New Tire Or A Plug

I purchased new Avons (st45/46) earlier this summer and was 400 miles into a two thousand mile trip when the rear tire flatted. The culprit was a nail which impaled itself dead center on the tire. The m/c shop did not have replacement Avon tire nor was there another shop within reasonable taxi distance to find another Avon so I agreed to have it plugged and continued on my way. I experienced no loss of air pressure for the rest of the trip and have ridden it another 1K since then-but the thought of riding on a plugged tire never leaves my mind. Is it safe? Anyone have a good/bad experience with riding on a plugged tire? BTW, my tire did not qualify for Avon's replacement program: my dealer told me they will replace within the first 1.5 mm (milimeter) of wear: 1.5 mm is not very much but better than nothing.

You'll undoubtedly get lot's of different replies, including a lot of doom-n-gloom stories.

Personally, not only would I ride it plugged, I have.... dozens' of times over the years. If the plug is well-vulcanized and holding well, I wouldn't be concerned. Even riding in triple-digit speeds in triple-digit temps.... which, again, I've done many, many times over the years on plugged tires. In fact, the last Avon I had on my FJR picked up a nail after only 800 miles. I did a patch, and rode it throughout the rest of the summer in Nevada for another 7000 miles.

If it TRULY is going to bug you to the point of distraction, dismount the tire and do a mushroom patch from the inside.

My brothers went to Alaska and back this summer with our group, I regret I could not go as I have a medical practice to tend to and my wife was 8 months pregnant at that time.

Turns out they suffered 5 flats in the middle of nowhere. I had given my brother a stop n go tire plugger which uses small mushroom type plugs. They finished the trip, over 4000 miles down gravel roads and the plugs held. My brother is now giving the plug sets out as gifts to all of his other biker friends.

Personally I like to replace the tires as soon as possible as the plugs in the past were crap and failed more often than not.

But as tires have gotten better and these new plugs are so much better, I now carry the plug kit at all times and plan to ride "plugged!"

My trust is in Warchild and I agree with his advice!

I plug and go regularly. My experience is that if the plug holds for the first couple hundred miles, it will hold indefinitely.

Now if the tire is getting near the end of it's life, I may pull it a little earlier.

If you are really worried, you could pull the tire and do an interior patch. Peace of mind is worth something.

- Mark

My experience with the Stop n Go type mushroom plugs was not good and I won't use them again, but a lot of riders have had good luck with them, so who knows?? I picked up a large nail in the rear tire on my '04 FJR last year (OEM Bridgestone BT-020). I was at a friend's house and he plugged the tire with one of the mushroom plugs. We tested it for leaks and it seemed fine. I rode it 60 miles home but the tire was dead flat the next morning. I subsequently read that the soft mushroom plugs in steel belted radial tires--depending on exactly where the plug is in relation to the nearest steel belt strand--may have the head of the plug cut off by the flex of the steel belt. That's apparently what happened with my tire. I was going to buy one of the Stop n Go plug kits until this happened. I plugged the tire with one of the sticky string type plugs (also used rubber cement with it) that I've used on my cars and trucks for over 25 years. I've probably done the string plugs at least 30-40 times over the years and have never ever had a failure with the plug. I had never done one of the string plugs on a mc tire but it held perfectly for over 2700 miles until I replaced the tire. I now carry the string plugs, rubber cement, the reamer tool and insertion tool in a small kit in one of the hardcases of the FJR, along with a small bicycle type foot airpump that will air up the FJR tire in about 5 minutes. From the experiences of others, if the Stop n Go mushroom plug holds for more than a couple hundred miles, it sounds like the plug will hold up fine indefinitely. I just think the string type plugs are stronger and will hold up much better. I just had another nail in the rear Avon tire on my FJR and used the string plug again. It's holding fine. I'm approaching 10,000 miles on the Avons, still have probably at least 2000 more miles wear on both the front and rear Avon before fully hitting the wear bars but will probably replace the tires within the next month or so--I already have the new Avons in my garage.

My own personal opinion is that, regardless of what type of plug you use in the tire, there is little liklihood of catastrophic tire failure or blowout even if the plug does not hold. The worst that will happen is the tire will slowly go flat again.

Lee in the Mountains of Northern California B)

Replace it with a plug-patch. Cost is about $30. Its a big mushroom shaped plug with a patch on the end of a mushroom. Its put on from the inside, so the tire has to come off the rim. I have had 2 tires fixed with this system. They are safe and will last the life of the tire.

called 3 local bike shops to repair my rear tire nail in it. all 3 shops said they will not repair a motorcycle tire due to insurance reasons and the safety issue to the rider.

called 3 local bike shops to repair my rear tire nail in it. all 3 shops said they will not repair a motorcycle tire  due to insurance reasons and the safety issue to the rider.

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Get ahold of me.

My friend did two of those plug/patch combos on mine already, and they hold up just fine. I put around 4k on the last one, and this one is up to around 1500 miles already. Cost is around $20 (wheel only) to repair and balance it.

I'm in northern NJ.

had my local car tire guy do a plug . his comment was what do you want to commit suicide . and dont go ove 60 m.p.h . yea it was a screw about 2inches long that was in the tire. cost for plug 7 bucks

What Warchild and the others have said. I don't know why I have such shitty karma, but after NEVER having a flat on a motorcycle tire, I have gotten a flat on EVERY one of the 5 rear tires I have had on my FJR. The last was 125 miles after I mounted a new rear Avon. Shit!

So, I am saying I have a bit of experience, and here's my recommendations:

I would continue using it, but get it PROPERLY repaired. By that, I mean finding a shop to do it if you can, and having them install a proper plug/patch from the inside of the tire. This procedure also entails drilling out the injury on the tire, and is the only method of repairing a tire that the tire manufacturers accept. Even then you lose your speed rating, but I don't worry about that too much. I think that's due to liability concerns. Now this cost's me about $45 to have done, so if the tire is near the end of its life, just replace it, or ride a while with a do it yourself patch, which I will get to later.

Here is what the proper repair looks like on my stock rear Metzler:





I was going to buy one of these totally awsome Tech Uni-Seal tire repair kits, but the cheapest I could find one for was like $170. And some items, like the rubber cement have an expiration date. So scratch that plan. I had 3 of my 5 flats repaired in this manner by my local Yammie shop.

Do-it-yourself tire repair kits.

First of all, I don't recommend riding a tire repaired with a do-it-yourself kit for long distances unless you can't avoid it. It may be ok, and sounds like some above have had no problems, but thats more than my personal level of safety thinks is prudent. Do note however that on a recent flat during the Cal24 rally, I rode another 1500 miles on a do-it-yourself kit until I got home and replaced the very worn tire.

Stop-n-go plugger - I used to recommend this kit, but no longer do. Save your money. I have had mixed results, but on two occasions, the kit would did not hold the repair past a few miles. I did make several repairs with this kit that held for several hundred miles until I had the shop make a proper repair, but the approximate 60-75% success rate I have personally encountered is not acceptable to me. Even the kits warnings say not to ride at high speeds past 50 miles I think, and that it should be considered a temporary repair.

The mushroom plug the Stop-n-go plugger kit uses is soft. Too soft IMHO. Someone once told me the kit was designed to repair atv/golfcart tires and that is why the plug is so soft. It was designed for a different type of application. You want to know what I think? Well, I am going to tell you anyways. I think that with the soft Stop-n-go mushroom plug, the sharp steel or nylong belts of the tire where it was punctured sever the plug. No bueno.

Anyways, I now recommend the sticky worm type do-it-yourself type repair kit that so many others swear by. Compared to the Stop-n-go, it is cheaper, weighs less, and takes less space. I got mine at Wallyworld, though I will look for a specific and compact m/c kit in the future. I have only used it once so far, but I rode it 1500 miles - as I mentioned earlier. And this was after initially using my Stop-n-go kit which deflated after 45 miles, while traveling at 70mph. It is relatively simple to use, and is self-vulcanizing as Warchild mentioned above. I have now ditched my Stop-n-go kit.

So there you go. My only hope is that you have better luck than I when it comes to FFTs (F***ing Flat Tires). At least I have never had a flat front tire, and most of my flats I encountered with the bike parked in the garage.

Just to add to an old thread I found by searching, my local shop also refuses to patch my FJR's rear tire on principle. Grrrr. They're not even trying to sell me a tire, just their honest policy.

I don't trust the Stop-n-Go I have in there now (took three tries to get it to hold air, each seemed fine then leaked later) so I figure to swap in an old-fashioned sticky-string plug.

I was only wondering if the Stop-n-Go mushroom might be better than string if installed with some rubber cement? Even if the head gets sawn off it, and the central plug, could be retained by adhesive. What do you think?

I still think it would not be ideal. Too soft a plug with no "sticky stuff". If you went that route, you would be just trying to duplicate what the sticky string does.

IMHO, just go with the original. It works.

Yes, finding a shop to properly repair tires can be difficult. Relatively straight forward procedure, but thanks to all the sharks, err, I mean lawyers in this country, I am sure liability is a huge concern. At least that's my guess.

Good luck.

I've gotten flats on all three of my last Avon rears. This after not having a flat on a motorcycle tire for over 20 years. I've had pretty good luck with my Stop and go plugger. I have discovered that after installation of a plug in the center, that the thinner the tire gets the more it will leak air. It wears down with the tire. I don't think the Avons are very thick in the center when you start getting close to the wear bars. As much as I like the Avons, I think they are magnets for nails and screws. Ha! :lol: I even used my Stop and go to plug my car tire last week. (I haven't had a flat on a car tire in over 30 years) It worked well and the plug is not leaking air. (Yet)

GP

I got a flat on my rear Avon at 4000 miles. I used a stop and go plug for about 600 miles and then for piece of mind I dismounted the tire (from rim) and brought it to my local goodyear tire store and had them do the mushroom patch from the inside. I have since ridden it WORRY FREE for 5000 miles. The mushroom patch is like a plug and an internal patch all in one. Goodyear charged me $20. I have since purchased these type of mushroom patches at NAPA for about $3 each and I bought an abrasive wheel for a few bucks for roughing up the surface.

Bill Hamilton

Snowbound in Massachusetts

Am I missing something or is this a perfect opportunity to invoke Avon's warantee? I thought they had some great road hazard thing where they replace the tire if it gets flatted within the first 2mm of tread wear or something like that.

Am I missing something or is this a perfect opportunity to invoke Avon's warantee? I thought they had some great road hazard thing where they replace the tire if it gets flatted within the first 2mm of tread wear or something like that.

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Avon does have a great Road Hazard warranty, and I used it once to get a tire replaced - the only cost to me a few measly dollars to have it mounted.

However, the full replacement warranty is only good for I think - the first 1.5mm of wear. At 4000 miles, Unicycle52's tire was well past that window.

+ 1 to SkooterG's remarks. Had mine replaced free....paid installation myself. The window for full replacement is very narrow.

I have this repair kit & have used it on all types of tires with no issues.

https://www.whitehorsepress.com/product_inf...roducts_id=2631

I have this repair kit & have used it on all types of tires with no issues.https://www.whitehorsepress.com/product_inf...roducts_id=2631

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Same one as discussed above. That kit has not worked on several occasions for me. Neat kit, but just not reliable.