hole in tire

[Anonymous]

Got a new tire on a late model gsxr 750 with a puncture in it from a nail. Can it be repaired with a radial plug safely? This tire is almost new, I would hate to chuck it.

[Anonymous]

I have plugged tires and also removed them and patched them from the inside. One I did both.

I have caught friction from people about all three methods. None failed on me. But the rich people all say: "Why take the chance". <g>

The chance seemed reasonable to me. And I'm not wealthy.

stephen

[Anonymous]

The chance of a plug giving way increases as you move from the centre of the tread to the sidewall. As the tyre squirms more out there the plug is less likely to hold under the movement. The plug is really just to get you home again.

It is common enough among the guys I move with to leave a plug in the centreline, have it patched in the midway tread area, and replace the tyre when plugged in the outer tread area.

Different design plugs also make a difference. I have a BMW riding mate who only uses BMW plugs. They have a figure 8 pattern and lock in very securely. He just plugs and leaves them alone.

Kim

[Anonymous]

You would be better off patching it from the inside.. or dare I say.. put in a tube.... The real safe guys (probably smarter than me) would say to trash the tire... It's only money

[cbxchris]

Go to NAPA and get a special plug that they have. It is a round patch with a pull through plug on it. The pull through part has a metal type sharp pin on the end to help you get through the hole. They have all sizes and you have to make sure you get what you need. You need to scuff the tire good inside around the puncture and glue it well with tire glue(monkey grip). You can even hot patch them if you like. With this repair you have a plug and a patch. I feel it will be hard for both to fail. I would not want to patch if it is on the outer edge of the tire or sidewall. I had just installed a new michelin pilot a couple years ago(200 bucks!) and got a nail in it with 35 miles. I did this repair and ran it until the tire wore out. I hate to admit it but I had many many 180mph short runs on that tire. This bike made 220 HP at the rear wheel. If that didn`t make one fail nothing will.

[Anonymous]

hole in tire

Thanks for the info Chris, damn, I was just at napa this afternoon. I'll give your idea a shot. This tire in canuck bucks is worth $300.00 It's an avon azzaro or something like that. I will probably put it on the GS 1000, I need a wider 17 inch for it , have you ever heard of anyone doing this to a stock GS rim. We have a full machine shop at work I'll ask one of the machinist's if this is possible. Thanks Ric.

[Billy Ricks]

The patch/plug Chris brought up is the way to go. Most auto parts have them if they carry Camel products. Are you talking about widening the stock GS wheel, installing the GSX-R wheel, or squeezing a wider tire onto the GS wheel? I have GSX-R wheels on my 700. Kosman widens wheels but it is expensive. Squeezing too wide of a tire, especially a radial, on a narrow wheel is not a good idea.

[cbxchris]

Kosman widens wheels like Billy said. Its 425 buck! 8O I`ve honestly been thinking about going a different route. I can get a set of chromed GSXR wheels for 600...I just hate getting into all that mess of fitting them. The newer wheels are so much lighter.

[Billy Ricks]

For $425 you can just about get a complete GSX-R front end and wheels. Mounting a 4.5" Gixxer wheel in most GSs is not very hard. And swapping the entire front end is a snap. I spent close to 60 hours polishing my wheels. The end result was worth the effort though.

[Anonymous]

hole in tire

O K, sounds like the way to go is with gsxr wheels. What year wheels will fit with the least amount of playing around? What about wheels and a front end from a late model bandit 1200, I can still use the tube handle bars.

[Billy Ricks]

'88 and '89 Gixxers had the 4.5" 3 spoke wheels. As for the front end it depends on whether you want an inverted fork or conventional. The '90 front ends were conventional cartridge style with adjustments for everything. anything up to mid '90s will work as long as the steering stem uses tapered bearings. That is about the only thing you need to watch out for.

[Billy Ricks]

BTW, if you check the Performance Mods section for posts by Gerry and Swanny you will find some pretty thorough dicussions of this mod.