Ducati Monster Forum

Small nail, my friend noticed it on the ride out today, turned around took it to Supertire guy, had it fixed for $45.  Just if anyone was wondering who can and will fix flats and how much.   That is all.

Was it a front or a rear? A general rule, of common safety sense, never run a plugged front tire.

A rear is fine, for a while, but a front is just way too risky.

Just my two cents.

Rear, and it was in the meat of the tread, not the grooves, just got the tire about 1K ago. :(  small little nail too.  little bugger

Does anyone know why it's always the rear?   

Front rolls over it and kicks it up, rear rolls on to it and gets the puncture. >:(

...proof of said theory?  I've heard that, too.  But how do they know? I want some concrete evidence.  hrmph. 

Supertire Guys are great for New Tires as well. nice group of people there. You can easily Patch it yourself also and save some cash.

I have a brand new Pilot Power in the garage with 1 patch and another hole in it which I have not patched yet.

Hmm 3 nails I got were all the rear tire as well  :-\

I think I've had two nails--both in my rear tire.  But how do they get there?  I need to dig out a physics book. 

It's simple...

Front wheel in the air == all nails go into the rear

Two nails here as well. Both rear tire. Don't question the laws of the universe. Anyway, it has something to do with the strong, weak, and electromagnetic forces merging with gravity. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you.

Nice....! I have a nail in my rear tire as well, I have been waiting for Monday to go and buy a new one, My tire I think it only has 500 miles or so. Thanks for letting us know.


 [thumbsup]

Juan...!

The thing I want to know is why I get more nails on 2 wheels with a much less surface area than I did on 4 wheels before even started riding motorcycles... Just Lucky?

/\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\

Yes, this.  Thank you.  See?  Something is amiss in the Universe, and I'm going to get to the bottom of it. 

I have had many flats on my bicycles over the years. I would say 90% of the time it's the rear tire. I think it's just because it's more annoying to fix/change the rear tire since you have to deal with the chain and cogs. I once opened up the tube and there was a drill bit inside. Of course, a flat in the rear is preferable at speed since you have more control than the front. 

I'm not going to say that I haven't yet experienced a flat on my mc yet since I will just jinx myself.

My guess:

1) Moto tires are more sticky/softer.
2) Moto tires ride where the cars don't more often (e.g. the center of the lane).

I subscribe to the gremlins school of motorcycle physics. Every motorcycle or any other piece of machinery has a certain number of gremlins living in it. HD gremlins are the worst, apparently bad enough that big burly bikers put pretty little bells on their bikes to ward them off.   [laugh]

Front tire narrow.

Rear tire wide.

So which one do you think will be sweeping up debris from a bigger section of road?

Also, compare weight to contact patch ratio between cars and bikes. Bikes actually have more lbs per square inch than cars, so there's more pressure on that nail to go into the softer rubber of a bike tire.

That's the physics.

The reality is that the electropsychodynamism generated by a transverse spinning bike engine attracts a greater number of gremlins from the psychic aether than a car engine does. Mix that with the good vibes of bike riding (as opposed to the misery of driving a car) and it drives the gremlins into a frenzy.

Glad I could clear that up.

It all makes sense now..................  [popcorn]

 [bow_down] [bow_down] [bow_down]

Disclaimer: I know this thread is about bike tires. Funny thing about both flat car tires I've gotten in the last year is that each time it was a nail in the front passenger side tread. Damn construction sites everywhere!

According to DrunkenMonkey, car tires have different ju-ju than moto tires. 

...and I'm still not buying his whole theory.  Once in a while someone, somewhere should get a flat front.  I've *never* heard of it happening.  I still say there's something wicked at work.

Already put up a thread on mythbusters site, maybe they can clear this up for us.  [moto]

I thought you had a flat front?  [cheeky]


(Please don't hurt me)

You're just on a roll tonight, aren't you? [roll]

Someone needs a Kick in the Jimmy  ;)

It's not the size of the tire but the quality of the tire... That's what I keep telling myself at least  ;D

Ya know, I nearly said something about making fun of my figure before posting up anything... I'm not flat-chested--I'm AERODYNAMIC.  So shut yer gob. 

[laugh] [laugh]

Googlefight, the source of all comparative wisdom, disagrees with 'belle (http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Flat+in+front+motorcycle+tire&word2=flat+in+rear+motorcycle+tire+).

Seriously, I think front tires may just be pointier than rears, with a smaller contact patch, and that's enough to make it far more likely you'd get a nail in the rear.

But this truly is a job for Mythbusters. Along with "riding in jeans vs. shorts.", "laying a bike down to slow down" and my favorite "you can't wheelie a shaft drive bike"

Looks like Belle edges out a win  [evil]

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3480/3209419044_ea83af88b6_o.jpg)

Several people associated with the show, including a producer or two, ride. They may just be amenable to doing something like that. I'd love to see Buster on a burning Suzuki ;D

I think it has to do with weight distribution, more weight on rear wheel - also it's the drive wheel so all the torque is going thru it too. So perhaps, the front tire can somewhat float over a nail, while the rear eats it up...

This isn't so much a myth as it is a question why.  I'm still open to bugging the 'Busters about it.  They like noisy things that explode.  A show with motorbikes in it sounds like the perfect subject for them.   [cheeky]

Like this  ;D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvcwCCWkhBI (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvcwCCWkhBI)

I've had 3 in the rear and one big screw in the front in roughly 2.5 years of riding -- kinda unlucky I guess...

m

That didn't quite come out right...

I'm guessing it didn't go in right, either.

See, I wasn't going to take it down a notch...I resisted that temptation mightily. But thank you...my thoughts exactly  ;D

In all the years of riding I have only had one nail in the front tire. Actually it was so long ago I don't remember what it was, only that it went flat and started to handle shitty. You ever notice how if you ride really slow on a flat its actually worse that when you get up to 35 or 40 Mph? I guess cetrifugal force plus a stiff side wall helps.

I've had two flat tires, one front (on the DR650) and one rear (on the Monster). I don't remember what caused the front tire to go flat but the rear was caused by staples. Staples! And of course there were several, so the tire couldn't be patched even though it was pretty new. Gah.