[bill220]

I am trying to help a guy with a tire issue. He has a 2007 CBR 1000 and the rear tire has a nail hole in it. No dealer that I know of will repair it.
Has anyone had a tire shop repair a motorcycle tire or done it themselves? Or is this a bad idea? The tire only has 1,500 miles on it and he doesn't want to trash it if it can be safely repaired.

[BaileyRock]

I carry a simple glue less plug kit and have never had a plug fail after one sealed up! $5 any auto parts store.
A mushroom plug installed from the inside is most likely the best patch, but like I said I've never bothered to have one put in myself!

[VFRDYLAN]

I just had to do a repair while I was on a short ride. Picked up a screw in the rear tire and noticed it while I was parked.

I carry a plug kit and pulled the screw cleaned the site and then glued and plugged using rubber cement and a sticky cord style plug. Let it set a few minutes,trimmed the cord and filled to the proper pressure. Drove it home another 100+ miles with no issues or loss of pressure.

I did replace the tire, but only because I took advantage on the recent pirelli diablo offer (thanks VFRD) and had the tires in my garage.

[Asphalt_Pilot]

I've never heard of a repair shop willing to plug a tire. Just too much liability for a $10 fix.

That being said, it's an easy repair if he is willing to learn and do it himself. I'd suggest one of the motorcycle-specific plug kits. It's worked well for me, and I never leave home on my VFR without one.

Before plugging a "good" tire, I practiced on an old tire that I had laying around after a change. That helped increase my confidence with the repair, so maybe he can find an old tire to practice on.

[bill220]

Perhaps if he removes the tire and patches it himself, the tire would be safe to use? If it is just a nail hole, one could patch that from the inside.

[VFRDYLAN]

bill220, on Jun 9 2009, 09:22 PM, said:

Perhaps if he removes the tire and patches it himself, the tire would be safe to use? If it is just a nail hole, one could patch that from the inside.

You do not need to remove the tire to insert a plug style patch. FWIW

[bill220]

VFRDYLAN, on Jun 9 2009, 05:24 PM, said:

bill220, on Jun 9 2009, 09:22 PM, said:

Perhaps if he removes the tire and patches it himself, the tire would be safe to use? If it is just a nail hole, one could patch that from the inside.

You do not need to remove the tire to insert a plug style patch. FWIW

I was just thinking it would be a better repair from the inside and use an actual patch. This a complete assumption on my part.

[trickster]

a single hole (clean and small) can have a mushroom plug from the inside, if it has an over patch installed over it on the inside. But patching a tire on a performance bike that will be ridden hard is a bad idea except in an emergency.

if the tire is a tube type you can get away with it as long as there is a mushroom with an umbrella patch over it (and a new tube).

the heat cycles on a high performance bike will loosen a simple plug pretty often, what is your but worth?

[BaileyRock]

bill220, on Jun 9 2009, 04:22 PM, said:

Perhaps if he removes the tire and patches it himself, the tire would be safe to use? If it is just a nail hole, one could patch that from the inside.

Like I said, I've plugged many tires with the simple jamb a plug in from the outside and have never had one fail even if I ran the tire down to the cord!
For less than $10 and 5 min. he can be out riding safely again!

[hondalover]

Inside patch/plugs do work the best. I've used both the cord type while on the road and the inside type when I had access to a pneumatic tire machine. Too much liability for a shop to do it. On a CBR1K I wouldn't think that there would be a whole lot of tire left after 1500 miles. Plus on a bike that has the capability for damn near super sonic speeds, I'd just replace the tire for my safety. I can't tell when I'm goin' feel the need for deadly speeds.

[BlueFireIce]

Asphalt_Pilot, on Jun 9 2009, 04:21 PM, said:

I've never heard of a repair shop willing to plug a tire. Just too much liability for a $10 fix.

Indeed, took me a wile to find someone who would patch my brand new (less than 100 miles) PP, I ended up finding a small ATV shop that said they would do it. They took the tire off, put a plug in and then put a patch on the inside and I was down the road. Had the tire up to 125mph without any trouble and ran it to an inch of its life.

[JamieDaugherty]

Asphalt_Pilot, on Jun 9 2009, 05:21 PM, said:

I've never heard of a repair shop willing to plug a tire. Just too much liability for a $10 fix.

My dealership plugs sportbike tires all of the time. I agree it's not the best idea, but it's not terrible either. I've got a plug in the rear of one of my VF's and it's been there for quite some time with no leaks or anything else that would raise concerns.

[vfrcapn]

I couldn't find anyone local to patch a tire last year when I was looking so I did it myself.

Has anyone had a patch or plug fail on them, or personally know anyone who has had one catastrophically fail? I see the warnings all the time but have never read/heard any first-hand accounts of patch/plug failures.

[cruzinaz]

vfrcapn, on Jun 10 2009, 10:02 AM, said:

I couldn't find anyone local to patch a tire last year when I was looking so I did it myself.

Has anyone had a patch or plug fail on them, or personally know anyone who has had one catastrophically fail? I see the warnings all the time but have never read/heard any first-hand accounts of patch/plug failures.

catastrophically fail???? Worst that would happen is it would leak,, they won't fall out.

Anyone that wouldn't patch a newer tire please send them to me, we mushroom plug em all the time, NEVER had any problems. One of us here had picked up 3 nails on one ride a few rides ago, 3 plugs and no problems running our "normal" pace

Tire and oil threads,,,,

[mechdziner714]

Some Big dealers are scared of lawsuits & wont do it, most small independant will hook you up. I've had 2 plugs in a one tire and hod no issues for the life of the tire. They were the type that go on the inside like a patch but have a stem that protrudes thru the hole, like a shroom but skinny stem. I trust those type as long as hole is in the tread and nowhrer near the sidewall.

Oh and try the search function, lots o threads on this & tire choices.

Good luck

[bill220]

Thanks everyone, greatly appreciated.
I don't know the owner of the CBR all that well. I work with his wife. He had this tire issue, she knew I rode a red Honda (lol) and had him call me for advice.
I'll call him back and tell him what all of you suggested and let him decide for himself.

[Growler67]

Wasn't there a tutorial by Miguel using a couple of different types a while back?

[LDSRIDER]

Miguel patched a tire for me this week. He used the Stop N Go kit and then pumped it up with his "slime" brand mini pump. Worked great.

[DarkKnight]

I plug and play... however, I don't think I would use the slime. Seems like a leaky-leak could occur and THAT would definitely put you on your buttocks... If the plug wont hold, then maybe its time for some new skins.

[alwaysaware]

I asked some of the guys at work who ride for a living and they all carry the mushroom plugs and the gun in their hard bags. They seem to have more faith in the mushroom than the gummi rope plug because the head of the mushroom anchors it in place and will not likely come out.


tire plug link http://www.cbxmanmot...Model-1000.aspx

[trickster]

vfrcapn, on Jun 10 2009, 01:02 PM, said:

I couldn't find anyone local to patch a tire last year when I was looking so I did it myself.

Has anyone had a patch or plug fail on them, or personally know anyone who has had one catastrophically fail? I see the warnings all the time but have never read/heard any first-hand accounts of patch/plug failures.

Yes I have had a front fail in a rather sudden fashion on I-640 in rush hour in the inside fast lane at about 80mph on my 02' Bonneville(before I had it get destroyed by a lane crosser on the dragon ... but that is another story) It was a pierelli sport demon(and excellent tire, bias) that had picked up a screw about 1.5" off the centerline of tire, I had it plugged and patched inside and a new radial tube put in. it opened a 2" long split through the hole along the circumference of the tire and the tube splooged out through the crack and blew before I could even start to look over to the right after a tremendous wobble started. I did make it to the side of the road but had a hell of a time getting across three lanes to stop under the bridge where I-40 goes over I-640. The tire had done 1,200 ish miles since the patch was put in when the tire had 300mi or so on it.

I will not run a plugged front except in an absolute emergency, I will accept a plugged and patched rear but will not ride it hard. I have had a plugged rear on a k-75 that I ran for about 3,000mi and it was ok but you had to watch the pressure as it lost about 2lbs. a day. before the plug it lost about 2lbs. a month.

but I am conservative with safety issues, I also won't run a tire to the cords (that is actually on reason I hate dunlop qualifiers), I have run one flat on a long ride it went from looking good to through the cords and Blown out in 225mi. (they have no tread in the center so you cannot judge when they are almost at the cords)

I have seen a lot of patched tires in the pile where i get my tires that had the inside patches lifting around the edges though.

one of those things like wearing a helmet, you're fine 99 times out of a hundred, you just don't know it that tire is number 1 or 100, or 99

[Goanna]

I had my tire guy install a mushroom plug from the inside on a near new PR2. It has done 5K miles since without a problem, including a 1700 mile tour in extreme heat. This is what it looked like from the outside.

[rad]

alwaysaware, on Jun 10 2009, 04:29 PM, said:

I asked some of the guys at work who ride for a living and they all carry the mushroom plugs and the gun in their hard bags. They seem to have more faith in the mushroom than the gummi rope plug because the head of the mushroom anchors it in place and will not likely come out.


tire plug link http://www.cbxmanmot...Model-1000.aspx

The theory is good, but I have had the mushroom Stop-n-Go's come out; two times for me and once for my friends bike. The rope/glue ones have not failed me.

[vfrcapn]

trickster, on Jun 10 2009, 02:35 PM, said:

Yes I have had a front fail in a rather sudden fashion on I-640 in rush hour in the inside fast lane at about 80mph on my 02' Bonneville(before I had it get destroyed by a lane crosser on the dragon ... but that is another story) It was a pierelli sport demon(and excellent tire, bias) that had picked up a screw about 1.5" off the centerline of tire, I had it plugged and patched inside and a new radial tube put in. it opened a 2" long split through the hole along the circumference of the tire and the tube splooged out through the crack and blew before I could even start to look over to the right after a tremendous wobble started. I did make it to the side of the road but had a hell of a time getting across three lanes to stop under the bridge where I-40 goes over I-640. The tire had done 1,200 ish miles since the patch was put in when the tire had 300mi or so on it.

I will not run a plugged front except in an absolute emergency, I will accept a plugged and patched rear but will not ride it hard. I have had a plugged rear on a k-75 that I ran for about 3,000mi and it was ok but you had to watch the pressure as it lost about 2lbs. a day. before the plug it lost about 2lbs. a month.

but I am conservative with safety issues, I also won't run a tire to the cords (that is actually on reason I hate dunlop qualifiers), I have run one flat on a long ride it went from looking good to through the cords and Blown out in 225mi. (they have no tread in the center so you cannot judge when they are almost at the cords)

I have seen a lot of patched tires in the pile where i get my tires that had the inside patches lifting around the edges though.

one of those things like wearing a helmet, you're fine 99 times out of a hundred, you just don't know it that tire is number 1 or 100, or 99

This was a bias ply with tube, I'm wondering if it the same situation would occur with a radial? Glad you didn't have more serious consequences.

rad, on Jun 10 2009, 04:19 PM, said:

The theory is good, but I have had the mushroom Stop-n-Go's come out; two times for me and once for my friends bike. The rope/glue ones have not failed me.

Did you use glue with the mushroom plugs? I've used the mushroom plugs without glue and had slow leaks. Using the mushroom plug with glue I haven't had any problems and ran the (rear) tires all the way down, many thousands of miles.

[dutchinterceptor]

rad, on Jun 10 2009, 06:19 PM, said:

The theory is good, but I have had the mushroom Stop-n-Go's come out; two times for me and once for my friends bike. The rope/glue ones have not failed me.

Yep, same here.

[dendron]

cruzinaz, on 10 June 2009 - 12:16 PM, said:

vfrcapn, on Jun 10 2009, 10:02 AM, said:

I couldn't find anyone local to patch a tire last year when I was looking so I did it myself.

Has anyone had a patch or plug fail on them, or personally know anyone who has had one catastrophically fail? I see the warnings all the time but have never read/heard any first-hand accounts of patch/plug failures.

catastrophically fail???? Worst that would happen is it would leak,, they won't fall out.

Anyone that wouldn't patch a newer tire please send them to me, we mushroom plug em all the time, NEVER had any problems. One of us here had picked up 3 nails on one ride a few rides ago, 3 plugs and no problems running our "normal" pace

Tire and oil threads,,,,

Used a Stop 'n Go mushroom plug on a BT016 a couple of weeks ago. Tire was about at half life. Blew it back up with a compact Slime compressor kit after seating the mushroom plug with pliers. It hasn't lost a pound of pressure. I've put prolly 500 miles on it since. It certainly appears to be a solid repair. Though, I'm not sure I'd want to go railin' in the twisties with it. Commuting...yeah, I'm O.K. with it until replacement time.

[kurupt]

i had a drywall screw in my almost brand new rear tire. and just about any ma and pa tire shop will fix it down here in san antonio texas. i just couldnt make my self plug the tire. if i had to do it, it only be to get me home. i dont feel its safe for a two wheeler.

[ron_al]

Personally, I have had a friend (with tire changing equipment) install from-the-inside-out patch/plugs on my hawk. (Plugs in the plural, as I have had two different tires with nails/screws.) These worked as needed.

vfrcapn, on 10 June 2009 - 11:02 AM, said:

Has anyone had a patch or plug fail on them, or personally know anyone who has had one catastrophically fail? I see the warnings all the time but have never read/heard any first-hand accounts of patch/plug failures.

A second friend of mine (also with tire changing equipment) would also occasionally help out his buddies - including putting a from-the-inside-out patch/plug in the rear tire of a Hayabusa, when a buddy's new rear tire picked up a nail.

That same tire on his buddy's Hayabusa did catastrophically fail not too long thereafter. I do not recall the specifics, only that it happened on the interstate in the middle of a busy city - ugly.

I seem to recall that they theorized afterwards that whatever-created-the-hole-that-was-patched must have caused a large enough point of damage to the tire to damage or sever one of the belts in the tire carcass (rather than just pushing it out of the way). Or perhaps the pal on the Busa was driving it as if the tire was original/unpatched, and just got too heavy on the throttle. I dunno. Anyway, this is not first-hand knowledge (it did not happen to me) - it is third-hand knowledge (aka a "friend of a friend" story, aka heresay).

So that may or may not be of use to you.

DarkKnight, on 10 June 2009 - 02:00 PM, said:

... however, I don't think I would use the slime.

I'll second that (about not using slime) - again, from not-first-hand experience.

When I lived in the DC area, I found a reliable independent m/c service shop. When I bought my hawk (used) and brought it to my mechanic for new tires, he spent a LOT of time having to clean up the crud on the inside of one of the rims - crud from when the PO had used slime, apparently. He made me promise him that I would never put slime in a tubeless m/c tire.

Anyway, whatever decision you make, you need to be comfortable with it, and you need to have confidence in your tires. If you are concerned about the nature of the repair, then replace the tire.

To illustrate that, I mentioned before that I have ridden on the from-the-inside-out plug/patches on two different tires. I rode with one of the inside-out patch/plug for an additional 1000+ miles, till it was time to replace the tire anyway. But the second plug/patch left me a little leary - I still had a slow leak even after that plug/patch, so I replaced that tire anyway (shortly after the repair).

Ron

[elizilla]

I have a Stop-n-Go kit, I have had it for years. Never have had occasion to use it on my own tire but I have used it on other people's tires. One time I was on a group ride and we must have gone through a construction site or something. We were sitting around the campsite kicking tires at the end of the day and someone noticed a nail in a tire. I fished out the Stop-n-Go kit and we plugged it. While we were doing this, another person found a nail in his tire, which sent everyone to inspect their tires and this general inspection turned up a third tire with a nail in it. All rear tires, and all we discovered by inspection, not because they were flat. We plugged them all, and none of those plugs failed.

A few years later I was at another group ride. One of the other riders was just coasting out of his parking place that morning when I noticed he had a flat rear tire. I flagged him down, he hadn't noticed it yet. We put a Stop-n-Go plug in his tire. I later learned that that mushroom plug failed later that same day, but by that time he'd bought sticky string at a gas station and was able to fix it with that, so he was not stranded. He went directly to a shop and had the tire replaced.

I was in Alaska riding with another rider. I'd left my side cases at the campsite, not remembering that my tire kit was in one of them. I got a flat rear tire. We were on gravel and I didn't notice it very quickly. It was a slow leak, not a catastrophic failure, but it got down to 20psi or so, and I don't know how far I rode with low air before noticing it. I also don't know what caused the puncture - we didn't find anything to pull out. My riding companion and I patched it with his kit, which was sticky string. It's not easy to get a tire in Alaska, for a 17 year old bike that uses odd size tires that are hard to find even in more populated areas. I ran that tire for another couple thousand miles, all the way down to the cords. It didn't hold air very well, I had to pump it up every day, and the last two days I had to pump it up at every stop. It's also worth noting that while I normally would get about 11K to 12K out of that make/model tire on that bike, I only got 8K on that one, probably due to overheating. I slowed way, way down, towards the end. The last day I never went over 35mph. But I didn't get stranded.

I have no experience with tube type tires on motorcycles - all the bikes I describe here, had tubeless tires.

I've added some sticky string to my Stop-n-Go mushroom plug kit. I think the mushroom plugs are better in the cases where they work, but the sticky strings work in cases where mushroom plugs don't. Whether the mushroom plug works probably has to do with the construction of the tire, the type/location of the hole, and whether the tire ran low for long enough to overheat. If I put a mushroom plug in a relatively new rear tire that hadn't been run overheated, and it didn't spit the plug out fairly quickly, I'd run it for the life of the tire. If it were a front tire, or if the mushroom plug failed and I had to resort to sticky string, I'd plug it so as not to be stranded, but I'd replace it as soon as I could.

I've never heard of any shop that was willing to patch motorcycle tires, until people in this thread spoke of it. My experience has been that you pretty much have to patch your own tires.

This post has been edited by elizilla: 26 November 2009 - 01:12 AM

[Gap Trash]

Plug a tire to get home, but don't use it as a permanent fix.