The Honda Owners Club

Any comments/opinions or stories about plugging punctures or even stories of punctures themselves. I just had my second puncture on my bike and it is in a brand new tyre. The last puncture was in a brand new tyre also.

I bought my Transalp because it is a nice bike to ride. Having got over the initial enthusiasm, I realized that its tubed tyres could well cause me problems when touring abroad, so I bought a Varadero with tubeless tyres.

I have used plugs on five occasions - two in one day!

As long as the puncture is in the treaded area, they work well and in my experience last the life of the tyre.

I always carry a pug kit - and a small pump - even though I now use Ultraseal. I have had one puncture whilst using Ultraseal. The tyre pressure dropped 5lbs - I did not notice it at the time - and again the automatic repair lasted the life of the tyre.

I have read articles about the products that you can put inside the tyre so when you have the misfortune of a puncture the tyre will not deflate. One downside mentioned was that if you do take the same tyre to get a plug they can't do it because the additive prevents the rubber plug glue from adhering. These additives are designed ideally for tubed tyres only I believe. I have had 2 punctures both of them in brand new tyres and I have be lucky enough to have discovered them in my shed.

Ultraseal and the like are for tubeless tyres mainly. There are specific blends for the now much rarer tubed tyres.

Plugs work well if properly fitted. Best if you can to get tyre off and have proper vulcanised mushroom plug fitted at tyre fitters.

Just reached the 10,000 mile mark with the plugged Michelin PR2. I was removed and a mushroom plug fitted. Worked just fine.

I've always fitted Ultraseal in my tyres.

I've had several punctures in car tyres but never a bike tyre. I average about 4000 miles a year on two wheels.

Dibble wrote:Plugs work well if properly fitted. Best if you can to get tyre off and have proper vulcanised mushroom plug fitted at tyre fitters.

I don't think 'mushroom' plugs and 'vulcanised' patches are the same thing. I had a puncture in a car tyre (about 1000 miles ). The tyre depot said that due to where the puncture was on the tyre (too near the sidewall), it could not be repaired by plugging, which only is what most tyre depots have the facilities to do. They said it could be repaired by a vulcanised patch though. They pointed me in the direction of a local place that specialised in vulcanised repairs (that was all they did!). For £15, it was repaired with a proper patch on the inside, and the hole in the tyre cleaned up and sealed (so as not to let water into the cords of the tyre). It's still in use, 20k or so later.

Motorcycle shop in Devon took tyre off removed th escrew that had punctured the tyre. Then fitted a plug that was mushroom shape ie wide flat top and the stalk went through the hole in tyre body. The fixing prcess or gluing is called vulcunising as it uses solutions that bond the materials together. So vulcanised mushroom plug.

Dibble wrote:Motorcycle shop in Devon took tyre off removed th escrew that had punctured the tyre. Then fitted a plug that was mushroom shape ie wide flat top and the stalk went through the hole in tyre body. The fixing prcess or gluing is called vulcunising as it uses solutions that bond the materials together. So vulcanised mushroom plug.

That is what I had done. In Australia any damage to the side walls of the tyre, whether it be car or bike, cannot be repaired as a legal requirement. Even on aircraft tyres, side wall cuts or damage makes the tyre unserviceable and they don't even drive to their destinations.

Dibble wrote:The fixing prcess or gluing is called vulcunising as it uses solutions that bond the materials together.

As far as I'm aware, you can't vulcanise without heat. Anything else is merely glued.

vul·ca·nize (vlk-nz)
tr.v. vul·ca·nized, vul·ca·niz·ing, vul·ca·niz·es
To improve the strength, resiliency, and freedom from stickiness and odor of (rubber, for example) by combining with sulfur or other additives in the presence of heat and pressure.

Skipper wrote:

Dibble wrote:The fixing prcess or gluing is called vulcunising as it uses solutions that bond the materials together.

As far as I'm aware, you can't vulcanise without heat. Anything else is merely glued.

vul·ca·nize (vlk-nz)
tr.v. vul·ca·nized, vul·ca·niz·ing, vul·ca·niz·es
To improve the strength, resiliency, and freedom from stickiness and odor of (rubber, for example) by combining with sulfur or other additives in the presence of heat and pressure.

That's why I was doubtful, and said what I did. The place I had my car tyre repaired only did vulcanised repairs. They did things like JCB tyres and truck tyres there, so it is obviously a specialist process that not just any tyre centre will be able to do, otherwise they wouldn't be just in that business. Mine was a proper job, and they only accepted tyres off the wheel, so I saw what a proper repair, not a plug, that it was.

Having read the numerous Google results that some others may have done also in this the process of vulcanisation requires heat in excess of 270 centigrade. Which I would not want applied to my motorcycle tyre. However the use of chemical bonding changing the structure and fluidity temporarily of the rubber in presence of sulphur is also called vulcanisation and does not require the heating to the same extent as the chemicals concerned create intense heat (exothermic reaction they called it when I studied science) allowing the cross bonding to occur. Hence why tyre repair people can say they have vulcanised a repair. It is perhaps a mis naming but that is what the call it.

In Germany a tyre can only be repaired providing the puncture is no where near the tyre wall and it reduces the speed at which the car may be driven at which is similar to a "remould" which also has a speed limit I believe the limit is 130kmh so around 80mph.... legaly irrelevant in the uk as the national speed limit 70mph is anyway.

Cheers witch

I though to be "Vulcanised" was to have an unfortunate encounter with Mr Spock?

Ed Case wrote:I though to be "Vulcanised" was to have an unfortunate encounter with Mr Spock?

Shouldn't this post be in the jokes section hehehe

Witch