What do YOU do when you get a nail in the back tire?

[DCXCV]

I'll plug it tonight if the plug kit I have will work (it's the regular kind with the resin coated gummy stuff like licorice sticks) and order some tires online.  Does the tire really have to be plugged from the inside or could it be done for a temporary fix from the outside?
I'm down a car for about a month and this is making me crazzzzy sharing one truck with my wife and no bike!

I'll be curious to see if it even leaks air when I pull the nail out or not.

All three flats I've gotten on the bike I've plugged with the standard licorice stick. and had no problems with it (just make sure to trim off most of what's sticking out of the tire.)  A patch on the inside would work better as a long-term thing if you're going to keep riding the tire.  I'll guarantee it leaks air when you pull the nail unless it's pin-sized. 

[bishop]

Plug is with a plug that kinda looks like a mushroom with a shrunken head. I got a huge nail in my tire 2 weeks after i got the bike, not even a 500km on it. Still riding with the plug 12000km later. No issues at all.

[DirtyDuc]

I plug and patch in my car, but not my bike.  I replace on my bike.  A slow leak on a moto can cause much more serious handling problems and be more dangerous IMO.

[ducpainter]

I let IZ know he missed one.

[mraff]

+1 replace the tire. Catching a flat / having the plug fail at speed on 2 wheels not as cool as doing it on 4.

[arai_speed]

So the choice is easy, 50% say plug 50% say new tire.

[ab]

After riding on a new tire for about 100 miles, I had this happen a few seasons ago.  Luckly, it only got the top patch and nothing else.  I pulled it out and was able to use normally.

[accrocker]

Patch on the inside works great for me. I have two of them on my rear tire right now, and have for the last 2000 miles. No problems with them at all.

[He Man]

pull the nail, it may or may not leak if it didnt go straight in, or if it was a broken nail to begin with ( i get alot of those)

the proper way to do it is to plug it from the inside. many many people have done it from the outside and put thousands of miles on it.

i just did both because mine was fairly large. if you have a kit with its own glue, buy another one. 9/10 times the little small ass pack of glue is weaksauce.

[hackers2r]

If I remove the intruder and it leaks, new tire.  If it ain't leaking, nothing to fix in my opinion.  On my cars, I'll patch from the inside.

[Bizzarrini]

Last time, I also plugged my tire from the inside. Rode for a while with no problems at all. Finally replaced the tire when I had a trackday coming up, just to be sure.

[Turf]

New tank, handle bar, rearset and cans = $3,500 or so

New tire is $150 ish

$3500>$150 it's cheap insurance

If i pull it out and it lets air out it's time to put a new one on

[Howley]

I believe standard practice is to take a IZ_ picture of it.

[WetDuc]

I broke standard practice this time, regretfully, no pictures.
I pulled it out, it was the top half of a nail in sideways similar to the above picture, but only an entry hole.
It haven't lost any air pressure in the back tire, but I've lost a lot of peace of mind about it.

[Popeye the Sailor]

Y'all worry too much. Even if the plug utterly fails at some point it's more likely to be a leak than a catastophic blowout.


If I still had a duc I'd be buying up these punctured tires left and right and running them until they were completely shagged just to prove it ain't that big a deal.