Flat Tires - I've Had It!

[Rogue_Trader]

I went out to take a short spin, only to find out I had YET ANOTHER flat tire...this time, a big screw sticking straight into my front tire. I am averaging one flat per 10k miles, or more. Are the motorcycle gods against me, or does everyone have this experience? I am running Michelin PR2 at the moment...and posted earlier this year I had picked up a glass shard in the rear tire.

 

Are there any brands less susceptible to punctures, or am I just getting the luck of the draw?

[elkroeger]

I used to have that same problem with the car for years. Then I moved, and it stopped. I figured that I must have lived in the same neighborhood as a construction worker, or similar, with nails and screws continually dropping out of his truck.

 

I'll bet you've got the same problem.

[bobbybob]

You are not alone. I've had so many I bought a tire-changer just so I could patch them and save the cost of new tires. All of them in the rear tire.

[tomk99r11]

The rear wheel on my RT has about a 3" scrape/abrasion on the rim where I picked up an 8" concrete screw. The damn thing went into the tread and out the sidewall and abraded the rim while I was stopping. Lucky, I had just been riding hard through some twisties in AR near Roaring River State Park. I try to look at the remnant as some sort of badge of honor for surviving the close call, but it still makes me sick. I got 2 flats right after that, both due to roofing nails from all the contractors replacing roofs near my house after tornadoes went thru. Oh well!

[Selden]

A friend offered an interesting theory this weekend about why rear tires seem to be punctured more frequently than front. The front tire runs over the object, which is just lying in the road, kicking it up, occasionally at an angle that will puncture the tread of the rear tire a split second later. I don't know if this is backed up by data, but it's an interesting idea, and I was very receptive after digging a 3" piece of wood out of my rear tire on October 28.

[Twisties]

55k miles on a bike, one flat, apparently a rock puncture on a dirt road, on an Avon Storm rear. Mostly PRIIs on those 55k miles though.

 

Wife, about 50k miles, no flats, also mostly PRIIs.

 

I'd have to say your experience seems unusual.

 

I would think twice before riding on a patched tire.

[Mark K]

Try this.

 

No affiliation.....just a very satisfied user.

 

 

[jjg3]

I've had 4 flats in 70k miles/6 years. 3 rears one front. One tube, 3 tubeless. Roofing staple and 3 nails. Don't considered it a lot, and nothing a bead popper, spoons and a patch kit can't fix. I had Ride-on in the tube tire but it didn't do much. The tire was flat at the end of a work day. If I'd had a compressor to air it up maybe the ride-on would have done something. As it was, I got a can of fix-a-flat to get home and replaced the tube. The tubeless were all repaired with spoons and patches. 3 were local, one was 3k miles from home. The long one was slow enough that a shot of air in the morning would last all day. Have also invested in a TireGard TPMS that has since been replaced with a Tire Watch TPMS. They both work and would recommend a TPMS to anyone. One flat was forewarned by the TireGard before I got out of the garage. It flashed and buzzed at me with a low pressure indicator on the rear. My first thought was a failed unit... closer inspection revealed a nail in the tire. At least it saved me from leaving the house on a low tire and arriving at work or leaving at the end of the day on a flat.

[kmac]

I have had only 1 flat on a tubeless tire. A front tire on a Harley while lane splitting in bumper to bumper traffic in Orange County California. Saw the 3/8" to 1/2" by about 3" bolt in the middle of the lanes...i saw it at the last second, wasnt about to swerve in traffic, felt it with the front wheel heard it click on the ground for a couple of rotations then heard it shoot out and ricochet under the bike making a horrible clank.

 

Instant pressure loss and i gotta muscle to the right thru 4 lanes of heavy traffic, limp it up the off ramp and find a plug kit on the shelf at a gas station. Plug it, air up and back on the road in 10 minutes...

That is the only street tire flat i have had in a 1/4 million miles on the pavement....now in the dirt and on dual sport, tube tires, it is a different story...another 1/4 million miles on those, but at least 100 flats....apples and oranges tho...

I think for me the help is i dont let my tires get very low on tread..gets expensive but i dont run them way down

[Survived-til-now]

That is far too high a rate just to put down to bad luck.

 

I lived on an estate for a while that had lots of "white-van men" as we call them and I figured that I was getting my punctures as a result on passing one particluar van-owner's house and I reckon it was down to screws etc falling out of his van when he took his tools out.

 

So you need to look at where you habitually ride and see if there's a higher-than-normal risk area - and avoid it.

 

My tyre-dealer told me that punctures were always higher in wet weather because the wet lubricated the foreign object and it would go into the tyre easier.

 

So what are your punctures other than the glass shard - sharp stones maybe (do you right on gravel at some point?)? or screws (any paricular clue there?) - you are going to have to turn detective and see if there's a pattern to this higher than normal puncture rate.

[outpost22]

Sometimes the local tire shops drive around town dropping nails out their windows when business is slow.

[Peter Parts]

A friend offered an interesting theory this weekend about why rear tires seem to be punctured more frequently than front. The front tire runs over the object, which is just lying in the road, kicking it up

 

I've heard the same theory from a respected wrench. Don't know. He suggested a flap under the bike around where the centerstand is.

 

More widely accepted is the theory that great majority of punctures are in the last millimeters of the treads.

 

Actually, I have even better reason to believe that a great many flats occur on the last day of a tire. Can you believe that? (Sorry... winter fever setting in early.)

 

Ben

[notacop]

Maybe the tire god just loves you. Or you are being punished because you are a bad person and won't admit it.

[Jerry Johnston]

I would start paying attention to where you park for lunch etc.

The last flat I had was in St Regis, Id. I had stopped for lunch and when I got out to the bike the tire was low. It had a roofing nail in it. I looked around the lot and there must have been 100 roofing nails scattered around the parking lot from some roofing company that frequented the restaurant. Another theory I've heard is cars tend to kick stuff from the road into the middle of the lane so I try not to ride down the middle of the lane, always try to stay slightly to the left.

[kamlooper]

Don't think I have had a flat in the last 200,000kms,I try not to lane split or drive in curb space,will wait for cars to turn left, as that is where most of the road garbage is.

[Peter Parts]

Another theory I've heard is cars tend to kick stuff from the road into the middle of the lane so I try not to ride down the middle of the lane, always try to stay slightly to the left.

 

Statistically, the car tire tracks are least likely to have the nails because they are most likely to be kicked off elsewhere by the tires in that track.

 

That and other reasons to ride in a track, I've been a right-track rider for nearly 50 years.

 

Ben

[kinchy]

It's like getting a ticket. You can go years and not get one and have a bad week and get two. It definitely sucks when a new tire is victimized. I've managed to located two RT rims and mounted used tires(mine) on both. At least that minimizes the rest of the torture associated with flat managment.

[Jerry Johnston]

That's what I was implying only I did a poor job of it. I always ride in either the left or the right track depending on if I'm riding with another rider in which case I try to stay in the opposite lane and with a good distance between us. I've had two flats in 12 years with the RT and one was from a parking lot.

[racer7]

Flats are directly proportional to construction activity in the area. The decrease in silly money fueling excess housing construction has certainly reduced the puncture rate in stuff I own. Lots less illegals in battered pickups dropping junk out the back.

O.P. - I note your MD location. Any chance you're close to DC? The perpetual growth in govt has made DC the only place I've been in this country since 08 where the economic downturn isn't obvious. Still lots of new building, though most for non-residential use. Might be a cheap toll for still having a job...

[AviP]

I've had 3 flats in 15 years, 2 of them were from riding on the right edge of the lane where all the trash collects. Since then I'm glued to the left rut or the middle of the lane.

[bentnail]

I have yet to ware out a set of tires because of nails. Got one in a brand new 100 miles PR2: finally just plugged it from the inside. I've got about 7000 miles on it now and is holding just fine.

[TyTass]

Lemme know what roads you're riding so I don't ride those same roads!

[Rogue_Trader]

Well, TyTass, maybe we need to go on a ride before the snow flies! I usually stay out of the center of the lane, and the shoulders...but recently didn't due to a huge commuting backup on Indian Head Highway. That might have been my Waterloo! Stay off of that one!

[malcolmblalock]

This post caused my flat! Got up yesterday, rode to Charlotte (about 150 miles), checked into the hotel for a social event, and when I came out to park the bike, there's a shiny spot right in the center of the NEW rear tire.

 

Was hoping so much that it was something shiny that somehow stuck on the surface of the tire. Nooooo such luck; a metal screw (Phillips) right in the middle of the tire. And yes, air is leaking...

 

So today, my birthday and out of town, I'll be plugging it, hoping the plug will hold. It usually works, but one never knows.

 

I'm blaming my flat on this thread!

[kmac]

Plugs work pretty well, some people hate them and think they are dangerous, but i have used them with good success on my Harley tire and quite a few on my work trucks.

 

I kinda feel like, What is the worst that can happen, the plug could come loose and pull out of the tire, simply causing another flat. Oh well, another flat...no stress.

 

I will look online and see if i can find them, but a company makes a patch/plug deal. You dismount the tire and use a plug tool that hooks on a patch that has a rubber teet in the middle. You use patch glue, rubber cement type of adhesive, when you pull the plug thru from the inside it works as a patch AND a plug so the the centripetal forces cannot force the plug outward ofthe tire.

[Peter Parts]

Plugs work pretty well, some people hate them and think they are dangerous, but i have used them with good success on my Harley tire and quite a few on my work trucks.

 

I kinda feel like, What is the worst that can happen, the plug could come loose and pull out of the tire, simply causing another flat. Oh well, another flat...no stress.

 

Proper enough to analyze the situation in those terms. Certainly some of the all-protection-all-the-time crowd ought to.

 

But I think you are vastly understating the risk to the life of the biker from getting a flat at the wrong moment. Or even just the personal cost of soiled underwear.

 

I've had lots of inside patches that lasted thousands of miles and never had one fail. Doubt I would be as confident with something inserted from the outside.

 

Ben

[kmac]

It is ALWAYS a risk anyway...but that is why i suggested the inside plug patch combo

[malcolmblalock]

Follow-up to the tire with the shiny new screw in the middle of the tire situation....

 

Pulled the screw out; it was a self-tapping sheet metal screw about 1/2 inch long. Just long enough to go through the rubber and penetrate the carcass and let air out.

 

Pulled it out okay; reamed it several times, and inserted the black, sticky cord-stuff. Actually, it was quite a feat to push the stuff through the hole into the tire. Initially, with the tire pressure pretty low, the tire was being pushed inward, increasing the friction necessary to penetrate. Got out the Slime pump and pressurized the tire and pushed REALLY hard. It finally went in. Pulled out the plunger and cut off most of the excess stringy stuff. Pumped tire to 40psi and let it sit.

 

Rode home today and the plug held just fine. I have a Tire Gard TPMS on the bike, so I monitored the pressure fairly often, particularly in the beginning. The pressure only increased (about 10%) as I rode home.

 

I'll probably simply ride the tire until it wears out or it starts leaking. Then decide what to do.

 

I don't understand those who won't ride a plugged tire. I've plugged car tires for many years with no problems. If you pay attention to the ANGLE the object penetrates the tire, and then put the plug in at the same angle, they work.

 

While I have less experience riding bike tires that have been plugged than I do cars, I've had excellent success. BTW, I don't use the fancy, expensive plugging systems. Mine comes from WallyWorld. I buy extra sticky strings from time to time, but they seal great and the steel wire doesn't seem to cut the sticky strings or cause leaks.

 

Just my experience with plugs.

[Mark K]

 

 

They're coming after you, man...........

[g_frey]

I too don't like flats, was testing Shinko Ravens for this forum and got flats in both front and back within a month of each other. All I can report is that they made 7,100 miles with tread left for maybe 1000 to 2000 more. I plugged both front and back while waiting for new Shinkos. Plugs holding OK but I ride less than 60 mph on them too.

 

[kinchy]

Have had 3 flats. All on the RT. None on the RK. Now that I've said that I'm sure the RK is destined to catch up. Two of those were handled with plugs. I rode one 155 miles to get home and the next day it was still at 34 lbs. Replaced it. That really hurt.. it was relatively new. Gotta move on.

[Username]

Got a flat on the rear tire of my VStrom while in Bryce Canyon Utah in 2009. We were 2-up and loaded. Had my Aerostitch plug kit. Plugged the tire, sent a ton of stuff home in the mail and rode 150 miles to Paige Az. I managed to find a tire that fit at the Honda dealer there, so changed it out. The plug might have lasted, but we were very far from home and still loaded, so I didn't want to take the chance. The Aerostitch plug kit works great though, I have had to use it a few times but that's the first on my bike.

[Survived-til-now]

I'd have done the same - plug the tyre!

 

I'm a great fan of the BMW type doughnut plug and when I have changed the tyre I have always checked to see how it went in - and always (fingers crossed here) found that it has formed a nice mushroom inside that would not get pushed out.

 

If it is difficult to get the plug it is usually because I haven't reamed the hole enough or got enough rubber-goo on the plug but a useful tip here - if you are doing this at home, warm the spot with a hairdryer first - much easier working with warm rubber.

 

I have gone hundreds of miles on a plugged rear (but I won't plug a front except to crawl home).

[g_frey]

Personally I don't like the BMW plug but maybe I have not used it correctly. While I have tried various techniques it always seems to result in slow (days to get 20 psi) to very slow (weeks to go low) leaks. What has actually worked for me is the cheap sticky rope types available in any auto store. I have rarely had one come out or slow leak even with hundreds of miles on the plug on motorcycles or thousands of miles on car tires. On car tires I have run them until the tire is low on tread, although I prefer the inside flat patch on car which have never failed me. I plug either front or back as needed and check pressure often.

[kmac]

Here is a link to the patch/plug combo that is the best permanent fix for a nail/screw puncture. This is a safe and permanent plug with a patch on the back so that the plug can not work its way out. It does require dismounting the tire from the bike and from the rim to install but it is an inexpensive way to repair a tire that still has alot of tread on it but got a puncture.

 

http://www.blackjacktirerepair.com/index.asp?child=6