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Puncture repairs

Went to go out on my old scooter this morning, flat back tyre. Pumped it up and had a Quick Look, thought I saw the tip of a nail in the tread centre. On my way home, I popped into a tyre fitting shop. It’s not as quick or easy doing a bike puncture compared to a car. The principle is the same but you can’t get the wheel off with 4/5 nuts, you have to strip stuff off. On my bike you have to remove the exhaust, a shock absorber, the brake caliper and one half of the rear suspension swing arm. I asked the shop if they could do a proper plug/patch repair if I brought the wheel up to them. They said yes, £20 which I thought was a bit on the dear side considering they weren’t fitting a new valve or balancing it. I tried another place that had recently opened up. They said they would just put a patch on, not a plug patch. I said I wanted a plug patch, they told me plug patches were illegal. It’s the only type of repair that maintains the speed rating of the tyre! I told them to **** off. Lying idiots. Came home and thought I’d take the wheel off and go up to the place that would do it properly for £20. I thought I’d locate the leak first so I soaked the wheel and tyre with soapy water and surprisingly, it wasn’t where I thought it was, it was the valve leaking where it pulls through the rim.



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I can replace that without even taking the wheel off so I’m ordering a new valve and will do it myself.
 
Not many of us have equipment at home to take a tyre off the rim and put it back on :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
I paid a hundred quid for a tyre machine and balanced a couple of years ago, been a good tool- already got my money back on it a couple of times over. It's kinda a ridiculous thing to own though

Or even with the effort involved even want to.
Yeah I'll back that up too. It's a lot less faff with the forklift and cordless windy gun tho

I can replace that without even taking the wheel off
Er, really? I've only ever done them with the tyre off the rim.. dare say for that feeble a leak though I'd just pop a bit of tyre slime in
 
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Went to go out on my old scooter this morning, flat back tyre. Pumped it up and had a Quick Look, thought I saw the tip of a nail in the tread centre. On my way home, I popped into a tyre fitting shop. It’s not as quick or easy doing a bike puncture compared to a car. The principle is the same but you can’t get the wheel off with 4/5 nuts, you have to strip stuff off. On my bike you have to remove the exhaust, a shock absorber, the brake caliper and one half of the rear suspension swing arm. I asked the shop if they could do a proper plug/patch repair if I brought the wheel up to them.

You could have probably repaired that with the sticky, rubber string kit, without even needing to take the tyre off the rim, or get the wheel out.
 
I can replace that without even taking the wheel off so I’m ordering a new valve and will do it myself.
Er, really? I've only ever done them with the tyre off the rim.. dare say for that feeble a leak though I'd just pop a bit of tyre slime in
I replaced the front valve a while ago with the wheel still on the bike. I’ll replace the rear one using the same method.
You could have probably repaired that with the sticky, rubber string kit, without even needing to take the tyre off the rim, or get the wheel out.
As it turned out, it wasn’t the tyre but the valve but only ever use a string as a temporary get you home measure. I wouldn’t like to chance a sudden deflation on a two wheeled vehicle at 70mph!
 
Many years ago I had a big nail in a groove in the back tyre of my GT550. It didn't leak for thousands of miles until the head wore away and I experienced a controlled deflation, by which time it needed a new tyre anyway.
 
Went to go out on my old scooter this morning, flat back tyre. Pumped it up and had a Quick Look, thought I saw the tip of a nail in the tread centre. On my way home, I popped into a tyre fitting shop. It’s not as quick or easy doing a bike puncture compared to a car. The principle is the same but you can’t get the wheel off with 4/5 nuts, you have to strip stuff off. On my bike you have to remove the exhaust, a shock absorber, the brake caliper and one half of the rear suspension swing arm. I asked the shop if they could do a proper plug/patch repair if I brought the wheel up to them. They said yes, £20 which I thought was a bit on the dear side considering they weren’t fitting a new valve or balancing it. I tried another place that had recently opened up. They said they would just put a patch on, not a plug patch. I said I wanted a plug patch, they told me plug patches were illegal. It’s the only type of repair that maintains the speed rating of the tyre! I told them to **** off. Lying idiots. Came home and thought I’d take the wheel off and go up to the place that would do it properly for £20. I thought I’d locate the leak first so I soaked the wheel and tyre with soapy water and surprisingly, it wasn’t where I thought it was, it was the valve leaking where it pulls through the rim.



View attachment 380357

I can replace that without even taking the wheel off so I’m ordering a new valve and will do it myself.

Over a month later and I finally got round to it today!

Still leaking.

IMG_0751.jpeg


I used a vice to break the seal on the tyre.


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Pulled the old valve out and cleaned up the corrosion that was causing the leak.

IMG_0753.jpeg


Lubed up a new valve using a drop of brake fluid, popped it in and inflated the tyre. Job done. Took less than 20 minutes.

IMG_0754.jpeg
 
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