Who knew so many things can be fixed at once?

This morning, I finally was able to get new tires for Ulla. The old ones (first picture) were as bald as a naked mole rat, and were just as worrisome to have around.

Only two of them matched (in make, but not tread), nothing was balanced, and one of the rims had a bend in it. She shook over 55mph, squealed around corners at 10mph, hated stopping, and one of them had to be pumped up every other day to avoid going flat. I'd make jokes about having racing slicks, but i think those would have been safer to drive on.

I've had several estimates over the last month, and no matter what I did, I couldn't find anything that could be my old tire shop back home, run by a friend of the family. Boland Tire of Sturgis, MI was where my last tires came from (paid for by my parents, years ago), so when they gave me a price of $275 (out the door, lifetime rotations, etc) for a Bridgestone made tire, and none of the "discount" places could come close, I went there without hesitation. The money I spent on gas driving an hour to Sturgis still put me under the other estimates, and I felt more comfortable going there.

An hour after I dropped it off, I came back from visiting people I hadn't seen in a while, and my car was already done. After paying the bill and going outside, I found a shiny new set of rubber (second picture), and to my surprise...they fixed my bent rim. It wasn't anything serious, jsut a bent outside lip a couple of inches long, probably from where someone hit a curb, but...they fixed it, and I couldn't even figure out which rim it had been on (until i did...third picture).

Needless to say, when I finish her up and decide to put a set of proper touring tires on Ulla, I'll go back to them, no question.

On my way back home that evening (with my girlfriend riding next to me), we realized something that I knew would happen to an extent, but we never could have imagined the impact these new tires would have. Ulla handled like a new roadster! smooth ride, less road noise, straighter tracking, and most importantly, no more shaking at higher speeds! I drove part way home on a freeway, just to try her out, and the ease of acceleration and top speed was astounding! Never again will I neglect tires. Never.