Tire with a screw in it. Slow Leak. Need advice!

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Iceman31

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My new 2022 R18 Transcontinental has a screw in the tire. Only have 270 km on the bike. Tire looses about 10 pounds in 24 hours. I have a 65km trip to my tire dealer. My dilemma is do I ride it to my appointment on Friday or do I load it on my buddies trailer and drive it there. His trailer does not have a wheel chock for a bike. If I were to ride it, there is a stop I can make every 20Km to top up the air if need be. What would you do? There is risk either way for me. Just seeing what you would do?
 
It is a tubeless tire. I don't have any plugs otherwise I would do it myself. My appointment 65km away will be to plug it or replace it. The town I live in does not have a store where I could buy a plug kit.
 
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I would double check your tire place is actually thinking the same as you, i.e. repairing that tube. If they are fine but if not do they have a new inner tube in stock. Only reason I raise it is because I’ve read many times on here about difficulties ( post lockdown) in getting inner tubes. Oh and btw I would trailer it. At least you know you’ll make it.
 
A lot of shops won't plug a tire due to their insurance contract. I only had about 300 miles on a new rear Cobra Chrome ($$$) on my Rocket 3 and none of the area shops would touch it so I just plugged it myself and it's been good for the last 5500 miles and 3 state inspections...
 
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pbosik said:
Plug it, order a kit from Amazon any motorcycle store will carry them.
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Ditto. If the shop won't cover it, even the Slime brand that Walmart carries will work just fine. Just follow the instructions and the patch should hold fine, especially since your hole is where the steel rings are embedded in the rubber of your tire. Make sure you razor blade the end of the patch off to just under the tire tread surface if you can.

Rule of thumb is, so long as the puncture is within the left and right tread lines, it can be patched.

The only time a patch is not recommended is if the sidewall of your tire has been punctured. There's no steel reinforcement there and a whole lot of road flex. Meaning, that the patch will just work itself out and the hole will grow out of control, leading to an explosive tire blowout and tire shrapnel, known as "gators" on the road (if you're riding, that is).

Mike
 
The only reason I'd ever send my bike/car to the shop if I had a nail in my tire is if I had a warranty on my tire that required they take care of it.

Otherwise, I'd just plug it myself, so long as the hole is within the tread lines. No need to send a perfectly good tire to the landfill if I can help it!

I don't know Iceman's situation, but everyone's situation is different.

Mike
 
Just a word of caution. If the screw did not penetrate the tyre at
90 degrees, it may have damage the sidewall of the tyre on the
inside. I had this happen on a 500 shadow with a nail in the centre
of the tread, it had worn part way through the sidewall of the tyre &
meant the tyre was scrap.
 
I'm not sure what stores are near your home (and If you haven't resolved this yet), but I see tire plug kits in my rural area available at almost every hardware store, tractor supply, auto parts store and even grocery stores in their "automotive" section. Do you have a portable air pump or can possibly source/borrow one? I had a similar leak on a ride in the middle of nowhere so I pumped the tire up with a few extra pounds and then stopped to add more when needed and that got me to where I could properly address the repairs. JMO, but I would try to make it to where an easy plug repair could be made rather slime and then ride the longer distance to the shop for a proper internal patch or replacement.

Good luck.
 
Rufus said:
I would double check your tire place is actually thinking the same as you, i.e. repairing that tube. If they are fine but if not do they have a new inner tube in stock. Only reason I raise it is because I’ve read many times on here about difficulties ( post lockdown) in getting inner tubes. Oh and btw I would trailer it. At least you know you’ll make it.
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Just realised my stupidity here, it’s obviously tubeless. 🤦🏻. I own it.
 
I've plugged over two dozen car and motorcycle tires and NEVER had a problem. Doesn't mean I wont ever have a problem nor does it mean everyone has strong mechanical abilities to perform good execution of plug install but If I had a relative fresh tire with a screw/nail I wouldn't hesitate to plug it.
 
Perhaps a visual is in order:

td60o1rrg3461.png
Pulled this off Reddit.

For me personally, I would be comfortable patching from the beginning of yellow to the end of yellow, but again, that's just me. My reasoning? The steel ply that's woven into the rubber is within those boundaries. Thusly, the strength of the tire is also within the yellow boundaries.

For motorcycle tires (what we're all here for, right?) here's what RevZilla (and I agree) say on the subject:

Motorcycle_tire_repair_allowable_area.jpeg

Again, emphasizing on where the steel ply is set into the rubber of the tire. Anywhere outside this zone and you risk total collapse of the patch and tire itself!

Here's the full link to the RevZilla article in question for anyone interested: https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/is-it-okay-to-plug-a-tubeless-motorcycle-tire

Mike
 
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