Using spoked wheels on the road may have saved my life. I was on my 1100GS on a very good road in Portugal. I had a passenger, camping gear, everything...and at 110 mph I hit a granite cobblestone which was sitting in the middle of the road, on a slight bend. I never saw it because it was in the shade of a tree and I was a bit busy overtaking a car.
The front rim was so badly dented that there was a gap of 1 cm between it and the bead. The back one didn't get dented ao much - it fractured from the edge of the rim to one of the spokes. The bike went up in the air but after it landed it stayed under control without me doing anything except hang on with my jaw on the floor. We missed the car and came to a halt without any fuss. We were able to continue our trip after getting new wheels Fedexed. If we had had cast wheels they might well have shattered, in which case I think we'd have had a very nasty crash - the road was lined with dry stone walls. OK, it wasn't just the wheels that saved us - the strength, stability and balance of the bike were also vital I reckon. But I'm a fan of spoked wheels on tarmac - they give you a little bit more of a safety margin and you never know when you'll be grateful for it.
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