Any motorcyclist who rides long enough will eventually have to contend with a flat tire out on the road or trail. It can be a time-consuming, ride-ending disaster with all the hassles and expenses of getting the disabled bike hauled to a shop for repair, or it can be a brief diversion that hands the rider an additional victory during their adventure—even if that adventure is merely a quick trip to the store.
Obviously, tire failures aren’t all the same. Some are catastrophic, with a sudden blowout resulting in extensive, irreparable damage to the tire and dramatic loss of control over the motorcycle. Fortunately, these are rare and typically preventable with regular monitoring of each tire’s condition and inflation. Otherwise, modern tires must be subjected to an extraordinary hazard to come to such an unsavory end. The more likely scenario for a flat is a simple puncture, with a nail, screw or other sharp debris piercing the tire’s tread and allowing air to leak out slowly. Usually, the offending bit remains trapped in the hole it created and actually impedes the egress of precious pressurized gas. A rider may not even be aware there’s a problem for long while after the damage is done.
Maybe the bike begins to handle strangely. Maybe the tire starts to look deflated, or a nail head is visible amidst the tread blocks. Perhaps the bike’s tire pressure monitoring system alerts the rider to a pressure loss. However the issue becomes apparent, this can be an easily remedied development requiring little in the way of special equipment and technical skill. A rider can rid their tire of the evil intruder, plug the hole, reinflate, and be on their way again in less than an hour. Keep in mind manufacturers advise against extended or extreme use of repaired tires, and plugs are usually effective only when a puncture has occurred in a tire’s tread area, not its sidewall, and when that puncture is a straightforward, small-diameter piercing, as opposed to an oblong gash. On the other hand, there are cases wherein repaired tires have functioned flawlessly for thousands of miles without pampering, and creative riders (using multiple plugs) have managed to get a tire with a cut sidewall to hold air long enough to make it somewhere they can safely spoon on a replacement. You’ll have to decide what risks are worthwhile in any given situation.
In this two-part article, we’ll look at a variety of tire repair kits in Part One and cover the basic procedures for using them. In Part Two, we’ll compare various options for refilling a tire that has lost air—as a result of damage, temperature change or plain old entropy. We won’t be covering inner tube patching, as that’s a much more involved process affecting a dwindling number of motorcyclists (no disrespect, vintage riders!). In the current era, many ADV/dual-sport motorcycles with wire-spoke wheels arrive from the factory with tubeless rim/tire setups, and even pure off-road bikes can be converted to tubeless operation with Nuetech’s ingenious TUbliss system (see tubliss.com), making trail-side repair quick and easy using the same approaches appropriate for street machinery. Hence, the tools and methods examined here have broad applications. The goal isn’t to steer you toward any particular product, but rather to survey the types available with attention to their respective advantages and disadvantages.
Tire Repair 101
Most tire repair kits work the same way. The fundamental process goes like this. First, the puncturing item must be removed if it’s still present. This can almost always be accomplished with a pair of pliers (a needle-nosed version may be necessary if there’s only a little still protruding from the tread). If it’s impossible to pull the offending bit back out, it can instead be pushed the rest of the way into the tire’s interior, where it will pose little realistic risk, though this is not ideal. Such pushing could be done using one of the narrow, cylindrical components of the repair tool. Tools generally include a rasp to roughen the puncture’s interior and enhance the plug’s adhesion, and a sort of “reverse needle,” which carries the plug in an eye at its leading end. The latter is used to forcefully insert a string-like plug into the hole and then, because the eye is open at its tip, leave that plug in place when the tool is withdrawn. A slightly different design has no such opening and instead pulls the plug partially back out through the hole after first pushing it completely through.
The Stop&Go kit uses a wildly different mechanism, as well as a different type of plug, than the rest of the kits shown. Its plugs are most worthy of that name, as they’re little rubber mushrooms that fit the image of what most would consider a “plug.” More commonly, tire repair kits use sticky, fibrous, vulcanized, stringlike things that function as plugs. For simplicity’s sake, these will also be referred to as “plugs” here.
Once the plug has been inserted, whatever excess is left protruding from the tire’s exterior is trimmed away so the plug can’t be inadvertently pulled back out. A string-style plug’s built-in (vulcanizing) adhesive permanently bonds it to the tire’s rubber; air no longer has an escape route, and the tire can be reinflated with a reasonable expectation it will stay that way. String-style plugs come in a variety of widths. Thin ones can be inadequate for repairing larger punctures. In some cases, it may be possible to compensate for this by inserting more than one such plug into the hole. While this almost certainly decreases the trustworthiness of the repair, it may suffice to get bike and rider to a better location for further work. Alternatively, string-style plugs of different sizes can be purchased at any motorcycle, bicycle, or auto parts store and substituted for those included in a kit. Just make sure the tool’s insertion needle eye can accommodate the larger plug diameter or they may prove uselessly incompatible when needed.
Some puncture repair kits include provisions for reinflating the tire, while others require the rider to use a separate device. Since we’ll be addressing reinflation options in Part Two, any such provisions will only be noted briefly here, with further explanation in the next installment.
Lezyne Puncture Repair Kit – $20
I’ve long been a fan of appropriating gear from adjacent sports when it has utility for motorcycling; sometimes an innovation sprouts up somewhere else first. The world of bicycling, especially mountain biking, has items of interest in this regard. Even more than motorcyclists, bicyclists require the absolute smallest, lightest equipment. This economical kit from Lezyne is the epitome of minimalism, measuring just 2.3 inches in length and weighing a mere 1.3 ounces. You could stash it in a pocket and never know it’s there. Operation involves unscrewing the cap and replacing it in reversed orientation, with its plug insertion needle facing outward. That needle features a knurled shaft, allowing it to serve double-duty as a rasp. Five medium-gauge string-style plugs come stored in the unit’s hollow aluminum body, which serves as a robust—albeit tiny—handle during use. The downside of this design is it doesn’t provide much leverage when contending with a tight orifice, and it has nothing to help remove debris from the puncture or reinflate the tire.
CXWXC Tire Repair Kit – $29
This second offering from our bicycling cousins is also ultra-compact, measuring five inches long and weighing just three ounces. Even though it’s more than twice the size of the Lezyne, it’s still small and light enough to carry easily in a cargo pocket and would take up negligible space in a tank bag. Like the Lezyne, its base cap unscrews to reveal a hollow chamber containing five string-style plugs, although these are rather thin. That cap gets reinstalled with its plug insertion needle facing outward, and its needle also features a knurled shaft for roughening up a puncture’s interior. This tool’s aluminum body provides a larger handle and more leverage than the Lezyne, and it serves another function as well: CO2 cartridges can be inserted for use in refilling a flat tire, but we’ll cover that in Part Two. A little plastic bracket is included for mounting the tool on a frame rail, but this would probably work only on a bicycle. You’ll have to supply pliers for any debris removal necessary.
Rocky Creek Designs/MotoPressor Puncture Repair Kit – $57
This is a combination package including both an elaborate repair tool and components for reinflation. The repair tool can be purchased separately for $49.34, but for the small additional cost of the kit you get five thick, double-length, string-style plugs, three 16g CO2 cartridges, a hose with fittings to connect those cartridges to your wheel’s valve stem, and a sturdy, neoprene-like carrying pouch, all of which would total much more than another $8 if purchased separately. Dimensions for the full kit (in its pouch) are 4” x 5.5” x 1.5” and 21.3 ounces—probably more than you’d want in a pocket of your riding apparel, but a manageable addition to a tank bag, especially given its comprehensive functionality.
The repair tool is designed like a big Swiss Army knife. It features fold-out needle-nose pliers, complete with ridges in the jaws for extra grip and a section for snipping wire. There’s a large rasp and separate plug insertion needle, along with a razorblade knife for trimming plugs post-installation. Because this insertion needle doesn’t release the plug inside the tire and instead pulls it back out (part way), the plug remains captured in the needle at the end of this process. The knife detaches from the rest of the tool to allow cutting the excess plug length off while it’s still captured in the needle. This tool’s beefy construction provides lots of leverage and a secure, if not particularly comfortable, handhold. You’ll have to decide if its arguably overbuilt design is worth its size and heft, but consider it might allow you to subtract a pair of pliers from your tool bag. Alone, it measures 4.5” x 1.3” x 1.3” and weighs 11 ounces. (MOA member Wes Fleming has a video on our YouTube channel on this tool and how it works, see below.)
Stop&Go Pocket Tire Plugger – $60
By far the most elaborate option here, this kit in its vinyl carrying pouch is 8” x 3” x 1.5” in size and 16.4 ounces in weight. Despite its name, you definitely wouldn’t want to carry this on your person, but it will fit comfortably in a medium-sized tank bag or tail pack. Starting with the easily explained components, the kit includes a large stand-alone rasp and awl, each with a plastic, screwdriver-like handle providing copious leverage and grip. There’s also a small foldout knife blade, four 16g CO2 cartridges (only two appear in the photo because I hadn’t yet replaced what I used for a previous repair), a hose with fittings for their use in inflation, and a bag of 15 rubber mushroom-shaped plugs, which Stop&Go touts as superior to string-style versions—less messy because they need no adhesive, and more leak-proof because their shape creates a mechanical lock against the tire’s interior surface. Stop&Go offers other kits with different components (e.g., without the reinflation elements in this one). See their website for the full range.
Now, the Stop&Go kit’s complicated parts: The plug installation tool consists of a thick-walled aluminum cylinder with knurled exterior for enhanced grip. Inside is a long threaded “drive rod” that gets turned with a separate hex key inserted into the tool’s base, moving it up and down within the tool’s length. The top of the tool is threaded to accept an aluminum “nozzle,” also with a grippy knurled exterior. The awl mentioned earlier is threaded to accept this same piece, slipped over the metal spike and screwed down against its handle.
After using your own pliers to remove whatever caused the puncture, enlarging the hole with the awl, and prepping it with the rasp, a mushroom plug is inserted into the installation tool’s body with the drive rod retracted, leaving a cavity at the other end to accept the plug. The narrow end of the nozzle is then used to squeeze a plug into that cavity, which involves some inversion and compression of the plug’s squishy mushroom cap (pointed outward from the tool’s barrel). Next, the nozzle is screwed onto the awl and forced into the puncture hole, where it remains as the awl is then unscrewed from it and withdrawn. Now the plug installation tool, loaded with a plug, is screwed into the waiting nozzle. The hex key is then used to move the drive rod toward the tire, forcing the plug through the nozzle far enough for its mushroom cap to pop out and expand inside the tire (its stem is still inside the nozzle at this point). The tool and nozzle are pulled away together, leaving the plug’s stem free to expand and fill the hole. To seat the mushroom cap against the tire’s interior surface, the plug’s exposed portion is then pulled with pliers until it stretches two inches. Once released, whatever portion of the relaxed plug remains outside the tire gets trimmed with the knife.
The tools described here are only a small sampling of what’s available on the market, but they provide a glimpse of what riders can conveniently keep with them to repair the most common type of flat mid-ride. This is very cheap insurance against being stranded. Nobody is going to guarantee the resulting fix as permanent or durable under extreme conditions, but it’s likely to enable safe passage to someplace where a more substantive repair can be made, if desired. In Part Two, we’ll look at how to restore a tire’s functionality after its puncture has been plugged, since it will still require re-inflation to be of any use.
