Nail in rear tire

Daniel

Guest
A first for me, I found a nail in my back tire. Result, a very slow leak. I am thinking to plug a mc tire is probably not a good idea. (safety) I wanted to hear what the more experienced riders have to say about this. I'm not even sure the repair shop would plug it anyway. The tire has only 6k on it, but I want to do what is safe....first. daniel
 
I would plug it buts that just me. Others might not. In the end you have to do what's comfortable for you. Certainly replacing the tire takes all the worry out of it.
 
you can plug if it holds, I had a few that held. also you can put a radial patch on inside. I have my own tire changer, so its easy for me. right now both front and back tires have radial (car tire) patches, got punctures at different times.
 
Mushroom plug from the inside and "she's a good'un". I've never had problems with mushroom plugs.
 
I plug them when I am out on a trip, and run them until I get home if I can. (And I always have gotten home.) But I don't leave out on a long trip with a plug in the tire. I'm pretty conservative with my tires and am more likely to replace them early than to risk being out on the road with a scary tire.

It's not the plugs that I worry about - it's the amount of time the tire ran while low on air. If they get too hot it damages them.
 
Plugs work fine for me, I plugged a fairly new tire on my old CBR 1000RR and it held just fine for about 3000 miles untill the tire wore out. The CBR has a lot more rear wheel HP and if it held up there it should on the NT if propperly applied. I would suggest for the week or 2 after the plug is installed check tire pressures to insure the plug is doing its job.
 
Thanks everybody for your input. All things considered, the nail is stuck in one of the grooves of the tire, the tire will be 2 years old in august, there is plenty of tread left, and I ride conservative, 55-65 mph hwy, no interstate. I think I will give a plug a try for this riding season. Also, want to let everybody know with my riding style I am getting 55-60 mpg easy. This bike runs great..........daniel
 
Yup! If it were mine, a mushroom plug would be the solution. I have the TPMS so I can constantly monitor the TP's. That makes me less concerned about the plug repair.

Mike
 
I realize your question is about what you should do AFTER you get a puncture. Most folks have already covered that subject well. With the hope that I'm not hijacking the thread, let me talk about what you might do to greatly reduce flats.

While riding my last bike, I got tired of rear tire punctures. (I've heard the theory that the front tire flips to nail up, then the rear tire hits it when the point is up.) When I replaced the rear tire a second time, and both times I replaced it with tread to spare, my independent tire dealer recommended I have Ride-On installed. http://www.ride-on.com/motorcycles.html I did so, and I didn't have another flat with that bike.

When I bought my NT new, I had a flat on the rear after only 3,000 miles on the bike. Grrrr - and it was in the area where the sidewall meets the tread area. Once again, I had Ride-On installed with the new tire. Just the other day, I had a new PR4 installed - the tread almost gone. I had noticed air pressure loss of about 3-4 pounds after a 400+ ride back from Houston. Normally, there is very little air loss with Ride-On. (I check tire pressures weekly, and daily on long rides.) As I waited for the technician to finish with my tire, he came out into the customer area - and with a grin on his face asked if I was installing a new tire because of the lack of tread in the old tire or the nail in it. Sure enough - there was a small nail in the old tire, right where the sidewall meets the tread area. Technically, Ride-On should not have prevented a flat because of the location of the nail, but it did hold because there was a fair amount of Ride-On in the area where the nail penetrated.

True - the stuff is not cheap, but I recommend it highly. It goes into every new tire I put on my bike in the future.
 
I've plugged a many a motorcycle tire and never had a problem and would do it again if necessary. If the tire is nearly worn out I'd probably just change it, however the couple times I have plugged mine, they were nearly new tires. I use the rope type "gummy worm" plugs and they have always worked great. When I took them off to change them, when worn out, the plug looked like a clump of rubber on the inside of the tire and I could not see anything from outside. Would only plug in the tread portion of the tire of course.
 
I had a nail in my rear tire at 50 or 60 miles...basically on my first ride on the NT. Plugged it, rode 4 miles to the dealer and put on a new tire. I did not want to spend the next 7-8 thousand miles on a tire I knew was compromised.....others may have different comfort levels.

freezingalaskan
 
No question you do not want to be riding on a plugged tire if you are going to be constantly worring about it. Better to replace it and go back to enjoying your ride.
 
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A lot depends on the circumstances.

If you are going slowly, in town for example, then your tyre won't be very warm and, providing you stop immediately, a mushroom plug will suffice probably for the life of the tyre.

If you are at highway speeds and have been travelling at those speeds for a while the tyre will be hot and, the effect on the tyre will be different, especially if you run for some distance without stopping.

Basically you're going to damage the side wall by not stopping in either case. It is imperative you stop as soon as it is safe to do so after you feel a problem with the tyre. That way you're more likely to save the tyre.

Remember, to fit a mushroom plug, the tyre has to be removed so can be properly inspected. A gummy worm on the other hand, is quite a different matter.
 
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Last Fall, I bought new PR3's. Within 2 weeks, picked up a nasty 2" wood screw in a groove in middle of rear tire. After a couple of smaller size sticky worm plugs looked good but leaked air, I went with a larger black worm installed with lots of the gluey stuff on it, then after 2 days, installed some green slime and the tire has held good for about 1,000 miles. In fact, it holds pressure over time (2 week regular check) better than the new tires on my other motorcycle,
So far, so good.
 
I put a plug in a tire about halfway between the Yukon bridge and the Arctic Circle, and made it all the way back to Edmonton Alberta on the tire. The tire was down to the cords and not holding air, the last couple hundred miles, and I didn't go over 35mph the last day. But since I hadn't planned to go to Alaska when I left my house, I was riding a bike with obscure tire sizes, I had not arranged for tires to be waiting for me up there, and I didn't have much money, I ended up running it until I got back to a larger city where I could stay with a friend while I waited for a tire. It worked out fine in the end but I was not a happy camper.

That had been a brand new tire, just three weeks earlier when I left Michigan. Amazing how fast they disappear.
 
Daboo said:
I must be missing something. A mushroom plug like you find in the Stop-N-Go kits should be no different than using a gummy worm as far as any inspection goes. snip...
Click to expand...
Unfortunately yes.

A proper mushroom plug has a large "cap" and can only be installed from the inside of the tyre. The others, IMO, are just gummy worms. See the Bridgestone page about it.

It is very unlikely (though not impossible) that you could install a mushroom plug at the side of the road.
 
I have the Stop n Go kit with compressor aboard my NT. I have never used it on my bike, but have used it on a H-D front tyre last summer. We managed to plug the hole in the middle of the tyre and send him to the nearest dealer. The tyre was showing its wear marks quite prominantly. At least he did not require a tow.
 
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