954Rider
New member
Ok so I was in Thailand for the last few weeks where I always rent a moto scooter to get around town. Very convenient due to traffic congestion and I get everywhere faster than the baht buses, taxis, tuk tuks, etc.
While on a scenic ride with an expat and another buddy, we were on the main highway where there are sometimes police checkpoints who just like to pull over foreigners so they can hit them with a fine and hint for a bribe for not having an International Drivers Permit. We got pulled over to the side and we all had ours, but my buddy didn't have the moto endorsement stamp so he had to pay 500 baht tea money to them.
Anyways, we were pulled over on a bit of dirt area, and as we pulled away back onto the road I noticed I had a flat front tire, I immediately tried to slow down and come to a stop. I'm used to using both brakes most of the time because I'm heavy and doing so just stops faster. I pulled both brakes but not too hard, but as luck would have it I also rode onto a metal grating with wider grooves than normal, to which the bike then really became hard to steer. The other two were ahead of me and I thought I needed to alert them of my predicament and honk my horn, so I had to take my thumb off the left handlebar grip to honk it, but I probably should not have done so as the next thing I knew the steering column locked to the left and I got thrown off over the bars, at a pretty low speed right before coming to a stop I believe. There was no way I could have avoided the metal gratings as it was a wide patch spread before me. I definitely wasn't about to try and swerve with a front flat tire right?
What I think I should have done, let off the front brake and used rear brake only, and don't even think about touching the horn until I came to a complete stop. But I'm welcoming your advice, this is the first time I've ever dealt with a front flat tire on a moto, actually never had a flat on a moto before. What should I have done to avoid the spill?
The results were just a little road rash on my left elbow, hands, knees, nothing serious. Luckily I had the face shield down on my half helmet because I face planted the asphalt and bloodied my nose. Had a little cut on the forehead and a swollen nose, but everything healed up just fine so I'm ok. Just want to learn from the experience.
Oh and please no ATGATT comments, Thailand is hot as hell and is a whole different animal than riding streetbikes here.
The bike only cost $20 to fix the damages, yea parts are cheap and it helps to rent from a reputable moto rental that will only charge you their cost to fix damages. I even got back some of my deposit and a replacement bike for the remainder of my trip.
While on a scenic ride with an expat and another buddy, we were on the main highway where there are sometimes police checkpoints who just like to pull over foreigners so they can hit them with a fine and hint for a bribe for not having an International Drivers Permit. We got pulled over to the side and we all had ours, but my buddy didn't have the moto endorsement stamp so he had to pay 500 baht tea money to them.
Anyways, we were pulled over on a bit of dirt area, and as we pulled away back onto the road I noticed I had a flat front tire, I immediately tried to slow down and come to a stop. I'm used to using both brakes most of the time because I'm heavy and doing so just stops faster. I pulled both brakes but not too hard, but as luck would have it I also rode onto a metal grating with wider grooves than normal, to which the bike then really became hard to steer. The other two were ahead of me and I thought I needed to alert them of my predicament and honk my horn, so I had to take my thumb off the left handlebar grip to honk it, but I probably should not have done so as the next thing I knew the steering column locked to the left and I got thrown off over the bars, at a pretty low speed right before coming to a stop I believe. There was no way I could have avoided the metal gratings as it was a wide patch spread before me. I definitely wasn't about to try and swerve with a front flat tire right?
What I think I should have done, let off the front brake and used rear brake only, and don't even think about touching the horn until I came to a complete stop. But I'm welcoming your advice, this is the first time I've ever dealt with a front flat tire on a moto, actually never had a flat on a moto before. What should I have done to avoid the spill?
The results were just a little road rash on my left elbow, hands, knees, nothing serious. Luckily I had the face shield down on my half helmet because I face planted the asphalt and bloodied my nose. Had a little cut on the forehead and a swollen nose, but everything healed up just fine so I'm ok. Just want to learn from the experience.
Oh and please no ATGATT comments, Thailand is hot as hell and is a whole different animal than riding streetbikes here.
The bike only cost $20 to fix the damages, yea parts are cheap and it helps to rent from a reputable moto rental that will only charge you their cost to fix damages. I even got back some of my deposit and a replacement bike for the remainder of my trip.
