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Nail in the tire - Replace or repair?

shoei_r1

shoei_r1

Active member
Joined
Nov 14, 2003
Location
up in the hills with the fog
Moto(s)
R1 03'
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I know that this is an obvious question to those who care about safety, but would you replace or repair a tire that has a nail in it? For me, I am going to replace the tire because I'm only riding on two wheels. If it was my car, I would just repair it. But, I wanted to see what you would do if you had a nail in your rear tire.

BTW, I'm looking for any good places to buy a Dunlop D208 ZR, Size 190/50ZR17. I found these sites with good prices but I was wondering if you guys know of any other good place that have good deals:

http://www.bikestotrikes.com/All_Tires/All_Motorcycle_and_ATV_Tires_70.html

http://www.i-bike.com/store/prdBuy.cfm?prd=882

http://www.motorcycleonlinestore.com/inc/sdetail/21077

http://www.bikebandit.com/partsbandit/product~pf_id~5384552~dept_id~2201692~selection_path~2.asp

Thanks!
 
It all comes down to waht type of riding you do(commute, twisties....). For commuting if it's in the center of the tire, it should be ok to patch up. Any hard riding like twisties and such at speed, it should be changed out.

Hit up supetireguy or a local shop they can tell you better than anyone not seeing the tire.
 
I used to have no problem patching a tire... until the last one I had gave out on me. Fortunately, it wasn't catastrophic or anything, just a slow leak, but it happened while I was coming down the SC side of 9 and I noticed it before I got my self into trouble. I knew that I was supposed to stay off the twisties with a patch but after a couple of weeks of having no problems I figured I'd be okay, but apparently I figured wrong.

Considering that I need to commute over 17 every so often, I'm definitely getting a new tire next time it happens. Something that you may want to look into is that some shops will offer a warranty against nails and the like and will pro-rate a new tire, which is great if you're nail-prone like I seem to be lately... unfortunately no shop in SC seems to offer this.:cry

-Brent
 
If all you're doing is hard sport riding, it'd probably be worth replacing. Motoshoes (www.motoshoes.com) can help you with that....

Lately, I've been doing mostly commuting, and have had great luck with plugging the tire. The key is to use the right kind of plug, those kits they sell in auto stores are ok for cars, but for a bike, you really need a professional-style plug...the ones that look like mushrooms...

This is what I use, and it works great...I've done 4 or 5 plugs, and all have lasted for the life of the tire:
http://www.stopngo.com/plugger.asp
 
I wouldn't take the bike over 55 mph either. That's why I buy the CycleGear warranty on tires, too.
 
I had RoadRider plug my almost new tire for $25 from inside. The nail was very narrow, and had gone in perfectly vertical, slightly to the right of the center.

A good shop should be able to tell you whether the tire is repairable or not.
 
Do what I did...

Buy new tires, put them over you like the Michelin man, drive to Alans and have him replace the damaged tire!
 
:toothless

2522463-dsc06680__medium_.jpg
 
Thanks guys!

I only do commute riding from SSF to Burlingame. Very short distance, but anything can happen. The puncture was in the center of the tire. The nail was only about 2 millimeters and was at a 45 degree angle from the outside of the tire.

I live near Kragen in SSf and bought the plug kit and plugged my rear tire. I couldn't get the nail out because it was so damn small, so it eventually made it's way inside the tire. I had no other choice but to plug the damn thing. I added 42 PSI in the tire and ran water over the plug and didn't see any air seeping out. I live on a court and rode around the island and road down Greendale without a problem. Then, I road to the 76 to get some gas and headed back home. I checked the tire and there was no change in air pressure.

I've only put 6000 miles on the tires since I bought the bike and I'm getting close to having to buy new tires. I just found out that there's a Bay Area Yamaha Dealer that sells and installs tires and one of my buddies just replaced his rear tire on his new bike. He also had a nail in his rear tire and it was punctured on the side of the tire. He only put 400 miles on it and the dealer only replaced the rear because the tires were still new. They also said that if the nail is on the side of the tire, it should be replaced no matter what.

LOL....Oh, man...The tires around the body is hilarious.

I've heard about the warranty at Cyclegear. Is it true that Cyclegear covers punctures on motorcycle tires? I'm thinking about just getting new tires at the Bay Area Yamaha Dealer and get new tires since it's only 5 minutes from my work.

I'll shop and call around for prices before I end up buying them at BAYD.

Thanks for the help guys!
 
Well, I just bought my Qs yesterday. Before I did, I called to make an appointment over the phone on Friday. The parts and service fellows were helpful. When I walked in on Saturday, I checked out the place and spoke to Wolfgang. He seemed knowledgeable and checked out the tread of my rear tire and said that it would be a good idea to change it since it was getting bald. I also asked him to check out my front tire which seemed ok to me, but he pointed out that there were cracks which I didn't notice before. So, I decided to change both front and rear with the Qs. The service was great and so were the prices of the tires (front $104.99/rear $141.99), but the labor gave me the deer look...$45 per tire for labor equalling $90.00. At least I got my chain lubed for free! I would have waited, but I wanted to get the tires changed ASAP. I've been hearing about riding on plugged tires and from what I found, it's basically a 50/50 spit. 50% will ride on a plugged tire, the othe 50% will repkace it. I fell into this category.

I bought my bike from Mission Motorcycles and their service is pretty good. I don't have all the free time in the world to service my bike myself, so I go to MM for service...except for the tires because they were much cheaper at Bay Area Yamaha Dealer (recently changed to Bay Area Motorsports West).
 
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