Become a Member: Get Ad-Free Access to 3,000+ Reviews, Guides, & More

Warning on tyre punctures from filtering

Queensland Motorcycle Breakdown Service tyre punctures puncture-proof tyres flirting shoulder

Have you copped tyre punctures while filtering through traffic? You’re not alone, according to Queensland Motorcycle Breakdown Service.

They have had a spike (‘scuse then pun) in tyre punctures since the lane filtering rule was introduced last year, including nine in one week and 24 last month.

Director Peter Roussos says it comes mainly from riders using the emergency breakdown lane or shoulder on highways such as the M1.

He says they are littered with detritus from traffic, including screws, bolts and nails dropped off tradies’ utes.Queensland Motorcycle Breakdown Service tyre punctures

“We are urging riders to lane filter in the middle or use the emergency shoulder on the right hand side rather than left as it has generally less rubble for some reason,” he says.

Be aware that in certain jurisdictions it is not permitted to use the emergency lanes and in Queensland is prohibited when electronic speed signs drop below 90km/h.

Peter says one of the lethal culprits of the punctures are steel twists used to secure orange mesh barriers at roadworks sites.

“When they are cutting them down, they fall on to the road,” he says.

“We’ve had at least four that have had them.”




He says they not only puncture the tyre, but because they are long they pierce the tyre twice going in and out of the casing.

“If you get two punctures within a certain distance in the tyre it weakens it and legally it has to be replaced, not mended,” he says.

Three of the punctures from steel twists have destroyed the bike’s tyre, he says.

The rubbish on the sides of the roads is another good reason motorcycles should also be allowed to use bus lanes as in NSW and ACT and many cities overseas.Queensland Motorcycle Breakdown Service tyre punctures

Breakdown service

QMBS launched on the Gold Coast in February and already has 500 members paying between $80 and $250 a year for their emergency breakdown and towing service.

“It’s like an RACQ breakdown service, but for motorcycles only,” he says.

“We are properly outfitted and Queensland Transport approved.

A couple of interesting services they provide on their platinum $250/year coverage are replacement key and lost/stolen helmet services.

If you lose your key while out on a ride, QMBS picks up a spare that you have arranged with them to keep at home or a neighbour’s house. They deliver the key to you so you can continue your ride.

Similarly, if you lose your helmet or it is stolen while out riding, they will deliver a loan helmet.

If you don’t use the platinum service within a year, you get $130 back in vouchers or next year’s membership.

Contact

Queensland Motorcycle Breakdown Service is available on the web or via phone: 1300 777627.

  1. It’s always the chance you take when filtering – more so if you ride the breakdown lanes, which is why I always carry a small repair kit. Most of the punctures I get commuting around Sydney are caused by bloody tek screws.

  2. The bitimen shoulders on highways are littered with rubbish..not to mention the plastic that is scattered I am sure the entire length of all of our national highways. Usually just out of town is all the fast food wrappers conveniently thrown out windows after a feed that adorn the roadsides.
    Another issue is once changing a tyre on the road side, I had to lay under the car to place jack as it was suspect & all I got was bits of metal & crap poking into me.
    What is wrong with highway sweeps occasionally?
    Forget riding a bicycle along them.

  3. Bicyclists have had to put up motorist’s rubbish, screws, scrap timber, glass, and everything else for >century.
    Typically motorists get the pristine smooth clean sections of road and other forms of transport get the remaining scraps.
    I’d be pleased for motorist’s to pay an extra $50 each on their rego each year to pay for road cleanup and sweeps! They don’t pay enough to cover the externalities of their vehicle usage as it is anyway.

    1. bicyclists (unless you are a registered car owner also) don’t pay for road usage (but even if you are a car owner, I own a car and a motorbike… and pay rego for both). Wouldn’t it be easier if bicyclists just paid rego and then that would cover the cleanup and sweeps that you request………….

      1. Far from not paying enough, the motorist is a cash cow for government. Bicycles, of course, get a free ride (pardon the pun), but Stuart here reckons that the motorist should pay for the roads to be kept clean for his bicycle as well – in much the same way that the wealthy Eastern suburbs enjoy subsidised buses at the expense of the working west. Let someone else pay eh? But in a roundabout way, he has a point: I don’t like the idea of cyclists paying rego either. We pay out far too much in taxes and levies already. My family has a car, a 4wd and three motorcycles: that’s five lots of rego, NCIS levies etc, plus I lose a third of my income in direct taxation and a fair whack more in indirect and consumption taxes. Why should I pay even more rego for our bicycles? Keeping the roads clean is a basic local government responsibility, it’s time it was done properly. If there’s not enough money then maybe we should start looking at getting rid of all non-essential public sector ‘services’ instead of continually raising taxes. As the erstwhile Donald Trump might say: how about we drain the swamp?

        1. Well said. We are overtaxed and receive in return an incompetent leadership service. Budgets are blown by millions and certain civil servant categories if not all benefit from “salary sacrificing” secret packages where one can pay mortgage, electricity, personal loans, holidays and in some instances entertainment with cash that was supposedely to be tax dollars. I dont begrudge anybody, but damn me if this is not unfair when considering we all cannot even claim travelling to work as a tax deductible.

  4. I’ve had a few screws from riding on the shoulder over the years. I get the horrors watching these high speed onboard cams and they are overtaking on the shoulder.
    Btw, taxes pay for roads, rego pays for the registration system only.
    The more cyclists and motorcyclists there are, the less congestion.

  5. Nails, bits of metal etc dropped from cars, utes, trucks causes motorcycle punctures.

    Every time a motorcycle has a puncture this tax should be used to pay for a new tyre.
    Problem solved.

  6. I’ve noticed that my car has had a lot of trouble riding lately due to puncture and after some time.I’ll have to remember to have a towing service in my contacts as well as blankets in case I get stranded to make sure I’m not there for too long.

Comments are closed.