patched motorcycle tire

A tire that has been properly patch from the inside should be just as safe as it was before it picked up the nail, unless it was it was on the edge of the sidewall or on the sidewall itself, in which the tire has to be replaced. If you use one of the "umbrela type' plugs, they if installed properly, should also last the life of the tire. I plugged my rear tire when it only had 300 miles on it after running over a lag bolt. I plugged it, and it now has over 10,000 miles on it, and still works good. However, it happened in the dead center of the tread, and it was the rear car tire on my bike. The thinner bike tires, I would patch from the inside and not worry, if it is something as small as a nail or small screw. I would only use a cheap plug on a bike tire to slowly get the bike to where I could repair the tire with a proper inside patch.
Gene:waving:

I have 2 plugs in the rear tire of my Vulcan 750, along with a bottle of Ride-On. They have been there for over 8,000 miles with no problems. The tire still has at least 5,000 miles left in it as far as tread wear goes, and I intend to run it down to the wear bars. And these are plugs inserted from outside. The tire was not removed. The whole idea was to avoid removing the tire, and reinstalling it, which is several hours work on that bike. Unlike tube type tires (and I have no idea why motorcycles still use them) which usually blow out when punctured, a tubeless tire usually loses air very slowly. Both the punctures in that tire were found while checking the tires at home, it did not actually go flat when punctured either time, and now I have the Ride-On in there for extra protection.

I also recently had a car tire that was slowly losing air, I just aired it up about once a week. I drove it that way for several weeks before actually locating the leak (a nail puncture in the tread area) I removed the nail, and it slowly went flat in about 2 hours. Steel belted radials cannot be repaired with a plug installed from outside, the steel belts just cut them up. I took it to a shop and had it repaired for $5, I figure it has at least 20,000 miles in it. I would trust a plugged tubeless tire over a brand new tube type tire and tube anyday. Not only are those things dangerous, but there is no practical way to fix them out on the road. I have repaired flats on my small dual sport bike on the road or trail, but it has a centerstand, and I carry tools to get the wheel and tire off, as well as spare tubes.

Some people can not read so well I think

"he gave me the old tire and i had it patched from the inside."

Sounds to me as if the customer got a NEW tire and he got the old tire!

Also some people have crazy ideas about things.
Who says a steel belted radial cannot be plugged?? I have done at least 30 of them for myself and not ONE EVER ate up a plug!! If the plug sealed the damage to begin with it lasted the life of the tire on every tire I ever plugged! There have been times when a hole was too large or had a split and the plugs would not seal, even using 2 or 3 plugs, but it slowed the leak enough to drive to the repair shop anyway and either get a patch inside or a new tire. Car, trucks, vans, etc... never one plug has been ate or failed in like 40 years of driving!

Having rode mostly bikes with spoke tube type wheels and tires years ago I never ever had a tube explode or do anything that a tubeless tire did not also do!
Who the heck says tubes can not be repaired? You can do them right on most bikes and never even take the wheel off the bike! And I have ran tube type tires on Vans and trucks and never did one pop or explode on those either, and with a puncture flat a simple patch on the tube was all that was needed!

I've also rode Bicycles allot and never did a tube explode on one of them, and all I ever had to do was patch a puncture there too and some of those were ran at about 100PSI as I recall!

Where do the crazy ideas come from? Rod Serling and the Twilight Zone LOL

Chromo said:

Some people can not read so well I think

"he gave me the old tire and i had it patched from the inside."

Sounds to me as if the customer got a NEW tire and he got the old tire!

Also some people have crazy ideas about things.
Who says a steel belted radial cannot be plugged?? I have done at least 30 of them for myself and not ONE EVER ate up a plug!! If the plug sealed the damage to begin with it lasted the life of the tire on every tire I ever plugged! There have been times when a hole was too large or had a split and the plugs would not seal, even using 2 or 3 plugs, but it slowed the leak enough to drive to the repair shop anyway and either get a patch inside or a new tire. Car, trucks, vans, etc... never one plug has been ate or failed in like 40 years of driving!

Having rode mostly bikes with spoke tube type wheels and tires years ago I never ever had a tube explode or do anything that a tubeless tire did not also do!
Who the heck says tubes can not be repaired? You can do them right on most bikes and never even take the wheel off the bike! And I have ran tube type tires on Vans and trucks and never did one pop or explode on those either, and with a puncture flat a simple patch on the tube was all that was needed!

I've also rode Bicycles allot and never did a tube explode on one of them, and all I ever had to do was patch a puncture there too and some of those were ran at about 100PSI as I recall!

Where do the crazy ideas come from? Rod Serling and the Twilight Zone LOL

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The ideas come from experience. I have had a number of steel belted radials repaired by tire shops and they held up just fine, but I have never been able to successfully repair one myself using plugs inserted from the outside. They always leaked a little, though you could usually get home.

I have only had a couple of "blowouts" that made a loud bang, but most of the punctured tubes I have removed from tires have been beyond reasonable repair. They were either ripped or torn by what ever punctured them to begin with wiggling around before you got stopped. A bicycle tube is a lot more likely to be repairable than a motorcycle tube.

I am a firm believer in repairing otherwise good tires. It's ridiculous to throw away a nearly new $150 tire simply because it has a small hole in the tread area. Plus on a bike, especially on the back of a Goldwing (or at least a 1200 Goldwing) it is a major job. Not like the 5 minutes it takes to remove and reinstall a car wheel. Yes, I do all my own tires.


I have had more than my share of flat tires on bikes. I have been stranded a couple of times because of flat tube type tires, once in 120 degrees. If the highway patrol had not stopped (after more than an hour after it happened) I could have died right there beside the road from the heat and lack of water. That's why I will no longer ride anywhere if I do not have the means to fix a flat tire. Again, on a dirt bike with a centerstand it is fairly simple, if you have the tools. But I'd sure hate to be trying to remove the rear wheel from a Goldwing in 120 degree heat on the side of the road.


"Why take a chance?" We also take chances all the time. You are taking a huge chance by riding a motorcycle in the first place. I have never had a properly repaired tire fail, and I'm not replacing a perfectly good tire for reasons stated above. Someone posted on another forum wondering if they should replace a nearly new helmet because they had bumped it on a door frame carrying it into a store. The almost unanimous answer was no, with one person saying that you should always replace a helmet if it gets bumped, even if it doesn't leave a scratch.

Replacing something dangerous should be common sense. Replacing something because there is a 1 in 200 million chance it might be dangerous is ridiculous.

JerryH said:

The ideas come from experience. I have had a number of steel belted radials repaired by tire shops and they held up just fine, but I have never been able to successfully repair one myself using plugs inserted from the outside. They always leaked a little, though you could usually get home.

I have only had a couple of "blowouts" that made a loud bang, but most of the punctured tubes I have removed from tires have been beyond reasonable repair. They were either ripped or torn by what ever punctured them to begin with wiggling around before you got stopped. A bicycle tube is a lot more likely to be repairable than a motorcycle tube.

I am a firm believer in repairing otherwise good tires. It's ridiculous to throw away a nearly new $150 tire simply because it has a small hole in the tread area. Plus on a bike, especially on the back of a Goldwing (or at least a 1200 Goldwing) it is a major job. Not like the 5 minutes it takes to remove and reinstall a car wheel. Yes, I do all my own tires.


I have had more than my share of flat tires on bikes. I have been stranded a couple of times because of flat tube type tires, once in 120 degrees. If the highway patrol had not stopped (after more than an hour after it happened) I could have died right there beside the road from the heat and lack of water. That's why I will no longer ride anywhere if I do not have the means to fix a flat tire. Again, on a dirt bike with a centerstand it is fairly simple, if you have the tools. But I'd sure hate to be trying to remove the rear wheel from a Goldwing in 120 degree heat on the side of the road.


"Why take a chance?" We also take chances all the time. You are taking a huge chance by riding a motorcycle in the first place. I have never had a properly repaired tire fail, and I'm not replacing a perfectly good tire for reasons stated above. Someone posted on another forum wondering if they should replace a nearly new helmet because they had bumped it on a door frame carrying it into a store. The almost unanimous answer was no, with one person saying that you should always replace a helmet if it gets bumped, even if it doesn't leave a scratch.

Replacing something dangerous should be common sense. Replacing something because there is a 1 in 200 million chance it might be dangerous is ridiculous.

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OK, then there is something you need to learn about using plugs correctly, but for life of me would not know what that would be LOL

The only thing I can think of would be like a friend of mine use to do. He would take that reamer and grind out the hole jaming it in and out till it was like 2 times as large as the puncture was, then try to seal it with a loose fitting plug. If you grind out a 1/8 hole to 3/8 then try to fill it with a 2/8 plug it don't work well I told him. Then he started doing them a bit better. :ROFL:
Actually I rarely use the reamer at all when plugging a tire. The tighter the fit on the plug the better! About the only time I use the reamer is for tiny punctures. I have had some so small that I could not force in the plug with that tool at all, so the pointed reamer was forced in HARD and used to enlarge the hole just enough so I could force in the plug.

Now I have removed like a 1/4" lag bolt. the hole in tire of course was not 1/4" but still to large too large for one plug. I stuck in several plugs aired it up, then drove to tire shop. Tire ruined in my opion once I saw it inside so it was tossed and iz bought a new one.

As for plugs, even been used on semi truck tires very well! When I was doing tires in Texas I plugged many on the log trucks running to the paper mill there. they would get puctures off road often while loading. I charged allot to remove a wheel, dismount the tire, patch it, remount on wheel and install the wheel back on truck or trailer. I forget what I charged but like $30 or $40 depending if it was Dayton or Bud type wheels.
Aslo a reason I said what I did about tubes is because ALL split rim wheels on those trucks were tube type and I did tons of split rim tube repairs also!
Having done tons of split rims I knew how dangerous they can be!
So I was driving a semi with split rims and had a blow out, this know it all kid at the truck stop is going to mount my new tire. I asked him about using a cage, he said don't got one but not needed if you know how to do them right. Isee him mount my tire and as he is ready to air it up I ask would you like for me to do it right for you? He says it is right real nasty at me. I asked what hospital should I call for you. He got pi$$ed. I started out of the room, he asked where I was going? I said ANYWHERE ELSE I hate the sight of blood!
Again he was pi$$ed at me.
BLAM BLOOM clunk bang zing whiz whack clank ckuck clink etc.. etc... I yelled back in "are you still ALIVE" and I got a reply "Do your own [email protected]%#% TIRE"!!!!:ROFL:
He blew the ring off and in a concrete room it took chunks out of the ceiling floors and busted a couple blocks in the wall. How he survived I never knew but he was holding his head and a bag of ice all the while I did my tire with the new free tube and a decent discount on the new tire!
I had patched many of those tubes because of punctures, and blowing off a ring did not hurt the tube any anyway but I still got a knew one!

The only real problem with any tube type wheel/tire is when it goes flat if the tire slips on the wheel it can rip the valve stem off the tube. I;ve had that happen on bikes and had replace tubes on truck for that. But the tire is already flat when it happens so no big deal other than the tube is ruined!

When I was working construction in Texas for the big money on short term jobs I filled in allot with other types of jobs, and tire repair and road service etc.. was very profitable side line but sometime hard nasty work in 120F+ heat!

SmartBiker said:

i didnt do it for someone else, i changed the punctured tire out with a new one that they supplied.

he GAVE me the puntured tire with less than 200miles on it, and i had it repaired from the inside with a patch, was wondering as in my original post would a patch/plug combo would have been better?

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Yes. If you already have the tire off, a patch/plug combo is better, and can be considered permanent if there is no other damage to the tire. Some bikes are very easy to get the wheel and tire off and back on, some it can take hours. It's those I use the inserted from outside plugs in. Not the best way, but I have never had one fail. If it is only a very small puncture (staple, drywall nail) the Ride-On alone should seal it, and if it should start to leak, it is going to lose air so slowly you will have plenty of warning that something is wrong.

Anyone who has ever messed with a steel belted radial where the tread has separated from the tire has most likely been stuck by the wires in the steel belts. They are very stiff and very sharp. When trying to patch these things from outside, I inserted the plug into the hole, then pulled the tool back out. The plug is supposed to come out with it, to a point, where you can cut it off. But every time the steel belts ripped the plug right off the insertion tool. I have put over a dozen plugs in motorcycle tires, and never had that problem, nor had one fail.

A couple of times, in an emergency, I actually used wood screws (with no shank) and rubber cement as a temporary repair. The threads will screw right into the steel belts. A Jeep guy taught me that one.