Friggin gosh dang darnit dadgum phooey - Tire rant.

[Artful]

I have an Angel ST on the back of the Monster and I love it. It is wearing extremely well, sticks like snotty glue, and I generally want to write Pirelli a love letter.

It also now has a nail in it.

Just like the last three tires I've had on the back. Front tire? Never had a problem, get to the wear bars every time. Rear? Looks like I ride through a carpenter's shop on the way home usually about halfway through the tire's life. I don't ride the shoulder and I don't use my tire to support my drill press. I just can't friggin win.

I doubt there is really much I can do (no such thing as Continental Gatorskins for a motorcycle) but dammit am I the only one? Baltimore streets are brutal on tires... I even sweep the garage with a magnet to prevent this as much as possible. I am so sick of replacing perfectly good tires. Anyone know a good plugging method that probably won't kill me?

Anyone with a tire changer they recommend to at least mitigate the cost of replacing these damn things?

[Speeddog]

Rear tire punctures are SOP.

Nail is laying in the road, front tire flips it up into position to spear the rear tire.

Best o luck!

IZ may have some good info for ya, or at least make you feel better. 

[He Man]

Harbor freight no longer sells the cheapo motorcycle tire changers, so they are hard to come by (with a little mod ive seen them do wonders), if you are creative you can make your own bead breaker and just buy the no mar bar.

on the other hand, you can just do it like i do it and use tropicana orange bottles and do it with 3 tire irons. ive changed a ton of tires like this, takes more time but its cheap and pratice makes perfect.

[zooom]

in terms of plugging....I would personally suggest using these kind of plugs as apposed to the standard rope plugs...

http://www.stopngo.com/products/Standard-Model-%252d-Tire-Plugger.html

I had one installed on my old street Monster in a fairly new (at the time) Metzler Sportec M1 and I got about 6K more miles out of it before changing it out, and this is the style we use in high performance low profile tires here at work...they work well...

[Triple J]

I have a Cycle Hill tire changer. It's very nice, and worth the extra money over the HF one IMO (ny buddy has one).

[battlecry]

Sorry Artful.   I have a Dynaplug kit on my Monster.  Seems easy enough to use, and the inmates at Advrider like it.   
I've changed three sets with just tire irons like He Man.  Several YouTube vids available, but they seem to gloss over the cussing and the screaming.  If you want to do it, I found that a warm tire makes a BIG difference in the amount of force needed to pull the rim over the bead.   

[DucNaked]

I got a nail in my brand-new angel st this spring. I just used a cheap rope plug. That was about 2500 miles ago. The plug is still holding and tire doesn't loose air.
Pics of the offender

[bikepilot]

I've often had nails in rear tires (but never fronts) as well.  I've always yanked them out, jammed in one of those "emergency" rope-style tire plugs (often mid-ride when I noticed the tire getting low) and rode blissfully on until the tire was worn out.  I've never had one come out, leak or cause any troubles, though I'm sure its possible that it could happen, that the speed rating of the tire is shot to hell and that it could never be officially recommended for liability reasons.  BTW I've done this on my TLS which sees speeds monsters are incapable of achieving.  I do tend to ride a lot of miles so while I've done 10k+ miles on a plug, I doubt I've ever had one in for more than a year so if they degrade with time I wouldn't know (though I've had them live in the truck tires for years).  I'm sure the internal plugs are better at staying in and that a new tire is the only way to properly fix it.

[extra330]

Hey there Artful,, I just happen to have a good supply of "Tech patches" laying around the shop. They're a  plug and a patch all in one and are installed from the inside of the tire. You basically pull the plug through the hole in the tire until the patch seats itself on the inside of the carcass of the tire. No way they will ever come loose.



You're more than welcome to swing by and practice your tire changing skills on the NoMar

cheers
Mike

[extra330]

I got a nail in my brand-new angel st this spring. I just used a cheap rope plug. That was about 2500 miles ago. The plug is still holding and tire doesn't loose air.
Pics of the offender

Dude, that plug may still be there but I can assure you that it HAS moved. I've changed many a tire that have been plugged using those rope type plugs and about 60% of them were just about ready to leave orbit. Those plugs are IMHO only to be used until you can install a proper patch or Tech-Patch from the inside of the tire.

YMMV

[corey]

christ on a cracker, wtf is a nail that big even used for?!

[Buckethead]

Killing zombies.

[Artful]

Hey there Artful,, I just happen to have a good supply of "Tech patches" laying around the shop. They're a  plug and a patch all in one and are installed from the inside of the tire. You basically pull the plug through the hole in the tire until the patch seats itself on the inside of the carcass of the tire. No way they will ever come loose.

You're more than welcome to swing by and practice your tire changing skills on the NoMar

cheers
Mike

I'm in Texas for a wedding but when I get back I'll take you up on that.

[extra330]

free  too