Brand New Tire Ruined???

[Josh H]

Fellas (and ladies, of course), I want to see if you can confirm or deny what I was told at the tire shop earlier today....

I bought a new rear tire about a month ago and only have around 1000 miles on it. On my way to work today I noticed the rear end of the bike acting a little "squishy" and soon after starting hearing a rumbling from the rear tire. Now I'm sure you have all experienced this before and know what that feeling is like in your stomach when you hear that sound. I pulled over and found this.....



4 Hours later I was told by a technician at the tire shop they could not patch/plug the tire because it had been "sliced" and not just punctured. This makes sense to me, however after looking at the inside of the tire, the "exit wound" didn't look like a slice at all, more like a puncture. I have attached pics for you guys (a unisex expression) to confirm or deny that this tire is damaged beyond repair. Thanks in advance!

(Outside)


(Inside)

 

[ziggie]

It looks like both to me.if it was my tire i would replace it.

 

[Josh H]

The replacement tire is already in the mail to be installed later this week. I just didn't want this tire to go to waste. Could probably use it as a backup if it can be plugged/patched.

 

[VE258]

i got same problem once-the guys from a big tire shop just can't patch the tire(for a car). they'd tried like 3 times and it's still leaking air. it was a MB 4matic. you have to change at least 2 tires in such event. if the wear difference is too big between front and rear-you have to change all 4.

 

[Josh H]

i got same problem once-the guys from a big tire shop just can't patch the tire(for a car). they'd tried like 3 times and it's still leaking air. it was a MB 4matic. you have to change at least 2 tires in such event. if the wear difference is too big between front and rear-you have to change all 4.

Eww! Now I don't feel so bad for having to spend $150 on a new tire! Thanks! Ha!!

 

[bamamate]

On the automotive side I've plugged way worse than that.

Side note suggestion........instead of "you guys (a unisex expression)" try using ya'll.

 

[anglachel]

i got same problem once-the guys from a big tire shop just can't patch the tire(for a car). they'd tried like 3 times and it's still leaking air. it was a MB 4matic. you have to change at least 2 tires in such event. if the wear difference is too big between front and rear-you have to change all 4.

Had an experience like that myself once...

I had my first date with this girl and we came out of the movies and her tire was flat, so I aired it up. (Go me! The hero to a damsel in distress!)

Second date we came back and my tire was flat, and it wasn't taking air, and the bolt holding the spare on the bottom of the truck broke when I tried to get it off (tire is still probably rusted to the bottom of that truck)... so she drove me home.

Got the truck and brought it into the tire shop the next day and they said there was a hole, they couldn't patch it, so this tire was under warrenty, but I might want to buy a new tire for the other side just so the wear would match... Luckily the tires were less than a month old so the wear already match (though the tire store still wanted me to buy a new one, and new brakes (also only a few months old... scammers couldn't manage to get their story straight on if it was the front or rear brakes, and when they didn't they had no idea how they knew the pads were worn on drum brakes that still had the drum on...)

On our third date the girl broke it off... probably for the best given our track record with rubber at that point...

 

[Josh H]

Side note suggestion........instead of "you guys (a unisex expression)" try using ya'll.

Ha! Being from the South, I probably should have said that. There I go again, resisting instincts.

 

[670cc]

On the automotive side I've plugged way worse than that.

Side note suggestion........instead of "you guys (a unisex expression)" try using ya'll.

As a secondary side note suggestion, shouldn't ya spelt it "y'all"?

Greg

 

[Old Can Ride]

I know eating $150 really hurts, but eating asphalt hurts a lot more. Have a friend who had a tire that was one week old. I put it on for him for his trip. He had a flat about like yours. He was on the road, so he had to pay a dealership to come get him and install a new tire. Dealership put on new tire, Kenny paid them and he was on his way. About 3 miles down the road he crossed a railway crossing, new tire caught a huge railroad spike that ripped it apart. So, Kenny got to once again called the dealership. Sometimes you just can't win, even when you've done nothing wrong!

 

[n30r3l0ad3d]

Wow, this just literally happened to me last week with only 278 miles on my brand new NC. Difference is the hole size of mine was much smaller. I have the old tire listed in the for sale ads here in the forums, about all they are good for now is for someone willing to ruin their rim for a tube repair.

 

[StratTuner]

I am one cheap NC700x rider....but in this case I'd have to say go with a new tire. It's the inside of the tire that says the most to me. (thanks for showing that...). The String patches work best for straight in/out "hole" puctures. Yours really is more of a slice, so the string patch wouldn' t work as well.

I recently got a set of Michelin PR2s installed and balanced for $375. (that blew the family budget for July!). $150 sounds inexpensive to me.

 

[dduelin]

Tires never seem to get holed at the end of their life. That's just the way it is. You did the right thing. I have plugged slits with gummy worms and those are the ones that always seem to have a slow leak as the round plug can't seal the slit completely.

Those with Pilot Road 3s can see those little round water reservoirs at the ends of tread sipes. I picked up a screw in a new PR3 and started to plug it with a gummy worm. It was a very small hole but by the time I reamed it out to take the insertion tool it was pretty much the same size and appearance of one of those reservoirs. I loaded the tool with a worm and lost sight of the puncture sight. "Oh, there it is, boy it sure is tough getting the tool inserted, I had better ream it some more". Yep, I made a new hole with the tool. I rode home on a PR3 with two plugs in it, one from the screw and one I did by mistake. I had about 1000 miles on the tire. I keep it mounted on a spare rim. Here is a picture: the hole on the left was my own misdoing.

 

[L.B.S.]

Josh, me, the Poster Child for string plug repairs, would give that one a pass unless I was out in the middle of nowhere, and it was an emergency situation...

That just looks a bit too nasty to mess with, having a tear in addition to a hole. In order to make a rounder hole for the plug/s to work better, you'd have to ream that out to epic proportions, IMHO.

Better safe than sorry in this. Sucks, but live to ride another day!

 

[CMGuy]

Looks pretty bad (sliced) on the outside but, yeah, looks like just a hole on the inside. I'd think the normal plugging would not work but perhaps a patch on the inside or a tube would enable it to hold air. (There is another thread on this forum - started by Jay Fridays, "10,000 MILES !!!... All SMILES!! .. NO CORD !! Did the TUBE keep it alive?!" about going the tube route.)

However, given the "ugliness" of the entrance wound, I'd be concerned about the integrity of the tire over the long haul. It would gnaw at the back of my mind every time I took the bike out at any sort of highway speed or doing the twisties. Remember, on a bike you only have two points of contact to keep you up and headed in the direction of your choosing. Having one of them fail at a critical time might lend itself to a test of your crash bars and personal safety gear.

My vote is the tire is toast. Make a tire swing for your kid (if you have a kid) out of it. Stuff a metal tube in the hole and put it on the bottom so the rain water drains out.

 

[johnakay]

do you guys ride close to the curb if so that's ya problem. I always ride in the centre.
I never had a flat tyre in 30 years.

 

[fedtech]

Y'all,,,, is a real word. Merriam Webster's dictionary. variant of you-all. s-up Bamamate. i'm grew-up in Forrest City

 

[Fuzzy]

"Y'all" is singular, "All of Y'all" is plural and "All of Y'all's" is plural possessive.

 

[Harald]

Tires never seem to get holed at the end of their life.

I guess I should buy a lottery ticket? I recently had a thick metal sliver pierce a Conti Motion rear tire in the center of the tread at an angle when it had probably 1500 miles left on it. I stuck a sticky string in there and it lasted about 1000 miles before it started slowly leaking. I wasn't willing to plug it again because the rubber gets pretty thin near the end of a tire life.

Granted, it wasn't an ideal punchure due to the angle it went in but I was willing to risk it with a rear tire. Plus I always have extra tires in the garage and my own tire change equipment, so if a plug were to not hold air I could easilly just throw a new tire on. In general, I have no qualms about running a plug for the life of a tire if it's a classic punchure.

 

[Jay Fridays]

I got a flat right after I bought the new bike. It's true, you are not supposed repair/plug any motorcycle tire. It's illegal to do so in California.
However, you can put a tube in the tire, and save a lot of money. The tire is not a waste, but it can no longer be relied on to hold air. I had a tube put in, and have ridden anpother 10k plus miles. I am now replacing my tires, but only because the tread is gone