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Sound off on the debate over flat tires

sevoc14

sevoc14

Tricycle
If you had just put new tires on your bike, took it out for an evening ride and the next morning your rear tire was flat from a screw. The screw was dead center in the tire.
WOULD YOU: 1. Say &^%$#@#$ and replace the tire!!
                    2. Plug it, fill it and go on your way!!!

BTW the rear tire was a Pirelli Angel 55.
I chose #1 and A friend told me I was out of my mind!!!!!!
 
I have had the same thing happen to me. I had the new tire for a week and caught a nail. I have never had a tire fail on a motorcycle while driving it and I will do my best to avoid it. Just take the cost of the new tire and divide it over being alive for the next 50 years and it will be cheap. I say you made the right choice.
 
I plugged an Angel at about 500 miles. I just put 3000 more on a trip with no issues. Total millage about 4000. Tire is about done!
 
glue on the plug when you put it in and ride it  :motonoises: I have done it many times and never had problem :great: :))
 
I had about 1K on a new rear tire when got a nail about 1/2 inch of center. I plugged it and have about another 1K on with no issues.
 
Plug it.

So .... what did you do with the Angle that got the screw in it?
If you still have it, send it to me. I'll plug it and use it.  :)
 
If you were on the road, plug it to get to my place, I will break the tire down and use a good patch on the inside, remount and then you can ride it until it's bald.
 
For all those who plugged their flats , there are probably the same number of riders who did the same thing but are not around to give their comment  on the subject. These are high-performance tires not dirt bike or ATV tires. Just because a few got away with it  doesn't make it right.
For all our new riders Don't ever plug your street bike tires, especially a high-performance sport bike tire.

 
Sevo C14 said:
For all those who plugged their flats , there are probably the same number of riders who did the same thing but are not around to give their comment  on the subject. These are high-performance tires not dirt bike or ATV tires. Just because a few got away with it  doesn't make it right.
For all our new riders Don't ever plug your street bike tires, especially a high-performance sport bike tire.




+1
Click to expand...
 
You can successfully plugg a tire but you need to do it with the proper plug. you need to use an umbrella plug. You will need to take the tire off the rim and glue the plug-in from the inside. This will fix the problem and you should not have any problems and it also the prescribed way to properly fix a motorcycle radial tire .

You can plug a motorcycle radial tire but there is a 50-50 chance it will go flat, sometimes you will get lucky and the tire will just lose air slowly. Unfortunately I have plugged tires the improper way and like I said, half the time I got away with it. the other half I wound up having my motorcycle put on a flatbed in some town I couldn't even pronounce the name of.

Just carry a can of fix a flat if you go with the automotive plug.

 
I'm one of those bad boys who plugged and then patched a new PR2 rear tire. I picked up a dry wall screw in my fairly fresh PR2's. I was in a group ride when my dash lite up letting me know the rear tire pressure was low. I was close to a tire shop so I turned around filled back up with air.I lost 2 lbs of pressure on my 30 mile ride home. (I did not know what had got stuck in the tire.)

I plugged the hole at home and when I had the back wheel off had a patch put over the plug. Today, I'm looking at replacement tires. Not because I'm worried about the patch and plug but the over all lack of tread. I have now close to 12K on these PR2's.

If it where a front tire I would replace it as soon as I could get a new one.  To me there is a huge difference between front and rear tires being patched or plugged.
 
Just to add to the debate, I've done tubes in them before with very good results.  No risk of plugs coming out, yet far cheaper than replacing the tire.
 
I believe they are called umbrella patches because it is more a patch, not really a plug. The 'plug' part is pulled through the injury to more or less fill the void, the hole, and the patch acts like a normal radial patch. This is the correct way to fix a hole.... We use a lot of them in the shop and they work well....
 
I have tens of thousands of miles on plug/patched tires.  I won't be stopping anytime soon to spend the extra money.
 
Just carry a can of fix a flat if you go with the automotive plug.


NEVER use fix-a-flat on a motorcycle tire. That stuff is flammable and light up when you remove the tire. On a bike with a TPMS it will mess up the sending unit.
I would plug the tire, ride carefully to the nearest shop to replace it. Even if you patch it on the inside the patch and flex when the tire does and can start to leak. Like the old saying goes
"IF YOU HAVE A $10.00 HEAD USE A $10.00 HELMET"
I will spend the extra money on a new tire and ride with out worrying about a plug or patch failing.
 
I would plug or patch a tire if it had 50% or more of riding tread left. If I had a long trip planned I would change it prior. When I was young I would have left the screw in and filled it every other day. Bike tires have way better side walls than they used to. I have put many a tube in a tire to get me to payday.
 
Coach T said:
My 2 cents. Option 1. Always buy the road hazard warranty as a backup.
Click to expand...
A warranty will not get you home or even off the side of the road in the event of a flat. The time spent with your first, OH CRAP!!!! a flat 50 miles from help, now what do I do?.. Priceless.
We better have a backup plan, 'worse case' plug kit and compressor. When things go bad with a tire, we have to be self sufficient when we don't have a spare tire on hand....
 
On trips I always carry a dynaplug kit and a Slime compressor with me just in case,    that way a nail etc will not leave my baby riding on a Flatbed,


As for the debate about plugging/patching versus replacing the tire,  it all boils down to the level of risk you are willing to accept.  We all accept some form of risk every time we throw our leg over the bike and some people are ok accepting a higher degree of risk, but only you can answer if you are ok with the higher level of risk a plugged/patched tire brings to the table..

Will a plugged/patched tire fail?  in most cases, if the plug/patch is done properly, then probably not, but make no mistake, it IS a weak point in the tire,    For me, I will only ride a plugged patched tire the distance it takes to get me home (and even then I'd take it carefully) and then the tire gets replaced before I ride again,    but this is based on MY level of risk acceptance,  in my mind I don't want to take the chance the plug will fail, 

Just my 0.02
 
I've plugged many tires in my past without ever encountering a problem.  Some of these post suggest if you use a plug or a patch that if it fails the tire will blow up.  That is not the case, if anything, if the plug or patch fails you will simply loose air pressure and unless it's a really big hole, it won't instantly deflate.

Next time you get a flat try this experiment, ream out the puncture and then fill the tire to the correct pressure then see how long it takes to deflate.  I've had punctures that deflated the tire quickly while the screw was still in the hole and I was able to bring the bike to a controlled stop.  The worst that happened was the bead broke and the rim was spinning on the tire.

Call me crazy but I'll stick to Stop N Go plugs, there you have my 2 cents, now I'm broke.
 
That is what is so outstanding about the Tire Pressure Warning system on the c14. Advance warning when a tire is losing pressure, before you go into a corner and find yourself on your butt having a tire give up and slide out from under your ride. I was on a small twisty road haulin one afternoon when the TPMS warning went off, I was able to find a pull out and get him on the center stand to find a big rip from a chunk of metal it looked like in the rear. It sure would not have been good to be unaware of the loss of pressure until the weird going flat feel hit the rear or it just let go in one of the following corners. I had one on the interstate where I was straight up and down. Nice early heads up to get off on the next exit and get him on the stand, plugged and pumped back up...
 
1+ to what ddtmoto said. 

That's why I love the tpms, not because it's accurate (it's not) but because it'll tell you when you're losing pressure.
 
+1 for pluggin the tire, Fred does a good job explaining several different types of plug kits and plugs in a different thread.
 
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