Is the spare tire safe?

[Kurt V]

The tires had less than 2000 miles on them and I had just checked the tire pressure before leaving on my trip. Not sure what happened. Just felt it suddenly go flat. Fortunately it was a rear tire so my steering wasn't really affected.

As to where to install the spare, the manual says put it on the front. I installed it on the rear as I wasn't sure how reliable it was and if it was going to fail I would rather have it fail in the rear as opposed to the front. Again my reasoning was I didn't want a tire failure to affect the steering. As it was, the spare worked out just fine. Really couldn't tell I was riding on the spare other than the funny red color of the wheel and the skinny tire!