Topic: Would you plug tubeless tire?

[70CB750]

On motorcycle I mean.

I done it on car/light truck and in 9 out of 10 cases it worked 100%. That one time the plug just would not seal and I had to install mushroom patch from the inside.

Quick internet search showed it as almost oil type topic

Let's hear it. 

[BomberMann650]

Plugged atv tires no prob.  But those are not as ...special...as motorcycle tires.

[Terry in Australia]

My BMW K1100LT had a plug in the front tyre when I bought it, and I did thousands of miles on it, at speeds well over 100 MPH with no problems.

I ran over a screw on my FJR1300 (front tyre again) so I filled it with a water based tyre sealant before pulling out the screw, it blew a few bubbles before sealing but I just pumped it up and I did another 600+ miles before I got around to replacing both front and rear tyres, without any problems. It pissed Jeff off at the bike shop when green goop ran all over his tyre machine, but it did the job.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with erring on the side of caution and replacing the tyre straight away (not just installing a tube, tubes cause blow outs, tubeless tyres just go flat) but if moneys too tight to mention, a well installed plug should keep you out of trouble. Cheers, Terry.

[simon#42]

i have done it with the mushroom type plug a few times with no problem [ the sort you push through from the outside then draw back through ]
once i was over two thousand miles from home , by the time i got there the tyre was worn out but the plug was fine .

[FunJimmy]

I carry a BMW tire repair kit with CO2 cartridges on my Triumph Tiger.
Took a nasty puncture in a nearly new rear tire while out touring with some friends.
Less than 10 minutes later I was back on the road. That tire (with plug) lasted several thousand kilometres at a spirited pace without complaint.

[b52bombardier1]

While I would patch a tubeless motorcycle tire, most motorcycle shops around here won't.  They say things such as "liability" if the bike is wrecked but I really believe they want to sell more tires.

Rick

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

[Steve F]

Have used the sticky rope plugs several times and rode it until the tread was gone.  I don't trust the mushroom type, but your mileage may vary.

[BobbyR]

I would only trust and internal patch. If I lose a tire in my car, it is a pain in the ass. If it is a front tire i would not hesitate to change the tire. I had a front go down and it was a life changing experience. There was no doubt in my mind I was going down. Somehow I got it stopped. I have had a rear go down at speed and it was not that terrible.

Terry used to jump out of perfectly good airplanes, I am not sure I would trust his judgement.   

[Terry in Australia]

That's true Bobby, I've been up in a Caribou many times, and have never landed in one, I often wondered if they could land, or were just like disposable lighters? I guess I'll never know............

[BobbyR]

That's true Bobby, I've been up in a Caribou many times, and have never landed in one, I often wondered if they could land, or were just like disposable lighters? I guess I'll never know............

Nah, I saw some land pretty well a few times. The US and Aus, had a #$%*load of them.

[eigenvector]

I agree with BobbyR in that I would never patch a front tire - it's just too important.

I have patched a rear before (using sticky rope) and I will only patch one for long enough to get myself back home.  After that - new tire.
I had a 3/8" bolt go through my rear tire while I was on the Interstate - the hole was HUGE, almost too big to patch.  I barely noticed the blowout even at that speed and pulling off was no big deal.  I've pulled drywall screws from my rear tire - the plug held long enough to get me home but that's all I'd risk it for.

I tore the front valve stem on my KLR650 and even at 10 mph I could barely get it into the parking lot without dropping it.  Obviously you can't patch a valve stem - but it just goes to show you how critical that front tire is.

[Terry in Australia]

That's good to know mate, often, as I was drifting thru the clouds I'd see them sailing off into the sun, and presumed that they just kept going...........

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

That's what they make the plug kits for. If you are not inclined then use a tube or combination of both.

[333]

Given the focus of the forum here, I don't see a tubeless option.

That being said, I've plugged my own car tires for years, and have never had one fail.

[NobleHops]

I have plugged several moto tires, front and back, and rode them to the wear bars. Plug it and ride on.

[mrbreeze]

I have a buddy with a Yami R1 that put a plug in a rear tire just to get him by till he could score a new tire. Being that he was aware of it.......he took it real easy. Didn't have any prob.

[70CB750]

Thank you for pitching in.

I will put my money in Dynaplug, like this one, here is to hope I will never need it

http://www.dynaplug.com/ultralite.html

[vfourfreak]

I had a rear tyre plugged once, and it performed fine. The problem was I always had the doubt in my mind as to whether it could be trusted or not and so started to imagine scenarios of calamity. To banish these doubts I got the tyre replaced at the first opportunity.

Doubt counter in brain reset. 

Kev

[BobbyR]

That's good to know mate, often, as I was drifting thru the clouds I'd see them sailing off into the sun, and presumed that they just kept going...........

Yeah, they did reuse them quite a bit. The drivers were a decent lot. They would bring in things to trade.

[754]

I had a front tire tube lose its air all at once at about 70 mph... Not life changing, but it changed my evening and projected location for that day..
 Weird that a cop showed up on a nearby frontage road that veered away from I 90 not far from where I stopped .Cop asked if I was OK..

[scottly]

Thank you for pitching in.

I will put my money in Dynaplug, like this one, here is to hope I will never need it

http://www.dynaplug.com/ultralite.html

Wow, that Dynaplug insertion tool looks good! I've fought tooth and nail trying to force a plug into a tire with a standard T-handle split needle. The last time on my Toyota, I resorted to using a length of 2x4 as a lever, with the bottom of the rear fender arch as the fulcrum. That sure looks like it would be much easier to insert than a doubled over plug and the split needle, and would take up less space in the emergency repair kit! 
 

[simon#42]

yes i think i will be buying one of those as well .

[Terry in Australia]

Pro's can make any product look good, no matter how bad the product might actually be. Here's an Aussie doing a test on 3 popular tyre repair systems, he's not trying to be funny, but I must admit I pissed myself at his ineptitude, (the fact that he misspelled "puncture" is probably a giveaway) which is about as good as I reckon I'd be, not having ever plugged a tyre myself...........

[Lostboy Steve]

I would plug one to get home. Then I'd start looking for a replacement.

[petercb750]

I would plug one to get home. Then I'd start looking for a replacement.

+1
Why would you risk riding on a tyre that is holed/structurally compromised, with the chance the hole/tear can spread at speed...motorcycle tyre plugs should only be used to get you out of the sh1t and need to be replaced asap. I'd rather spend the money on a new tyre than hospital bills.

[cb650PK]

When I did research on the same subject, my conclusion was that regular rope plugs work the best and haven't found real documented catastrophic failure. I used it only once, then monitored the tire for slow leak and then forgot all about it, which is really easy for person with short attention span like me.

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, you can buy a new tyre every time you run over a nail, but that can get real expensive real fast, especially if you live near a major construction area like I do.

As previously mentioned, I bought a BMW K1100LT from a friend that had a plugged front tyre that was done at the BMW dealer, and it lasted for the life of the tyre.

How many people would buy a used bike and inspect the tyres thoroughly to the point where they find a near invisible plug before they rode it?

I usually replace the tyres on a bike when I buy it (the Michelins on my VFR750 were close to 20 years old) because new tyres can really change the dynamics of a bike, but for most folks, unless you told them, they wouldn't even know if a tyre was plugged, if it was done right.

[FunJimmy]

Another consideration that hasn't been mentioned.
If a plug where to fail, they don't fail catastrophically but leak like any other puncture.

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, that's the benefit of tubeless tyres, they don't blow out like tubed tyres. I've had a blowout on a CB750 tyre, which resulted in another blow out, in my underpants......

[scottly]

Yep, you can buy a new tyre every time you run over a nail, but that can get real expensive real fast

For a period of about 2 years I was averaging about one nail a week in my pickup. Since it cost me $5 to have a plug installed, after I had already taken the wheel off the truck, I invested $20 in a proper needle, ream, and industrial size box of plugs. The investment paid for itself the next day when I repaired 4 nail holes. (BTW, a nail doesn't leak nearly as badly as a screw) When I finally replaced those tires, they must have had 20 plugs apiece, judging from the appearance of the insides.
I thought that was a very good video you posted, and I had to laugh when the handle broke off the needle; I'll have to post a pic of the welded-on handle on my rasp, after the same thing happened to me.
I thought that mushroom plug system was very interesting; I wonder what the OD of the insertion tube is?

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah, I'd prefer the mushroom plug to the sticky rope Scott, I liked the mechanical applicator too, I might buy a set now that I own 5 bikes with tubeless tyres.

[scottly]

We had a similar device at the gas station to insert a rubber valve-stem into a car rim from the outside: you loaded the stem into the barrel, held it up tight against the opening in the rim, then triggered a compressed air valve to "blow" the stem into the rim. It didn't work worth a #$%*, as the OD of the barrel was too large to fit into the hole in the rim, and as soon as the compressed stem exited the barrel, it expanded on the outside of the hole, shoving the installation tool back. We tried it about 4 or 5 times before we realized we could have thrown the wheel on the Coats 10-10 tire machine and done the job in half the time we wasted.   

[70CB750]

My wife got a drill bit into her rear tire once, she filled it up, got it home I plugged it and it never stopped leaking till I fixed it from the inside.

Another day there was a leak in the tire, I found piece of steel sticking out - it was a horse shoe nail, stuck in bigger end first