Need to vent

Got home from work today and planned to roll the bike out wipe it down with a little spray wax and WTF!! a flat tire, (rear). I parked it yesterday and I thought it was fine. 2200 miles on my bike and I get a nail in my tire. I can drive my truck for years and it has four tires....never get a flat. (Probably shouldn't have said that). Anyway tomorrow is a poker run for abused children and the Wife and I really want to go. I run up to the shed drag my compressor down to the bike, add air, move the bike a few feet and my Wife yells, "there it is". Damn nail. Not a rusty nail. A new nail. At least an 8 penny. I have no choise but to dig the tire repair kit out and plug the tire. Put the tire up to 45lbs of pressure and it seems to be holding. First thing I did when I got to the computer is run a search on plugging of tires on the forum. I see that it seems to be about 80% don't see a problem with plugging. If the tire is still inflated tomorrow morning I'm going to make the poker run. Wish me luck! h34r:

Nothing is wrong with plugging it and riding tomorrow. It could last many miles, it could leave you stranded somewhere, or contribute to maybe something worse if handling is affected.

It's one thing if you're traveling and it gets you to a place to fix it Vs using as the everyday rider. IMHO. Others will see it different, I'm sure.

Play it safe and get a new tire.

Fubar said:

Got home from work today and planned to roll the bike out wipe it down with a little spray wax and WTF!! a flat tire, (rear). I parked it yesterday and I thought it was fine. 2200 miles on my bike and I get a nail in my tire. I can drive my truck for years and it has four tires....never get a flat. (Probably shouldn't have said that). Anyway tomorrow is a poker run for abused children and the Wife and I really want to go. I run up to the shed drag my compressor down to the bike, add air, move the bike a few feet and my Wife yells, "there it is". Damn nail. Not a rusty nail. A new nail. At least an 8 penny. I have no choise but to dig the tire repair kit out and plug the tire. Put the tire up to 45lbs of pressure and it seems to be holding. First thing I did when I got to the computer is run a search on plugging of tires on the forum. I see that it seems to be about 80% don't see a problem with plugging. If the tire is still inflated tomorrow morning I'm going to make the poker run. Wish me luck! h34r:

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I know many riders who have plugged tires & ridden them with no problems. I for one just can't deal with the anxiety of not knowing if/when the plug may fail.

I just replaced the rear tire on my 08 with 1800 miles after it got nailed & I wasn't happy about spending $150 for a Dunlop Roadsmart. But I can sleep peacefully the night before a ride with my wife. And that makes it worth it!

one of the members on this forum put a new Avon Storm on the rear and less than 35 miles later had a screw in it.

Replaced free of charge by Avon.

FJRMGM said:

one of the members on this forum put a new Avon Storm on the rear and less than 35 miles later had a screw in it.
Replaced free of charge by Avon.

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IMHO, the answer/action really depends on the type of puncture and the type of plug:

• For a "clean" and round puncture like you get with a nail pluging it with the Pocket Tire Plugger - For All Tubeless Tires is just fine I used one for thousands of miles (got a puncture in the first week of fitting a new tire). Due to the design of the plug the plugger plugs can't come out and more or less mold to the tire...
• For oval type holes a standard string plug will typically work well and reliably for the life of the tire.
• Non-round holes, such as caused by a sharp rock or other debry are the ones you need to worry about, these will with time and stress increase in size leading to air leaks and/or failures...

I plug leaks just to get me home where I dsmount the tire and put in a patch/plug combination, like the one they use for car tires. And then I run the tire until the wear bars show. I don't trust plugs for much more than emergency situations.

I've plugged a few tires. When doing so, I always follow the standard rule of thumb. 1 plug means you downgrade the rating of the tire (speed and/or weight) by 1 level (a Z becomes a Y (or whatever)). 2 plugs not in the same quadrant (and treat the tire like it's 2 steps downgraded). They say you can do more but at that point i've always chosen to replace the tire.

I always treat the tire gingerly and check the PSI often until I'm sure it's ealed well. Then I check at least daily.

It's not so much the fear of a plug (or even a patch) failing as it is possible carcass damage from the intrusion of the foreign object. The object can either cleanly separate the threads of the belt, or it can cut and tear them as it passes through-the first is ok but rare, the second common and dangerous. With a steel belt, the torn ends of the belt are sharp, and can slowly slice up the plug, or the ends can work their way through the patch-producing a leak-but neither of these are the bad part. The bad part is that the belt can come apart at high speed as the tire heats and flexes, causing catastrophic failure of the tire, never fun. The ends can cut through the inner liner and allow air to enter the belt area of the tire (ever seen a tire grow a football in the sidewall?) On a car tire it's not such a worry, speeds are usually not as high and there are 3 others to hold up the vehicle. They also don't tend to run as warm bike tires (especially a rear on a high powered bike), so car rules shouldn't be followed on bikes in this regard.

i had 2000 miles on a pilot road 2 when i got a nail, patched the tire, ordered a new tire, rode patched tire till new tire came in. i just didn't feel comfortable riding around on a patched tire

Nail in mine the first week, brand new, just had a couple hundred miles on her. I used the sringy plug and rode it and additional 8500. Did it on the advice of many forum members. No problems at all.

For what it's worth, several years ago I had a plug come out of my rear tire on my RZ-350 in a corner. I somehow managed not to crash. Since then, I've used the "pocket tire pluggers" as mentioned above, and never had a problem with those.

Just a data point.

That sucks Fubar - I can only add my .02 to what others have already said. Whenever I have picked up a nail, screw, whatever I have used a plug but it was only as a temporary measure. On the great 'Risk / Reward' scale (that I use to make a lot of decisions) this one is a no brainer. Currently I am not even carrying any type of plugging tool on the new bike - but I certainly would get one before a long ride.

I just changed out pilot roads. The rear had a string plug in it for 11,000 of the 12,000 miles. I also just added Smartire tire pressure monitor system to keep an eye on the pressures.