The flat on my SV happened on the way home from teaching a BRC less than an hour before I was to leave MN for my trip to India.
At first, I wasn't sure what it was. The rear started to wobble slightly like my luggage rack had broken again. A few miles down the road it was clear what was happening as the wobble became more pronounced. The rear tire was going flat. Arg!
I was only three miles from home and without my tire repair kit. I was also being picked up by a friend soon to leave the country. Not a great time for a flat. I decided, perhapaps unsafely, to continue riding slowly to see if I could make it.
The rear continued to get worse until about a mile from home where it leveled off just above absolutely unrideable. Riding on a flat rear felt a lot like riding on ice and snow, so it was weirdly comfortable. Yay winter riding!
I made it to my house and up the hill into the garage. I left the bike in disgust and left for India. When I got back, I put a new tire on and admired the large nail still in the tire. The bike suffered no other damage.
My second flat of the year was with the Ural during the sidecar ride for kids. After the first few hours of rides, the sidecar started to feel squishy. I stopped to take a look at it, and it was nearly flat.
I tried to put more air in with tire pump hoping denial would fix my problem. It didn't.
The Ural has a spare, so I set about swapping the tire. I had a small audience of kids asking questions about it. They were eager to get back riding!
The spare went on without trouble. There was a small nail in one of the knobs. Darn.
After the second ride, I decided to stop. The spare was grinding excessively. The bearing sounded like it was shot.
Fortunately, I have new tires, tubes, and bearings ready to go on. A fun weekend project to get the bike ready for winter.