Brand new front tire went flat at 80MPH! What caused it?

So I finally got around to replacing my front tire that was dry rotted and scary looking.
Had a brand new Kenda K671 100/90-19 and brand new tube mounted and balanced. Put it on the bike and went for a cruise, put probably 20-25 miles on it at about 40-45 mph, then decided on the way home to hop on the freeway. Opened it up a little bit and was coming up to my exit and suddenly I could tell something wasn't right, it was pulling and felt wobbly. I looked down and sure enough the front tire was flat! Well I eased the speed down and pulled it onto the shoulder of the exit. Can't believe I didn't get hurt or dump it. I nursed it up to a safe spot right off the exit. The tire was dead flat.
So I called my wife, she picked me up, I brought my air compressor back to it and it filled up just fine! I rode it the few blocks home (very cautiously).
So I plan on taking the wheel off and taking it into the shop again tomorrow and having them look at it all and remount and balance it.
I guess my big question is. What could have caused this??? It holding air fine now, and was for the 25 or soe miles before that, but I don't want it happening to me again. Any ideas?

Scary. I have seen a new tire "shift" on the rim and break the bead seal. I would think if it went flat, it wouldn't hold air again. Maybe something funky in the valve stem aseembly?

FYI, I always run Slime sealer in my tires to hopefully prevent sudden flats.

Your flat tire was definitely caused by a loss of air.:huh:

Seriously, I wonder if your tube was pinched during mounting or picked up a hole or something and in the process of going flat it shifted so the holes are now misaligned? It's a long shot, but except for the afore mentioned valve stem, it's all I come up with. When you find the answer to this mystery, let us know... Enquireing minds you know...

id much rather lose a front tire than a rear as crazy as that may sound!:blink: i lost a rear tire 20 plus years ago on my 1170 with one of those damn dropped center 16" harley rim on the back and it got really scary really fast as it tried swapping ends around 50 mph.check the shrader valve on your tire to make sure it didnt get something stuck in it.

Is it possible the shop put some tire sealer in the tube when they mounted the new tire? That would account for why it went flat and then held air. Some people run it all the time.

I am thinking valve problems, as for tire sealer, I only use it in a emergency sitiuation, the stuff moves around in the tire and will cause the tire balance to change all the time, plus its nasty as hell to clean

Sounds like it may have had air trapped between the rim and tube , causing it to inflate, then the air finally escaped and the tire went flat:woohoo: . Amazing that it didn't ruin the tube getting it off the highway. Some guys have all the luck!!

BSKZ650 wrote:

I am thinking valve problems, as for tire sealer, I only use it in a emergency sitiuation, the stuff moves around in the tire and will cause the tire balance to change all the time, plus its nasty as hell to clean

Actually, it does move to whatever place minimizes the wheel vibration (all systems migrate to lowest energy state). It actually improves balance, it used to be sold as balancing fluid.

Protects Balance: True Goo acts as a good balancing fluid. The low viscosity of True Goo has been engineered to put it in the "Sweet Spot" for tire balancing (if True Goo were thinner it would not balance tires as well, and conversely, if True Goo were thicker it would not balance tires as remarkably as it does). The thin film of True goo that coats the inside of the tire dynamically adjusts to balance the tire as the tire rolls.

The problem is, you must balance the tire first before putting it in or it will mess with the spin balancer.

It is slimy, I would not put it in a tubeless tire....

Thanks for all the replies so far.
I took it back to the shop. They took it all apart and checked the tube, tire and rim all out and said everything looked fine. They were as perplexed as we all are.
So they mounted it all up again. I put it back on the bike, but havn't had a chance to take it out for a spin yet, but its sitting in the garage holding air just fine.
The only thing I can come up with other than if it was a valve issue, is if part of the tube got stuck between the rim and the tire when it was mounted, then on the freeway it worked its way free and so suddenly there was extra volume to the tube thus, the air pressure suddenly dropped. Make any sense?
Hopefully I never have to experience that again though...it was scary.