bottom cowling of the mighty GPX from a semi flicking a HALF BRICK at my bike from about 25-30meters away.

I saw the brick come at me, and had enough time to register it was coming at me, and to lift my feet up and put my tippy toes on the pegs.

The gouge was about 3mm deep, but it made a 5 inch split clean through the fairing(which i plastic welded together again). I shat myself as it came towards me as i thought it would have hit my radiator. Made the whole bike vibrate from the impact as well, even though it just hit plastic.

It was the last straw for me, i've never gone on the bike in the westbound M5 tunnel since then.

[Neka79]

Plenty of capacity to pick up large rocks/bricks/sticks/metal or whatever else is on the road, and then hurl it at your head.

sounds like a typical friday nite on the piss for me...

sum interesting points..other than animals, i guess ive been lucky..havent had that problem yet...touch wood

[mrmina]

lucky u missed that one mate

[Smitty]

You would be the first to complain if everything you bought went up 25% to cover the increased cost of new carcasses every time a 70T double needed a new set of rubber. Retreads are a necessary evil I'm afraid.. and they also save the environment to a degree.
.

no probs with retreads...if done properly like Bandag do
(and are guaranteed)
its the cheap shitty ones that cause the problems

[Stereo]

Next time you ride along the motorway have a look at the side of the road.... I would bet that within 1 KM you can see the results of a retread gone wrong.... They must a lot of dodgy retread places in melbourne

[Shifty]

other than animals, i guess ive been lucky

I was speaking to a bloke on the phone at work today, came out that he rode bikes as well. Apparently he was on a ride with 5 mates - a roo came out and the five of them piled into each other with some fairly serious carnage resultant!

[chameleon]

well that's what ya get sometimes, when ya ride close to another vehicle or 4

[Frank]

Read this topic yesterday at work, then on the way home jumped onto the M4 freeway at Northern Road, mergered into traffic one car behind a semi pulling an empty flat bed trailer just in time to see about a foot long piece of 2 x 4 timber come flying off the truck go under the car in front of me and bounce up over the top me...
Thank goodness I was in my car cause ot was prety hair raising seeing this chunck of timber come at me will I was in my cage, it would have been change of underware time if I was on my bike.

[revinR1]

You would be the first to complain if everything you bought went up 25% to cover the increased cost of new carcasses every time a 70T double needed a new set of rubber. Retreads are a necessary evil I'm afraid.. and they also save the environment to a degree.
.

no probs with retreads...if done properly like Bandag do
(and are guaranteed)
its the cheap shitty ones that cause the problems

Not quiet correct either Smitty. The main problem with truck retreads is the amount of times the carcess has been re-used. Also it depends on how the truck or truck company decides to do with said tyres. Some drivers like to run 1st caps on the drive and or front axle.Some like to run 1st caps on the whole trailer axles. Where as some will get 2nd,3rd and even 4th caps and just run these on the tri till they blow .A 3rd or 4th cap costs about $60-100 ea ,compare that to a brand new tyre at around $400+ and a 1st cap of around $280+ ,2nd caps around $150 . You can see why so many companies and owner drivers use retreads.

[mikk]

i had a truck blow its tyre next to me while i was on a bicycle. luckily no bits came my way, but i nearly fell over becuase i thought someone was shooting me

had some other bike zoom past me in the emergency lane on an onramp once and their back tyre flicked up a massive bit of retread that landed 1m in front of me. that sure pissed me off