Updated 16-Dec-2024
The story
Around 80kph, on my 17 year-old Honda Wave 125i (a fantastic, durable, and functional motorbike that can go up to 120 kph) we ran over a nail and the rear tire explosively decompressed. The rear wheel started to slide around, hitting the rear brake did nothing, as we didn't have any surface to grip the road. A pickup truck in front was pumping their own brakes as we approached an intersection with a red light. I managed to steer the slewing motorbike to the right of the pickup truck. The rear wheel finally lost what little grip it had and folded underneath us as we fell to the road. Three of us were on the bike, all with helmets, motorcycle gloves, jackets, long pants, and running shoes.
Miraculously, we skidded to a stop and were not run over. People stopped their cars and pulled the boys off the bike, the bike off of me, and me off of the road. The boy on the back wasn't injured at all. The bike, besides the rear tire, only had some superficial scrapes, the small boy had a two inch section of skin worn away when his right hand hit the road (and the glove was shredded). For me, it was bruises all across my lower legs, my right forearm, and lacerations to my right knee. I ended up with a bit of pain, a shot of lidocaine, and a single stitch to the knee. Still painful and deeply bruised, and two weeping scabs, slowly healing, 17 days later. The small boy's thumb now only needs a single bandaid, healing nicely, though it was hard for him to hold a pencil or eating utensil for about a week.
Sadly, or fortuitously, it was the middle of the boys' school term break, so we could relax and rest and heal up around the house and the local neighborhood, though they did not get a chance to travel a bit, as we had planned.
This is the worst motorcycle accident I have had in the 150,000 kms I've traveled in Thailand over the past 15 years (on the same motorbike, no less). I've had previous nails, though usually they just have a slow or medium leak, one other time was explosive decompression, but I was doing about 30 kph, and so it was easier to control, and I ended up not falling down or hitting anything.
Even though we had basically everything for safety (besides better motorcycle clothing and gloves), the accident could not be forseen or prepared for. It made me scared about riding. One can overcome this fear and ride a motorbike as per usual, but I became more cautions and 28 days later I had purchased a car, the first I've owned in 23 years (though I've rented plenty).
And so, what can be done? Well, better gloves, some kind of knee protection (worn or a fairing on the motorcycle) and puncture-proof tires, not a widespread technology, and of course simply riding less or in less hazardous settings (just around our town, maybe 15 minutes round-trip. For anything beyond that, or when all four of the family is traveling together, we use our 2024 BYD Dolphin.
Puncture-proof tires?
There are two approaches: a solid tire, or a tire with some kind of adhesive inside that can help seal a puncture.
- Solid tires: less grip control, heavier, and therefore have a slower ride (30% less efficient on bicycles)
- Sealant tires: don't actually stop punctures but fill them while maintaining some amount of pressure.
- More appropriate to tubeless tires, though some may work somewhat for tube tires
Note that these kinds of tire technology also apply to bicycles (road and mountain), as well as motorcycles, and even cars. Interestingly, when you have an electric car, the higher end models can actually adjust to ride on three wheels, when one tire goes flat.
Innovation needed
Tire innovation is truly needed for all forms of wheeled vehicles, as this can have a significant impact on safety and injury prevention. Grip, weight, resiliance, catastrophic failure avoidance. All need be improved, for 2-, 3-, and 4-wheeled vehicles (and beyond).
- Pool Noodle Tire Hack (YouTube)
- For adhesive (sealant) options, generally need to run tubeless tires
- Note that there are some tubed-to-tubeless conversion tools, such as Outex and Tubliss.
- Tube vs. Tubeless YouTube