OMG - Lucky miss (actually quite a few!!!)
Ivan - 16/12/11 at 11:44 AM
Working on my Cobra replacing the rear shocks - took off back wheel (All 50 kg off it 
) turn around to pick up something when suddenly I noticed
wheel running out of garage down road (live on a 1:6 access road) over the hundred metres down to the very busy main road, I reckon it picked up to
about 40 kph (I tried but had no chance of catching up with it) then slanted across the main road at about 30 degrees heading for the very busy beach
that's well below the level of the main road, fortunately the kerb turned it and it carried on about 500 metres down the main road on the wrong
side until it ran out of momentum and fell over when it hit the kerb lying in the middle of the lane just on the wrong side of a bend (fortunately
with good sight lines).
If it had jumped the kerb at the beach it would most definitely have seriously injured or possibly killed someone given the speed it was travelling
I am sooooo lucky no person or property was injured or damaged and no accidents happened. (I think my late Mother (she was the best driver i
have ever been with) must have been driving the wheel and my late Farther directing traffic as it was only by some form of intervention that this
didn't end in disaster.)
l0rd - 16/12/11 at 12:17 PM
Moral of the story
Do not leave wheels standing.
steve m - 16/12/11 at 12:23 PM
or live at the bottom of a hill
Fred W B - 16/12/11 at 12:28 PM
Lucky escape there Ivan!
Imagine how bizarre it would have been for somone on the beach if the wheel had crashed into the sand next to them.
Cheers
Fred W B
blakep82 - 16/12/11 at 12:35 PM
quote:
Originally posted by steve m
or live at the bottom of a hill
and have everyones wheels rolling in, and crashing into my garage?! NO THANKS! 
PSpirine - 16/12/11 at 12:57 PM
I have a similar story.
I had an old style roof rack on my mini (classic, not BMW), and was driving down the main road by the beach in Cyprus. What I'd forgotten is that
my spare wheel which was on the roof rack wasn't tied down!
As I went over a bump this wheel bounced off the roof, and bounced along side my car just as you see in cartoons/movies, bouncing and rolling across
the opposite side of the road. Fortunately this happened in about a 200 metre gap between travelling cars so it bounced across the road, onto the
pavement and into a bush.
Wheels just don't like to be restrained I guess....
designer - 16/12/11 at 01:28 PM
quote:
the wheel had crashed into the sand next to them.
Deadly if it had hit them!!
Besides that; worthy of the Keystone Cops.
David Jenkins - 16/12/11 at 02:09 PM
Reminded me of this... 
Lost wheel
Ivan - 16/12/11 at 02:46 PM
Yup - keystone cops is right - Wife saw me running down road and also the look of horror from pedestrians and thought the Cobra had run away
Paid the price for my stupidity by having to push the wheel back up the hill.
Will definitely not make the mistake of leaving wheel standing again. 
matt_gsxr - 16/12/11 at 03:56 PM
another argument for 13inch wheels.
A busy beach wouldn't have been a problem over here today.
jacko - 16/12/11 at 07:25 PM
Many years ago when i did auto grass track i saw a wheel come of a car doing about 60 mph the wheel went down the track into the Pitt's and hit a
lad off about 10 on his foot and went right over his right shoulder luckily missing his head and landing in the field behind the Pitt's .
Jacko
myke pocock - 16/12/11 at 10:21 PM
Driving back up the M6 north of Penrith many years ago. Towing a small trailer with a Triumph engine in that was intended for my JC Midge build. Doing
60 in the middle lane when there was a lurch and a wheel came off, sparks flying everywhere with the hub rubbing on the tarmac (it was dark, bet it
looked spectacular to other road users!!!) Managed to pull over and stop on the hard shoulder, got out of the car, walked around to the trailer and
the wheel rolled up and toppled over at my feet. REEESULT!!!
Ben_Copeland - 16/12/11 at 10:42 PM
quote:
Originally posted by myke pocock
Driving back up the M6 north of Penrith many years ago. Towing a small trailer with a Triumph engine in that was intended for my JC Midge build. Doing
60 in the middle lane when there was a lurch and a wheel came off, sparks flying everywhere with the hub rubbing on the tarmac (it was dark, bet it
looked spectacular to other road users!!!) Managed to pull over and stop on the hard shoulder, got out of the car, walked around to the trailer and
the wheel rolled up and toppled over at my feet. REEESULT!!!
I had something similar with a hired 4 wheel trailer.
Towing a kit up to scotland, one wheel came off. Never noticed till we stopped at hotel for the night. Luckily the kit was just chassis and bodywork.
There was going to be a hefty Vauxhall Vectra on it later, god knows what would of happened if the wheel had departed with that sort of weight on
it..... Probably would of bottomed out dragging the trailer and my Nissan Navara off the road 
Never found wheel/hub, was just left with stub axle
[Edited on 16/12/11 by Ben_Copeland]
nick205 - 16/12/11 at 10:56 PM
Any chance a passer by caught it on camera...?
Very lucky escape all round, but something you'll o doubt laugh on in the future