Attended the BMWSporttouring's Spring Blue Ridge Rendezvous and had a another great long weekend in southwestern North Carolina.
Thanks to BMWBMW tech days and special help from Jim Bates and Dave Holt my K1200RS had new tires, 30K service and was performing better than when it was new!
I left early Wednesday and took slab for the first 400 miles and than took some great back roads and part of the Blueridge Parkway for the next 200 miles west of Boone, NC (including the well known "snake") until I reached a friends home for the night NW of Ashville. Meet up with the BMWST folks on Thursday and rode Deal's Gap, the Cherohala Skyway, Wayah Road, and route 28, and some of the other wonderful roads near Dillsboro were the BRR hotel location was this year. Thursday and Friday I was on the top of my game!
Saturday 4 of us took off for Roan Mountain, TN. After some of best high speed 2 hours of switch back mountain riding that I have ever done, I was leading the group down the mountain into some long gentle sweepers (likely about 60 miles/hr) when I heard and felt a load bang that I assumed was a rock popping off my front tire. Within 10 - 15 seconds the front wheel started to shake! I was able to reduce speed quickly but soon had difficulty in steering! I was lucky! No sharp turns, traffic, or mountain drop offs just a wide sweeper with room to pull off and stop the bike!
Front tire completely out of air. Bike on center stand, tire inspection showed no signs of cuts, punctures, etc. Got the compressor out and the tire held air with no sign of tire damage! However, I noticed if I moved the valve stem air escaped! Not sure how, but the valve stem had split at the rim. With a couple of stops to put more air into the tire, the GPS got us back to civilization in about 15 miles where I was able to purchase a valve stem and find a tire shop that said they could repair the tire. They were able to use a couple of tire irons and move the tire over far enough to remove the old value stem and put in the new one without taking the wheel off the bike. The whole operation took less than 10 minutes! After a quick lunch we were back on our way up to Roan Mountain.
I will always carry an extra valve stem!