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[Bomber]

Delevered some presents to a friend Christmas eve and as it was such nice weather I took the X.  I was battleing bronchitis and had taken a stiff swig of "the good stuff" precription cough syurp so I wasn't feeling like hacking a lung up (wasn't feeling much at all.....) and I noticed the bike felt a little strange when I drove it the five blocks to the friends house but attributed it to Mr. Codene and the feel good crew.  I took a quick look at the tires when I got back on the bike and all seemed to look ok.  Took the long way home to look at the pretty lights and shiny things in the front yards and made it a few blocks when the X decided it wanted to dance with me.  Did a standing flat tracker slide to a stop (didn't tip, thank you Lord!).  The rear tire had come off the bead.  Sure am glad I got the wife Triple-A's best towing package.  They came with a flat bed and winched me and the bike into parade position on the truck and I rode her home on the flatbed.  Got some comments from the sidelines as I made the half mile tour home (I gave my best Queen Mary wave).  Took three of us to push it off the truck.  Got it rolled up on a couple of 2X12's so I could fit the jack under the frame.  Once on my fine pepsX(?) stand I found the problem.

I think I may have been a bit too agressive on my 2.5 day 1200 mile Arkansaskickasswindyroad tour as I'd gone through the tread on the side of the tread.  I'd been keeping an eye on the middle of the tread and thought I had another thou or so miles to go, but there were a couple of cordy patches where I never thought I'd see 'em. 

Moral of the story: the tire doesn't always wear where you think it will......

Perfect timing as my GPS and CB/Intercom are in the mail :-) (and my progressive 440's and front springs and tank quick disconnect and desmog blaa blaa blaa) 

[Dusty]

I had a front tire do the slow deflate on me one day. Took me a minute or so to figure out what was going on. The bike went from steering fine to becoming hard to steer to pretty much going where it wanted to. Fortunatly I was able to get to the side of the road before it started self steering. Somehow, my valve stem had broken at the rim but was still in place. Didn't remember hitting anything. Still don't know what happened to it.

[heirloom]

+1 Dusty.   One of the first things I did to my X was replace the rubber valve stems with stainless steel.  A friend*, riding a Gold Wing had a sudden flat at 70 mph due to a valve stem blowing off.  It seems he had changed tires a number of time and nobody had seen fit to change the valve stems.  Be aware that the rubber on the valve stem will rot just like that in a tire.

*He is alive and still riding, in spite of not having a helmet on that evening.  However, he did lose a card or two in the shuffle.

[Bomber]

My mom told me not to operate heavy machinery while on that cough syurp 

[POGOGOLF]

+1 Dusty.   One of the first things I did to my X was replace the rubber valve stems with stainless steel.  A friend*, riding a Gold Wing had a sudden flat at 70 mph due to a valve stem blowing off.  It seems he had changed tires a number of time and nobody had seen fit to change the valve stems.  Be aware that the rubber on the valve stem will rot just like that in a tire.

*He is alive and still riding, in spite of not having a helmet on that evening.  However, he did lose a card or two in the shuffle.

I have warned others about a similar experience to these with the 90 degree stems that they use on Goldwings. Those puppies will rot out and won't show obvious signs before they finally let go! My rear one let loose in the middle of a long right sweeper in GA with my bride riding rear saddle. At first I thought it was the front tire, but the rear had lost virtually ALL of it's air mid-curve. We did not go down (thank you, God) and I knew to stay off the brakes (thank you motorcycle safety training from years ago) so that I could ease it off the shoulder. Just 2 weeks ago I was fueling up my Explorer in Bay City and 4 guys pulled in on Goldwings and headed straight for the air pump...I walked over and they were saying they couldn't understand how this one guy's scooter kept losing it's front tire air. I told him to check the stem and yeppers, that was the deal, the 90 degree stem had given way.
Regarding the sidewall issue in the original post, I absolutely refuse to use the 200 Metzlers on my scooter anymore (I've owned 2 of them, thank goodness with no issue) due to their only having a single ply sidewall...thank you anyway, but that's no safety margin for a defect/poor workmanship should it decide to go south while riding. JMHO.