Tire Repair

My rear tire, with about 2400 miles in it has developed a slow leak. I took a close look today and found a very small piece of metal in the tire. It actually looks like a piece of a staple, the kind used to tack down roofing tiles. Its about 2.5 inches off center and I was wondering how to fix this. I was considering that green slime but I'm just apprehensive when it comes to motorcycle tires. Any advice would be appreciated.

I would pull the staple out and use a sticky string plug. It might feel a little strage when you enlarge the hole to clean it out and make room for the plug, but it will work.

I'm conservative when it comes to my tires. I would most likely change the tire out. If not, then I understand that a patch from the inside is the strongest type.

With such a small hole I don't know the advantages/disadvantages of plugging.

I've not had a good experience with tire fill products. They make a mess of the inside of the tire and I don't think they really work - plus I think they're also listed as a temporary repair.

I have not used Slime, but have heard nasty stories about what a mess it makes inside your rim. If it were mine, I'd plug it with the sticky string type of stuff.

That hole is not in the sidewall, right?

Geezer said:

I would pull the staple out and use a sticky string plug. It might feel a little strage when you enlarge the hole to clean it out and make room for the plug, but it will work.

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Gunny.

This is exactly what I would do. Stick that string in, check on it for the first few miles, then forget about it.

Sticky string FTW. Slime is the nastiest stuff you can do to a tire and wheel. You will regret it when the change comes. And if you apply it and park, rather than ride to distribute it through the wheel, you'll have a MAJOR balance problem! (My son can tell you about that!)

Sticky string is perfect for a nail hole. Anything bigger, like a cut, would require an internal patch or toss the tire.

I'd go with a tire plug or string.

Skooter, myself, IronMaiden, and others did a flat repair method comparo in May at 2007 Techwest. I think prevailing concensus was that string was effective and cheap in the widest variety of flats, mushrooms worked pretty well but weirded us just a tiny bit because they work exlusively off of air pressure, and the Progressive Suspension plug combined the mushroom concept with an inteference fit and glue for symetrical punctures.

Nobody liked slime...yuck.

I ran over a 3 inch bolt as I left the dealership with my brand new FJR in 05. I made about 4 miles. I got back to the dealership to have them take a look. Their tire guru looked at it and said he would plug it if I wasn't going to go over 105 for any extended time. They used a string and then clipped the outside. It held just fine for the next 9955 miles until I replaced the tire. And I might have gone over the speed and time warning.

So it worked. But I was always aware of it and had a cautious feeling about the rear tire. I don't think I would have kept the tire had it been the front.

For moderate riding I'd do it again. If I pushed hard in the twisties I probably would not.

I am going to go against the trend and recommend slime because I can't see the logic into making a very small hole into a much bigger one if you have a choice. One of my friends had a very small leak in the middle of his tire (he was losing a half pound of pressure a day) and put 5-6 onces of slime in it. When we took the tire off after 1000 miles, he had a semi-hard ring of slime around the entire center of the tire and not one drop of slime on the rim. A month later we put that tire back on a different bike so the rider could make the 300 mile trip home (his tire was showing cord) and he not only made it home, he continued to use it afterwards.

they don't call it "Slime" without good reason - that crap is the messiest junk I ever put in a tire ONCE.

I use the sticky string plugs and have for years on both bikes and cars and have never, ever had a problem with it.

I love how fast everybody jumps on helping out around here. You people are really great and I'm really happy to be part of this community. I appreciate all the advise. I'm going to go with the string patch thingy. I've used both the string and slime on my quads and really, they both worked well. The slime was a mess but I was nervous about boaring out the hole to insert the string plug. Quad, 4 wheels, avg 30 mph compared to the bike, 100+ now and then. Thus my apprehension. I'm convinced, thanks again everyone.

My personal experience with the mushrooms. I got the Stop N Go standard model shown on this page at Americade one year. You widen the hole with the supplied tool and shoot the mushroom into the hole head first using this 'gun' with a funnel like tip. Then you pull on the mushroom stem and trim like a normal plug. The instructions actually tell you to use a few drops of oil to get the thing in. There is no glue with this system and if you don't get a perfect seal and still have a slow leak your pressure will drop and the mushrooms will fall back into your tire. Ask me how I know. I do not recommend this method.

The tire was subsequently repaired with standard sticky string plugs and contact cement that comes with them with much better results. I rode those plugs a few thousand more miles before replacing without further issue.

I've had great luck with a product called Ride-On.

https://www.ride-on.com/prod_mot.asp

kxb44 said:

I've had great luck with a product called Ride-On.
https://www.ride-on.com/prod_mot.asp

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You couldn't pay me enough money to put that shit in my tires again.

The Ugly..........

SkooterG said:

kxb44 said:

I've had great luck with a product called Ride-On.
https://www.ride-on.com/prod_mot.asp

Click to expand...

You couldn't pay me enough money to put that shit in my tires again.

The Ugly..........

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And you happen to have the highest reported mileage FJR in existence with 125,000+?

I would say Skooterg is somebody that knows what he's talking about when it comes to tire repairs.

Another vote here for sticky string. I had a similar small hole once in an Avon Azzaro rear that had about 300 miles on it. I plugged it and rode it another 7,000+ Never a problem. Fortunately the plug was in a meaty section about 2 inches off center.

Ignacio said:

SkooterG said:

kxb44 said:

I've had great luck with a product called Ride-On.
https://www.ride-on.com/prod_mot.asp

Click to expand...

You couldn't pay me enough money to put that shit in my tires again.

The Ugly..........

Click to expand...

And you happen to have the highest reported mileage FJR in existence with 125,000+?

I would say Skooterg is somebody that knows what he's talking about when it comes to tire repairs.

Click to expand...

Especially considering he's had to do many repairs on his rear tires!

I was with him once when he got a flat and we tried the stop-n-go kit. About 30 minutes after "repairing" his tire, we were on the side of the road again reinflating the tire. 15 minutes after that, we stopped again and decided to shove a sticky worm in the tire. We road over 800 miles back home on that tire, and we never had any issues after that.

THE BEST WAY TO GO IS THE STRING PLUGS:

Make sure you get the SELF VULCANIZING types... I have used many many over the years. Never had a problem... When I was racing, I used to buy nail tires (tires that had nails in um)from a couple local dealers and I would plug them. Then race the shit out of them. After a good tire warming these plugs will melt into the inside carcass (they will pancake and look like the size of a Quarter inside the tire). They just plain stick and stay stuck. I remember after a race weekend taking off a rear plugged tire and I tried to pull the plug out from the inside with my hands... Couldn't budge it... Then I tried pulling it out with a pliers and it took all I could do just to start to get pieces of it to separate. It would only pull out in pieces (only as large as the pliers mouth could grip) not as a whole.. Too sticky for that!!

On a side note... Recently, I picked up a large piece of something (on the freeway...rear tire) while riding my 10. It left a hole in my rear tire about the size of a cigar and some shit in my pants (thats another story) when the tire failed at SPEED. I was stranded.. I ended up putting 5 string plugs (thats all I had) together (one by one, side by side) in the cigar hole AND... It held pressure for over 50 miles until I got home. When I changed that tire out, (too big of a hole. I was worried about the belts) the plugs had vulcanized into a large half dollar sized pancake.

Unless it is in the side wall...PLUG IT.

Just make sure you let the tire go through a good heat cycle before you go for broke.

WW