This last weekend, Silas had his first flat tire:

                                             

Do you remember your first flat tire? I can't remember mine; but then, I came from a socio-economic strata where flat tires were de rigeur. Flat tires, bad batteries (jump starting, push starting), towing one car behind another with a piece of rope - I didn't drive a Z3 when I was a teenager.

Silas doesn't drive a Z3, either, but he drives a dang nice Mustang, with good tires. However, running over a nail will make even a good tire go flat, and it seems that that's what he did. He didn't have to go to a gas station to get it fixed - and a good thing, too, because it's difficult to find a gas station these days - much less a gas station where they actually fix things.

However, our next door neighbor worked at a tire store when he was younger, and he knows how to fix flats, so Silas just had to take the tire off and roll it next door. "Next Door" in this case includes a three-car garage that doesn't contain any cars, as far as I can tell - just tools and hoists and welding rigs and what-not. In other words, Silas gets the royal treatment when he gets a flat. And I don't think that he had to pay anything, either.

I'm getting a little concerned about my motorcycle tires. I can't tell whether or not they are ready to change out - I've got just under 18000 miles on 'em. Motorcycle tires are a little different than car tires, because if you have a blowout in a car, you aren't about to tip over (action movies notwithstanding). However, on a motorcycle, a blowout means that you are about to lose control.

Ever since I've started to wonder about my tires, I find myself staying near the edge of the road, just in case - I mean, if I do have a blowout at 75 MPH, I want to land on sand or grass or cactus, and not slam into asphalt or a Jersey barrier, right?...you know what? I'm starting to think that, if I'm even thinking that way, it's past time to get my tires changed :)

But there's a question - how does one CHANGE a motorcycle tire? It's not like a car tire, because on a car, the mechanisms are all on the INSIDE, at the axle and hub - you just pop the lug nuts and pull the wheel off. But on a motorcycle, the wheel is INSIDE of all the mechanisms - the chain drive, the sprockets, the brakes all go AROUND the tire, so, in order to get the tire off, you have to disengage all of those mechanisms somehow.

So I think the answer to my question "how does one change a motorcycle tire?" is best answered like this - "one doesn't. One goes off an pays somebody else to do it, instead" :)