What Would You Do?

[Ben_Ricci]

At the end of the day I customarily put my bike on the center stand and rotate the front and rear tires to check for embedded objects. After a day of riding today I saw this:

 

1. Yank it. (It doesn't appear or feel to have punctured the casing

 

2. Ride to the local Honda/Yamaha/Kawasaki/Suzuki dealer and see if they can change it.

 

3. Plug it.

 

4. Pull the tire and take it to a BMW dealer?

 

5. Pull the tire and find a local rider with the gear to make a swap with a new tire?

 

The tire has 3,600 miles on it.

[Roadwolf]

4 and 5 are your best options, with 2 a chancy second choice... 1 and 3 would be a no go for anyone in my book, unless by plug you mean a temporary repair until you got it replaced.

[johnlt]

"1" if no leak, no sweat. If it leaks, replace it.

[Lineareagle]

Looks to me like the tire is about done its lifes work.

I'd pull the nail, looks like a shingle nail and they are pretty short and it looks like the nail has bent over and been stuck by the head which could mean the other pointy end is just barely in the meat of the tread.

[bakerzdosen]

I gotta agree with johnlt... with some reservations.

 

I asked roughly the same question a while ago. I kept the tire. I checked it quite frequently. It lasted to 9.8k miles. Lots of good answers in that thread.

[Peter W]

I'd probably replace it. I had one flat that I had a garage plug and it held for 6K miles until it needed replacement. Not sure that was a good idea. A few weeks ago I came out of work and saw a screw complete with washer in my rear tire, right in a groove. Knew it wasn't good. The tire had all it's air so I rode it 35 miles home. Next morning I called a dealer to fit me in for a replacement, figuring if it didn't leak air all day at work I'd be OK getting there. Dropped it off the center stand and it only had half it's air left. I rode slowly to a gas station and pumped it up, still thinking I'd be OK. The dealer is 38 miles away, not the closest, but the closer one once put a tire on backwords for me. I get about 10 miles, doing 70 in the carpool lane and I feel movement like the rain grooves are affecting me, which doesn't happen with Metzler Z6's. I knew I was in trouble, so I exit the carpool lane (illegally), cross four more lanes and look up and realize I am 1/2 mile from the Cherry Ave. exit, which is where Long Beach BMW is (the wrong way culprits). I exit and hear loud noise from the rear. I stop halfway off the exit ramp because I didn't want to risk ruining the rim, but it still had enough air so I rode the last 1/10 mile to the dealer. They fixed me up fine. I had 4,000 miles on that tire and was very happy I lucked out. If I had missed the exit I would have been pooped. An expensive screw (keep it clean, people).

 

Pete

[Ben_Ricci]

I gotta agree with johnlt... with some reservations.

 

I asked roughly the same question a while ago. I kept the tire. I checked it quite frequently. It lasted to 9.8k miles. Lots of good answers in that thread.

 

Thanks for posting that link. There's an uncanny similarity between your drill bit and my nail. One difference is I think I picked this up on the tail end of my ride. On a whim I looked the tires over at lunchtime and the nail wasn't there.

[STICKMAN]

PULL IT AND THEN NO LEAK OK, BUT IF IT LEAKS REPLACE IT. I HAD THAT HAPPEN WITH JUST 300 MILES ON THE TIRE AND I REPLACED IT. SINCE YOU ARE ONLY RELYING ON TWO TIRES INSTEAD OF FOUR TIRES LIKE A CAR REPLACING IS COSTLY BUT SO IS A GET OFF AT ANY SPEED.

[flyingreg]

Try No. 1. If no leak, ride on.

 

Otherwise, any of the other choices that make you comfortable. It doesn't matter a hill of beans what I would do since I'm not riding your bike.

[Blake]

While I understand the thoughts about pulling it and seeing if you lose air, I'm more concerned with it being on the outer edge of the tire.

 

Aside from the fact that, if you're in your corner and it goes out, you're screwed (no pun intended), what about the fact that it'll be in the back of your mind until you get it replaced. I wouldn't want the extra thought(s) running through MY head when I'm going through Sweeper Madness!

 

Hence, I'd go with #4 or #5.

 

Just my $.02, no change please.....

[Ben_Ricci]

Aside from the fact that, if you're in your corner and it goes out, you're screwed (no pun intended), what about the fact that it'll be in the back of your mind until you get it replaced. I wouldn't want the extra thought(s) running through MY head when I'm going through Sweeper Madness!

 

Hence, I'd go with #4 or #5.

 

Just my $.02, no change please.....

 

I'm inclined to agree, particularly the aspect of thinking about it while riding. This is the third foreign object I've picked up in a tire in less than a year: large staple in the sidewall of my rear truck tire; drywall screw in the center of my front car tire; and now this in my bike tire. I noticed the staple in my truck's tire after towing my car part way across PA, which entailed driving over the "mountains" (you folks out west would consider them hills )--hence my compulsion to check my tires regularly.

 

Now the question is do I ride to the dealer or carry the tire in? I'm inclined to ride, assuming it doesn't leak when I remove the nail. It's 55 miles, but I can take it easy on non-interstate backroads and my ST hasn't been running the best lately (back firing and I can hear a "warbling" or "howling" sound coming from somewhere--it's apparent when coasting. If it was a car I'd say it sounds like a wheel bearing." Thanks for the input everyone.

[Steve W.]

1. Pull the nail.

2. Check for leaks. (fingers crossed)

3. If leaking, install stringy plug.

4. Go to PC and order new tire(s) from Southwest Moto

5. Check leak at plug.

6. If no leak ride "close" to home, no interstate, untill new tire is mounted.

7. When new tire comes in replace old plugged tire.

8. Ride as usual, but watching for nails in the road as to avoid same situation.

YMMV. This has always worked for me. Never had a problem with a plug, but I wouldn't go on the interstate or too far from home.

Cheers

Steve

[JerryMather]

Take it off and put a patch/plug on it from the inside.

[Ben_Ricci]

Here's the rest of the story :

 

 

I pulled the nail and it was much longer than anticipated...and the tire leaked. So I loaded it up and took it to the dealer for a new tire and a once over for the other problems.

[jmseattle]

sigh. should have read this string as an omen. Went out to the garage a few minutes ago -- nail in practically brand new Z6 on rear. Flat as a pancake

[W. Mazelin]

What a gyp!