Did you use plenty of baby powder inside the tire and on the new tube to reduce the potential for the inside of the tire to move the tube prior to the valve stem being ripped? How low of air pressure were you running and were you stopping with enough force to skid the front tire before the incident?
Yes. I always use enough powder that my driveway looks like a cocaine factory explosion. 20 PSI. Owner's manual calls for 17. No. I go through that 4-way stop 4 times a day on the days I ride. I use a lot of engine braking and very little brake. I braked hard a day or two before the wreck, enough that I saw that the valve stem was crooked in the wheel. I just kept riding it that way and hadn't had a chance to fix it. I don't know if the valve stem ripped when I hit the brakes at that stop, or before that. It may have failed before the stop where the crash happened, but the braking forces at the crash were just enough to open the hole up enough for the air to escape very rapidly. I wonder if that hadn't have happened, I would have gone back to my bike in the garage after lunch to find a flat tire. The exact event that damaged the tube doesn't matter, really. But, there is no doubt in my mind that it wouldn't have happened if I had rim locks. Who knows. What I do know: I will run rim locks from now on. I will not ride without head-to-toe gear that will protect me in a slide. I will never buy another nylon or polyester jacket again.
Bike is back together. Going to take it out for a test ride today. The only thing I'm missing is the mounting bolt for my right HDB mirror. The rear axle and nut was $80! I want some axle sliders. Any recommendations? I also want to see about getting some engine side cover protection. The brake pedal scratched my right side cover (only the finish, the metal is unharmed), and I'm concerned about it punching a hole in the cover in a harder fall. Any recommendations for those? Speaking of Highway Dirt Bikes. They were awesome. I contacted them regarding my crash, and they sent me just about everything at no charge. I had to pay shipping and for a pair of plastic handguard pieces. All of the hardware was sent to me for free. They basically replaced half of my handguards for nothing.
Yeah, I know. There's a slight chance I let the pressure get low, but I usually never go more than a few weeks without checking my tire pressures. I'm a lot more cautious about that now, believe me. Tires were sitting inflated for a week and lost 3-4 PSI. I'm running rimlocks and 25 PSI now.
