went to go riding today only to find a flat tire on my girl , small nail dead center of the rear tire , appt to get fixed tomorrow , drat , damn mondays

Not trying to be paranoid but :

Motorcycle tires have twice the pressure per square inch on them versus a car tire, not to mention
heat, speed at which the wheel is turning, etc .... etc ...

"Michelin does not condone or endorse the repair of any of its motorcycle tires that have suffered punctures or other damage. Michelin assumes no liability for injuries or consequential damages arising from MICHELIN® motorcycle tires that have been patched, plugged, sealed or otherwise repaired by a dealer, distributor or consumer."

From Dunlop :

"Speed should not exceed 50 mph for the first 24 hours after repair, and the repaired tire should NEVER be used over 75 mph. Advise your customer to check inflation pressure after tire cools for at least three (3) hours following run-in"

I know I occasionally go over 75 mph (cough) just my 2 cents ....

I've heard a patch on the inside makes it perfectly safe. If you're going to replace it soon, not worth all the trouble of removal / mounting for and old tire but a high quality plug should do fine. After 6 years of these threads, I've never heard anyone complain that a plugged puncture hole opened up so I guess I'd repair instead of replace if there are a lot of miles left in the tire. I've only read posts from riders on this forum whose plugs lasted the life of the tire.

However, I googled and it appears that there are reports of plugs failing on motorcycles.

* Last updated by: Rook on 7/21/2014 @ 2:16 PM *

Like Rook said. You can get mushroom shaped plugs that go in from the inside. A little more expensive, but way cheaper than replacing a good tire with loads of miles left on it. They almost never fail, and are speed rated.

"They almost never fail" Do you feel lucky ? Well do ya ? LOL ! famous Clint Eastwood quote ....

I ran a plugged pilot power at "high speeds" on my ZX-10. Zero problems

thx for the advice id never considered having to replace the tire, i just assumed plug it and I'm good, but then i never had my harley up to 180 , tires only have 3k on them , but thx again I've ?'s now at the dealership to ask now ,

I've run high quality mushroom plugs at high speed too. Assumed risk. Did he fire 5 rounds or 6? lol
To put it into perspective, new tires, engines and chains almost never fail either. Not that I'd want a catastrophic failure of either at speed, but it could happen. Point is, they are pretty safe when fitted by a professional. Do it yourself, or do it on the cheap and you are increasing your level of assumed risk. You're right to ask a few questions before you decide on a patch, plug or a brand new tire.

* Last updated by: sweetfa65 on 7/21/2014 @ 9:13 PM *

Avon tires has a free road hazzad coverage.

ended up getting a new tire , nobody would plug it , and I've never done that before , so bit the bullet and put a new tire on ,3300 miles , did get a lesson on taking rear tire off, never to old to learn something i guess, now to go break in a new tire , thx for all the advice

Better safe than sorry .... I don't mess around with plugged tires, but to each their own,
I suppose if you were strapped for cash, and someone that is good at it, plugged and or
patched it, I would understand, Just curious, what kind of tire did you buy ?

Ride safe but fast !

it had bridgestone S20 on when i got her new , i had no issues so i got the same one for the rear , 180.00 installed , no idea if it was a deal , but whats done is done , last rear had a lot of tread left on it for 3300 miles , so I'm hoping for a longer life with this one ,

Fix the flat to get you home,then burn off the tire,all fun til you have to clean off the under tail

I got around 3,000 miles out of my rear S20, way too little miles for replacement imho. Killed the front S20 dead (wasn't sure I was going to make it home from road trip) at 4,500 These tires are way too soft for the type of riding I do - usually 2-3k mile road trips.

Went with a PR4 rear, and Diablo SS in the front (had a new one sitting in the shop). We will see how far I get on this combination - I suspect much, much more.

I have found that NO shops will plug a MC tire due to liability reasons (they say). Doesn't mean it's not safe, they just won't take the risk (they say) and would rather sell you an over priced tire and gouge you on the mounting to boot

YMMV

* Last updated by: NeedForSpeed on 7/23/2014 @ 1:19 PM *

We get our truck tires patched from the inside. I guess glue and a patch rather than a plug. The garage refused to plug tires.