Puncture in a tubeless tyre

Having successfully (and actually unintentionally) converted a friend into becoming a biker, and sympathising over the time he got a puncture, it was finally my turn.

Riding home on a Friday evening (it was dark), I felt the steering go a bit strange, almost as though the handlebars were loose. I slowed down and gently pulled the handlebars left and right, and up and down. Nope. It wasn't the handlebars.

Hmm, could it be a puncture? Can't be the front tyre. I weaved gently left and right. The Pan seemed a bit sluggish. Must be the rear tyre then? But the last time I had a rear puncture I had to keep changing down and giving loads of power in order to keep moving. Oh wait, that was on the Yamaha. I'd better stop and check. At that particular point the motorway did not have a hard shoulder, forcing me to continue for another mile.

When the hard shoulder finally reappeared, I pulled over and stopped, as close to the grass verge as possible. Where are the hazard lights when you need them?!

I put the bike on its side stand and climbed off. The front tyre was fine. The rear? Completely flat.

In order to see if there's a nail in the tyre, I put the bike onto the centre stand, remove my gloves, and get my torch from the pannier. The rear tyre is very hot. I carefully feel the tyre surface all over, looking for the nail. No nail. Maybe it's the valve?

I open the pannier again and retrieve my foot pump. After several minutes of legwork I stop and check the pressure. It's reached 30 psi, so I conclude it must have been the valve. I fully inflate the tyre to its customary 42 psi.

One final check. I shine the torch on the tyre whilst rotating the wheel, and notice something shiny. Ah. Not a nail, a triangular shard of glass from someone's headlight. Opening the other pannier I remove the pliers from my toolkit and remove the shard.

Pssssssssssss. The tyre got that sinking feeling. As did I.

Out comes the tyre repair kit and I plug the hole. Once again I jump up and down on the footpump. At 40 psi I've had enough; it will have to do. I pack away the tools and head homewards once more.

About a mile from home, as I take the motorway off-ramp, the bike feels "squirmy" again. At the top of the exit ramp is a set of traffic lights which happen to be red, so I stop, lean over and have a look. Yes, the tyre's flat again. There's very little traffic so I decide to chance it; the light turns green and I pull away gently. At around 10 mph I carefully traversed some of the back roads, stopping once in a while just to make sure the rear tyre was not bursting into flames.

When I finally pulled in to my driveway, I discovered that manoeuvring a 290-odd kg bike with a flat tyre is not that easy, so I had to get my wife to help me turn it around and push it into the garage.

After dinner I had a look at the tyre again. The plug seemed to have disappeared completely.*

I removed the rear wheel, and the following day took it to the local bike tyre place for a new tyre.

This was the first time I'd had to use the foot pump in earnest (as opposed to the customary few strokes to keep the tyre pressure topped up), and the effort involved convinced me to get an electric pump.

Electric Tyre Pump

After some research I decided to get a Slime Power Sport Tyre Inflator.

I have used it twice now and am quite pleased with the light weight and compact design. Its disadvantages are that it does not cut off automatically when a designated pressure is reached, and you're not supposed to leave it running for longer than 8 minutes. However, when I turned it off after 8 minutes the tyre had reached 40 psi from flat. It's noisy and vibrates quite a lot and I don't think much of the little separate tyre pressure gauge you get with it, so I bought a more accurate gauge. With this gauge, the reading is guaranteed, and I use it weekly - not only on my Pan.

I also cut off the end of the cigarette lighter adaptor, and used this connector for my electric gloves harness. This way I have a connector which not only has its own on/off switch but can be used both for the electric gloves and to power the Slime pump.

So in conclusion, for emergency use in re-inflating a flat tyre, it comes into its own; but for normal weekly "topping up" I still use the manual foot pump.

Plugging the hole

Tyre manufacturers recommend that if a motorcycle tyre is punctured, it should be replaced. Well, I suppose they would say that. But my opinion is that as long as the puncture is not too close to the sidewall, it can be plugged.

* I use the sort of plugs which look like bits of thick liquorice, but having seen how a professional tyre repair is done, I've decided to get some with proper plugs like the "proper tire plugger" shown here.

Remember though that whilst these will be useful for the normal punctures acquired when running over a nail or screw, they can not be used for larger tears.

Return from Punctures to Repair and Maintenance
Return from Punctures to ST1100 front page
Top of page