AGAIN! In my new michellin
WOW! I must be good for the rest of my life on flats. What are the chances, who gets a nail twice in one year. This one is at an extreme angle taken on a braking action obviously. For its diameter this was a very long nail.
Growl! Do you trust a plug, or is it many clams down the drain? Can you put in a tube?
On my scoot, getting there is WAY more than half the fun!
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Like the last flat tire thread I posted before it went viral over the do's and don't's concerning plugs, they don't scare me. (must be a city thing) Just grab a drill with a 1/8th bit and rem it out. Insert (tar baby) plug all the way with tool, pull it out half way, cut off close to the surface. The only issue with this one might be the extreme angle this goofy nail pierced. Worse case she's flatter than a fifteen year old in the morning and new Michie on the way OR..... WE RIDE!
I would be worried that your bike is becoming addicted to nails. Fix it for today and park it, 'cause otherwise it's going to roam the streets tomorrow, lookin' for its next nail fix. I hear that your area has some good nail rehab centers. You might be forced to drag it into those meetings though. FTA's (Flat Tires Anonymous). They are popping up everywhere in your fair city.
Currently own:
Red 2013 Honda PCX150 Givi tall windshield & tailbox - Lots of extra lights Custom seat from Thailand - Bad Boy Airhorn Takegawa Lowering Shocks - Michelin City Grip Tires Headlight assy upgraded to LEDs w/HS5 main bulbs NCY variator, drive face, and rollers
Seems to me that an extreme angle will work in your favor by providing more surface area for the little darling to stick.
Ride On! But maybe add motorcycle coverage to your AAA...
On my scoot, getting there is WAY more than half the fun!
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but please, don't delete anybody, no matter how badly they deserve deleting
You could plug and Slime. . .but messy on the next tire change.
If you are just going to be doing some mellow riding to show off the Buell and live life to the fullest locally you could probably get away with a plug. If it starts losing air you won't be that far from home. And you can always carry a small bicycle pump with you. Or. . .pony up and get a new tire and sleep easier.
I'm OCD when it comes to checking my tires every day before I ride, or drive.
Bad luck. I'll give you a tip that helped me a lot: when you go to a home improvement store, park at the back of the lot, so you don't have to drive over all that area where the nails are falling off the contractors' trucks. It's worth the walk.
You may not have picked it up there, but it's worth remembering all the same.
Smaug wrote:Bad luck. I'll give you a tip that helped me a lot: when you go to a home improvement store, park at the back of the lot, so you don't have to drive over all that area where the nails are falling off the contractors' trucks. It's worth the walk. You may not have picked it up there, but it's worth remembering all the same.
Good tip thanks, all expressway today just some dumb luck. It happens and I'm in the habit of wiping down the bikes after a ride, debugging the front end and helmet. Always spin the rear on the jack stand but rarely look at the front unless doing a detail.
Bad luck. I'll give you a tip that helped me a lot: when you go to a home improvement store, park at the back of the lot, so you don't have to drive over all that area where the nails are falling off the contractors' trucks. It's worth the walk.
You may not have picked it up there, but it's worth remembering all the same.
Good exercise too!
When I go to the town transfer station (dump) I never park right in front of the hoppers. I park away from where the contractors go to "sweep" out the back of their pick up trucks. I see people fighting (figuratively) for those spaces to be able to pull right up so they only have to walk 3 steps to dump their refuse but they totally risk picking up nails and the like.
One day I picked up two nails there in the same tire on my Jeep (new tires too. . .the fickle finger of fate struck again). After that, I swore I'd just park further away and consider hauling the garbage bags across the parking lot an investment in fitness.
I got a puncture in a rear that had only done a couple of thousand KM. Was able to ride it to the dealer who plugged it without taking the rear off. Later that day I was going around a corner and ... it went flat rapidly ... dealer had to come out after-hours and put the bike on a truck.
The plugs we use here are rubber and shaped like an engine valve ... problem is that one can't see how well they're sealed on the inside without taking the tyre off the rim. Having been through the experience, going forward, I'm quite happy to have a plug used, but I'm never again going to allow one to be fitted without the tyre being taken off the rim; in my mind (having had 4 punctures in 2 years) trying to save around $30 in labour just isn't worth the risk of crashing if it lets go on a fast corner, or getting hit from behind if I have to stop suddenly. I also like the added "insurance" of my Fobo sensors in that I can quickly check the pressures before every ride by glancing at my phone (good insurance against a slow leak).
There are two basic kids of plugs,from what I've seen: mushroom and sticky rope. The mushroom ones are faster to use, but they seem to completely rely on pressure to hold them in place. The sticky rope ones drum to be held in place with two kinds of adhesive.
Smaug wrote:There are two basic kids of plugs,from what I've seen: mushroom and sticky rope. The mushroom ones are faster to use, but they seem to completely rely on pressure to hold them in place. The sticky rope ones drum to be held in place with two kinds of adhesive.
The rope has worked for me with my truck and now twice on a motorcycle tire. My only concern is balance at this point. I used to put beads but with a sticky rope inside like this the beads would gather on the rope. Guess I will feel it today if it's out of balance when I wind it up!
Smaug wrote:There are two basic kids of plugs,from what I've seen: mushroom and sticky rope. The mushroom ones are faster to use, but they seem to completely rely on pressure to hold them in place. The sticky rope ones drum to be held in place with two kinds of adhesive.
For me, the "gotcha" with the mushroom type was that the dealer had no way of knowing how well it sealed on the inside; in my case "not very well" was the correct answer as it came out same day. It didn't cause a crash but I feel it could have in a different set of circumstances. He used the same type of plug the 2nd time, but took the tyre off to fit it - buffed the inside of the case - and could well and truly see that it was correctly positioned. Going forward, that's the ONLY way I'm ever going to have a repair done -- not going to put my well being on the line just to try to save $40.
I've seen the string ones in videos, but not in real life. I do keep a $25 compressor in my Givi box now though so I can fix a slow leak on the road if need be.