Nailed

[Willow]

Found a nail in my rear tire this morning.

I haven't had a rolling flat on a motorcycle in what seems like forever.  I've attributed my lack of flats to my practice of riding the tracks on paved roads so that the cages will sweep the debris for me.  I think the theory is still intact as the nail was very high on the right side of the tread, almost off the tread.  I must've been picked up in a pretty steep lean for a right turn.  I don't necessarily follow the tracks through the cloverleaf or through right turns.

I discovered the intruder while checking my air pressure.  I was halfway to work, thirty miles from home.  The tire seemed to be holding pressure just fine.  Due to the angle of the nail, almost parallel to the outer skin, I thought there might be a chance it hadn't penetrated to the inside.   I left the nail as it was and determined I would remove it ninety miles later when I arrived at home.

I checked the pressure before leaving the workplace and it was still holding fine.

I arrived home without incident.

I carefully removed the nail, avoiding the normal twisting method so as not to tear anything that wasn't already torn. When the puncturing item exited the casing so also did the air pressure.

I'm heartbroken.  It's a Cobra with about six thousand miles on it, hardly broken in.

I'm pleased it held as long as it did.  I'm questioning whether I should have just left it in as a permanent part of the tire.    

I still haven't experienced a rolling flat on a motorcycle in what seems like forever, well, except for that front that went flat on impact in August of 2008.  Upon further reflection, I'm pretty sure I was off the bike when that tire deflated.   

[R J]

Put a good rubber mud flap on the front fender.   Any nail the front tire stands up, that flap will knock it back down.

Yeah, I know Gunney, you think it is nuts.   Try it....

[Tropic traveler]

I feel your pain.
I'm on my 5th rear tire in 45,000 miles.  I have no idea how far I can go with a rear tire on my Valk, the Road Gods will not let that happen to me.  In that same period of time/miles I have gone through 2 1/2 fronts. Wore every one of them out!

BTW that rear tire total does not include one 240 Metzler in the 9,000 miles I had my Rocket 3.

[Tropic traveler]

Put a good rubber mud flap on the front fender.   Any nail the front tire stands up, that flap will knock it back down.

Yeah, I know Gunney, you think it is nuts.   Try it....

Tried the front fender flap thing....... It is an urban myth. Two rear flats since flap installation.

[KW]

OUCH! I have good luck with the Avons. . . and feel your pain! You had a bunch of miles left on it, but it's good you caught it when you did and not at O-dark-30 on a back country road!

[alph]

maybe you should switch to a car tire???   big al will love you for it!! 

[Robert]

Best way to patch from the inside second string tire plug, should be no problem at all. I have a tire on the rear of my bike right now and its almost without tread. I have one sitting in the garage waiting to be installed. Well so far in the last 3 months I have picked up 2 nails about a month apart. I never believed in repairing the tires but wanted to try with this since I didn't care really about the tire but was always paranoid about getting a nail in a new tire. One was good size and although was careful in how I repaired it I could still feel the cords in the tire. Didn't break many but had to move a few. I used the sticky string to repair from the outside.  Well after some mileage after the repair there is no problem. No bulges no deformities in the tread nothing. My finite brain got to thinking most tires for motorcycles are not radial tires most are bias ply. Ours are radial and therefore have a different construction than most. There are reinforcing belts in the tread area that bias usually dont have. So My vote is first to patch it from the inside otherwise use the string and forget about it.

[FLAVALK]

I replaced a completely worn out Venom recently. It's the only bike tire I have ever run that never had a flat. 


I had a front venom several years ago that got two screws in it at the same time  . Plugged both holes and ran it for the life of the tire.

[solo1]

My son, Psychotic Bovine, had an FJ1200.  He had  just installed a new tire on the front and took it on the interstate to check it out.  As soon as he got up to 70mph, a motorist went around him and pointed to his front tire.  He slowed down and noticed a wobble.  He managed to stop using only the back brake to find the front tire smoking and completely flat. He picked up a nail resulting in an instant blow out.  He called me on his cell and when I got there, the tire was still too hot to touch.

Now that's really bad luck except for the part where he stopped safely.  Someone was with him that day.

[Paul-M]

I've got my second tube in my rear tire right now. I picked up a nail in my rear tire shortly after I purchased the new set of tires so I installed the first tube. That was the beginning of last summer. It was great until the beginning of July this year when my rear tire somehow managed to find a finish nail in the road. I heard it puncture and let out a quick blast of air then nothing. I stopped and looked the tire over as well as I could, bounced up and down on the seat, etc. and everything seemed fine. I felt sure it was air I heard but the tire looked fine.   ???

I went another 12 miles completely paranoid and trying to make sense of what I heard. Finally the air escaped and I was left to find my own way home. A buddy had a trailer and my s/o met me with our pickup truck. A month later I got a new set of tire irons, some moly paste for the splines, made a jack adapter, and purchased and installed a second tube in my tire. I learned a lot through the experience. I found a bit of old red grease in the splines so I know they were never properly taken care of. I found that the local shop had stripped both my axle and axle nut. I think the biggest thing that I learned though is that there is no substitute for doing the work myself. I told my s/o that a harbor freight tire changer and manual wheel balancer might be a good x-mas gift. More importantly, I know the work is going to be done right if I do it myself. I won't go into complete detail but this revelation also comes after finding that the local honda "expert" thought replacing fork seals meant to put a piece of a shop towel under the dust seal. He said that he changed the seals and if it starts leaking again I would need to buy a new fork tube ... anyone care to guess what those little beauties cost through Honda?  It's frightening! To top it off, he didn't even tighten the pinch bolts when he "fixed" the seal issue. Again, I stepped in and replaced the seal, fixed the dings in my fork tube (hmm - how did that happen?) with some emory cloth and everything has been fine every since. Lucky for me that the fork didn't slide and toss me to the ground since those bolts were never tightened. It will be a cold day in hell before I let anyone work on my bike again. I'm not the most mechanically inclined but I'll read and research and try my best to make sure it is done right. Sidestepping and intentionally doing bad maintenance is not just dishonest, it's immoral as well.   

Enough about my rant ... just put a tube in and you will be fine. Sorry so long-winded. 

Paul Martin
2000 Valkyrie Tourer
2001 Valkyrie Standard (sadly retired)