I just had a very pleasant tyre repair experience, at the tyre shoppe (or tire shop, as I would normally write ) where I usually go for my 4-wheeled friends. I had picked up a small finish brad in the rear tyre, center tread. Very slow leak. Mr. Tyre plugged it with a natural rubber plug and rubber cement. Took all of 20 seconds. No charge.

Of course, as he explained with a smile, "no charge, no liability!" (yes, Dorothy, we are in the US )

Granted, I am not as confident about the tyre now with its plug as I was before, but if I can more or less behave myself for the remainder of the tyre's life, how bad could rubber glude to rubber with rubber cement be? Already from the ride home, the plug has blended into its new home so as to be nearly imperceptible.

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2006 XB12Ss..... 1998 S1W..... 1996 S2T
We do not need the help of our friends so much as confidence that they will help us when we need it. –Epicurus

Done loads for myself friend and never ever had a problem.

I have never understood people not trustin them, I trust them as much as going around the next bend and hitting something to cause a complete blow out!

If 40psi ain't pushing it out and no air sneaking past it ain't gonna come out!

How many times do nails, tacks or screws revolve before they are noticed and never come out, without any glue!

A friend allways scoffed at this, one day after a 200mile blast I noticed his rear slashed down to the cord, I just asked how much worse is a plug?

Good for you.

Nate.

I have said in the past that I use the Rep & air kits to plug my tyres. have used them a couple of times with no bother for the duration of the tyre (like 2,500 miles) I have also used them on my cars Fiesta & shogun and they live under the Uly seat and in the car glove box and at something like £13 from infinity are reasonable value in my opionion.


Mark

I use plugs to! both on cars and bikes never had a problem, had more trouble with Tyre sealants and would not use them again.

Me too. As I understand it its far less of a safety issue with modern cross-ply tyres.
I was dubious about plugs until I came to replace my first set of tyres on the XB only to find that the rear had already been repaired (properly) by the previous owner and I'd been ragging it around oblivious as the fix was all but invisible from the outside.
Figured they must be pretty reliable after that.

Si.

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I may have Alzheimer's, but at least I don't have Alzheimer's.

I have had several tyres plugged with several styles of plugging material. Always vaguely cautious afterwards and usually change the tyre as soon as I can afterwards but I haven't had a problem with them.

As far as I know the tyre manufacturers tend to warn against them as they say you cannot guarantee that the steel belt material has not been damaged and you risk the tyre delaminating if it has been. They have gorey pictures to prove this.

What I can say is that without a plug I woud probably be still roasting in Death Valley, if not dead.

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Be seeing you

I

Excellent - 5 replies previous to mine and all approve of plugs to some degree at least.

I have plugged tires and ridden on them right through to end of life of the tire many times in 29 years of riding and never had a problem.

Riders that replace a perfectly good tire [other than a small hole that has been plugged properly] with thousands on kms left on it are mad in my opinion and have more money that I have.

And before you say it....
Of course the tire companies aren't going to approve... why the hell would they for reasons that are too bloody obvious to spell out