Spontaneous Tire fix

As in if I wanted a coffee run this AM I had to do something about the suddenly discovered loss of air in my little less than 1500 miles old rear Michelin PR 4 (which I am really loving). At least it was at home in my own driveway, but it was still nailed. Thought at first to try the Dynaplug Tubeless Tire Repair Tool, this little gizmo has a brass tip with a sticky plug tail as a plug, it is loaded into a tube in a plastic handle and inserted into the hole point first and the handle is withdrawn and plug stays in hole. Not. Could not get the tool to penetrate deflated mushy tire and sticky tail detached it self from brass point, leaving me to extract point with needle nose pliers. Remove this item from my travel kit. Next up was my Stop&Go pocket tire plugger, this jewel has a mushroom head on a plugging stem, it is inserted with a hollow stemmed tool after reaming the hole a bit, the mushroom head deploys inside the tire and is pulled back against the inner tire surface buy pulling on the protruding stem after the tool is removed, (stem is than trimmed). NOW HEADS UP, instructions say to use pliers to pull on stem to snug up plug, NOWHERE do they use the word "gently" and yes I pulled the rubber stem apart, on to the second plug, I would also recommend a larger type flat jawed pair of pliers for a better grip(such as my electricians pliers) as opposed to the narrower jawed common slip-joint pliers when snugging the plug up a bit. Kit is well designed and will always be traveling with me as well as the sticky worms type repair kit for a backup and for irregular holes. READ directions, it is easy to skip a small step. The Stop&Go kit has been around for years and is well refined. When I was a Connie rider (22years) at one of our tech meetings we all got to drill holes in a donor tyre and plug it using the first issue of the Stop&Go with a huge grease gun type handle. Tire never leaked in the following weeks till we quit checking on it. The kit is quite compact and refined at this time and my first choice. It also performed well inserting in the soft tire which is a challenge in itself, especially if you are roadside and only have a tiny air pump. Now to keep an eye on the air pressure for a bit, no bubbles and pressure has actually gone up a bit do to heat. Hope this info has been of value.

I have successfully used one of the el-cheapo sticky string repair kits.

I did find it extremely difficult to push a tire plug awl into the totally deflated tire. For me the solution was to re-inflate the thing, which provided sufficient frimness to enable the awl/plug/cement to work fully through. Once the thing is inserted, leaving an inch or so, I deflated the tire prior to removing the awl, leaving the sticky plug in place. The repair held very nicely for the rest of the season last year, however the tire was nearing end of life, so I replaced it with a new one this season.

I've actually enlarged the puncture with a drill once or twice, when pushing the tool proved difficult, even after using the reaming tool first.

I second the advice to re-inflate the tire a little bit to make things easier. I have a plug on one of my 4Runner's tire's that's been holding air very well for months.

Re-inflation a bit was necessary.

Thanks! I've been looking at similar devices. It's always good to hear from an experienced voice.

Post up again in a couple of days, please, and let us know if it's leaking.

sticky string forms a nice secure mushroom inside the tar....won't blow out like some plugs will....I've used them on every type of tire without a single failure...

Sticky strings have worked for me. I've practiced with a toasted tire before replacement, and have done it out on the road. I've found they may not seal completely at first, so add some extra PSI, then ride it for a bit to heat things up and complete the seal. Many folks report riding such a plugged tire to its end. I wouldn't.

I like the Nealey strings. Since one does not always have access to a drill & power source I started carrying a 7/16 inch drill bit with a head that will allow it to be inserted into

a handy/dandy multi-bit screwdriver that I carry. That way one can use it to sorta drill the hole & create more room for the insertion tool. The Nealey is the smallest

insertion tool that I have seen, other than my own, which my wife regrets. All I have plugged last until the bitter end of life.

I understand you are talking about emergency repairs on the road. But what about a repair at a shop. Here they don't repair tires, no matter what. I own a 10 bay tire and general repair shop for cars, and when we repair tires, the only way we do it is an internal plug/patch repair, that has never failed on us. What is soo wrong with that. These motorcycle tires are expensive.

I'm pretty sure it's that chance of failure that's stopping them from touching motorcycle tires. On a car, where you've got completely different stress profiles and 3 tires on the road should one fail, a patch isn't really a big deal. A bike with not much margin for recovering (compared to a car, at least) could make the shop liable for a lot more than many shop owners would be willing to risk.

Yeah, ask Ford and Firestone what happens when a single tire suddenly fails. I know that 4 vs 2 argument has been made before, but it's total baloney. A car tire failing at freeway speeds can do very bad things, yet people plug them all the time.

Personally, from what I have witnessed, the whole, "We don't repair motorcycle tires because it's dangerous" is simply a way to scare people into spending money.

Sticky String ... or Gummy Worms as they are usually called work very well, especially on irregular shaped holes, and they work just as well without the rubber cement.

So if you find yourself without glue, or with a dried out tube, go ahead anyway, it will be fine. The rubber cement however makes an excellent lubricant making it much easier to insert the worm and withdraw the tool.

Well darn, just went and bought a second Dynaplug handle and inserts. Seemed like a good idea. I've also got a Stop and Go kit as backup though and have used it once with good results. Guess I'll get some string plugs as a backup. Thanks for the heads-up.

I've used sticky string/cement/reamer/inserter to patch before. I patched a good sized hole in my brother's rear tire About 2 years ago. He casually mentioned he's still running that tire. And that was about 2 weeks ago. I'd feel better running on a plugged tire longer term if I had tpms. But I've covered distances longer than I'd like to admit with low or no air (from an on road puncture)

, just didn't find out how bad it was until I'd stopped.

I used the plugs in bias ply tires many times, and would run the plugged tire to end of life, and never really had much problem. Maybe would have to re-plug after a few thousand miles.

With belted radials, I've had the plugs come out, looking like they'd been cut off. After only a hundred miles or so. Somebody told me the belts cut the plugs. Soooo I stopped using plugs on radials.

HotRodZilla said:

Yeah, ask Ford and Firestone what happens when a single tire suddenly fails. I know that 4 vs 2 argument has been made before, but it's total baloney. A car tire failing at freeway speeds can do very bad things, yet people plug them all the time.
Personally, from what I have witnessed, the whole, "We don't repair motorcycle tires because it's dangerous" is simply a way to scare people into spending money.

Click to expand...

It depends on the car. Had a debris-induce blowout on a freeway at the speed limit in a front tire on my Camry some years back. It was a non-event as far as control went. The car just kept tracking straight ahead. I pulled over to the shoulder and put the spare on and drove away.

I've had this happen two different times on my Prius. Nothing exciting.

KrustyKush said:

I used the plugs in bias ply tires many times, and would run the plugged tire to end of life, and never really had much problem. Maybe would have to re-plug after a few thousand miles.
With belted radials, I've had the plugs come out, looking like they'd been cut off. After only a hundred miles or so. Somebody told me the belts cut the plugs. Soooo I stopped using plugs on radials.

Click to expand...

Sticky string has worked on every FJR tire I've had to plug. I have full confidence in them, whether on CA36 or Nevada at FJR nominal speeds.

radiummadman said:

I like the Nealey strings. Since one does not always have access to a drill & power source I started carrying a 7/16 inch drill bit with a head that will allow it to be inserted into

a handy/dandy multi-bit screwdriver that I carry. That way one can use it to sorta drill the hole & create more room for the insertion tool. The Nealey is the smallest

insertion tool that I have seen, other than my own, which my wife regrets. All I have plugged last until the bitter end of life.

Click to expand...

7/16 inch? That sure seems big -- dang near a .44 caliber.

And no, I'm not carrying on the joke about the size of your tool