Q. When is a tyre not a tyre?

A. When its a flat like mine! But its only flat at the bottom!

Its not been my week this week. First the bar end decides to part company with me and today on my way home from Brizzle I get a puncture just outside Shepton Mallet. Rode 15-20 miles with a flat. Probably not the best thing to do but there was no way I was stopping. I had to get back for my daughter and it would have taken hours for recovery. I should have got round to buying one of those puncture repair kits, but I could never make up my mind which one to go for.

Anyway I have Smartire http://www.smartire.com/motorcycles fitted to my bike so the first I new about it was when the warning light starts flashing at me to say my rear tyre had lost 5psi then 7 then 11 then it just gave me the pressure 25psi 22, 20, 16, 10, 7, 4 ,1, 0 what does the 0 mean? 0 f**k I got no air left The point is I'm not sure how quickly I would have realised I had a puncture but Smartire did its job and I new long before it affected the handling of the bike. I slowed right down and when I felt the handling become affected I slowed even more and stuck my hazards on and just plodded home.

I have no idea if I have done anymore damage by riding it in this state but tis done now, I'll find out tomorrow when I whip the wheel off and take it in for a new tyre.

Just gotta decide what to get now, the BT020's are great, or there is the new BT021? will get some Z6's but not til the front needs changing as I want to have them as a pair to give them a fair try out.

Which puncture repair kits have you folks used? I know I have seen discussions on it before but not in the mood to go looking Don't want to use the foamy type cos the make a real mess of your rim but I think I'm right in saying people have used one that plug the hole then have some compressed air canister to pump up the tyre.

Anyway top marks for Smartire works a treat, oh and I didn't pay £160 for mine either. Although I probably would consider it now after today.

Sorry to hear about your puncture. Bristol seems to have over its fair share of screws/nails/pointy things on the road seeing that I had two punctures in 3 weeks, one of them in a new tyre that had done about 200 miles.

As for repair kits, Hein Gericke do one for £14. I 've used one of these (not Hein's since they didn't have any in stock, but one that was probably exactly the same in a different wrapper) and it does do the business, though there is a knack to getting the bung thingie in and you'll end up using a few to get it right (I assume you can buy more of these). You also get three cans of gas to re-inflate your tyre with which I haven't used as I bought a foot pump from Halfords so I could save them for on-the-road emergencies (again I believe you can get these seperatly too).
http://www.hein-gericke.com/uk/produ...oducts_id/1723

As for tyres, there is a new 021 comming out (this month?)http://www.battlax.co.uk/ but I put a pair of new Avon Storm STs on mine and find them bl00dy fantastic. Great grip both wet and dry, some magic to prevent squaring off and all the other stuff. Plus, as I was pleased to find out, they come with a puncture repair warranty for the first 1mm or wear. Have a butcher's here http://www.avon-tyres.co.uk/motorcyc...showtyre&id=25

Thanks for the info. I just had a new BT020 fitted as they were in stock. £100 lighter now

I took the wheel in and left it for an hour, when I went back they gave me piece of metal 5x2x60mm and said that was rattling around inside the tyre!

Anyway gotta go refit the wheel now and ride like grandad for 50-100 miles to bed the new rubber in

Then it will be time to lose the chicken strips again!

i've used the foam type of (temporary) puncture repair and i'm not sure what you mean by making a mess of the rim! it turns into this liquid and it only gets on the inside of the wheel, since i've normally got a tyre on there it really isn't a problem for me lol!

the tyre fitter just wiped the wheel down when he changed the tyre...i believe the only issues are when you want to repair the tyre (needs better cleaning than just a wipe down?).

Yeah I've tyre fitters pull all sorts of funy faces when I've spoken to them about the foamy type. Don't get me wrong from an end user point of view it does what it says. Its when you come to replace the tyre the mess it makes inside they don't like cleaning it up! Some may be better than others though.

After last year's discussion about tyre repair plugs, I rode about 600 kms on a rear Z6 that I'd fixed with a rope type plug. When the tyre was removed, I had a look inside and the plug looked secure enough. I wouldn't hesitate to use one again to be able to get full wear out of a tyre that's been punctured. I replaced the Z6 with a BT021, still with a Z6 front. I never could get comfortable with the lack of tread in the middle of the Metzeler. It just didn't seem right somehow! I haven't ridden with this combination yet, still waiting for the snow to melt.
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