Tire Talk

Regarding last night's blog entry about my "screwed" tire, someone emailed to ask what I would have done if that had been a fairly new tire -- rather than one at the end of its useful life -- and what tire mounting and balancing equipment I have. I thought my answers might serve more people if posted here, so...

While many -- perhaps even most -- motorcyclists toss punctured tires, I tend to be a bit more frugal ("cheap" is what most people actually call me). I once had a brand new tire pick up a roofing nail. This was on the ZZR back in '03, I think. The tire only had about 700 miles on it. There was no way I was going to throw away a practically new $130 tire! I pulled it from the wheel and patched the hole from the inside. The patch held just fine for the remaining life of the tire (another 3,000 miles). Did I worry about it the whole time? Nah, not at all; I'm not a worrier. I didn't even change my riding habits, exceeding 100-120 mph regularly. "Weren't you worried about a blowout?!?!" some incredulous riders (i.e., ones who worry) might ask. Nah. A small puncture in the tire isn't likely to cause it to come flying apart. If the patch didn't hold, I'd wind up with a deflating tire, same as any other puncture (which I could just as easily pick up the very next day from another nail).

I admit I might have been a bit more concerned had this been the front tire, because a front flat is a bit more difficult to ride out when compared to the rear. I do so hate tank-slappers! I'm also a bit less confident of the "plug type" repair method (where the hole is plugged from the outside, without removing the tire from the rim), although I've also heard of riders doing thousands of miles on plugged tires. Though I carry a plug kit on my street bikes, I've never had to use it and tend to categorize this as an emergency or temporary repair versus something I'm going to live with for the remaining life of the tire. Of course, "temporary" is relative to where you are and where you're traveling to at the time. In the middle of a trip to Alaska, a "temporary fix" might have to last hundreds, maybe even thousands of miles. My thinking about patching the hole from the inside is that the combination of tire pressure and centrifugal force isn't going to allow the patch to shift or come loose, whereas both those forces are actually working to shove a plug out of the hole.

"Your life isn't worth the price of a new tire!" some riders will say. Well, yeah, but if I thought like that, I wouldn't ride at all, would I? Motorcycles are inherently dangerous no matter how you slice it. I mean, is losing my life worth the 15-minutes of fun to and from work every day on a bike? Of course not. It's not even worth that great 10-day bike trip I recently made to Mexico and back, but that doesn't mean I'm going to sit at home and watch Dr Phil instead. I evaluate the risks on a daily basis ... and then I ride. To my way of thinking, a patched rear tire still falls within the acceptable risk inherent in riding motorcycles. You're free to disagree, of course.

I should add that my thoughts here apply to tires with a clean puncture in the running surface of the tire. Not a punctured sidewall. Not a cut or tear or more serious damage. There's acceptable risk and then there's sheer stupidity. Draw your own line between the two.

As for tire changing and balancing equipment, excuse me while I roll on the floor and laugh hysterically for a minute. I've got some tire irons ... that's about it. If I don't bust a few knuckles and utilize my entire vocabulary of curse words, it's just not tire changing. I prop the wheel on a couple two-by-fours (to protect the brake discs) and subject it to a whole lot of jumping up and down, pounding with my fists, and threats. Occasionally, I get creative with something I find at hand. (I'll conclude with one of those creative techniques, just so you feel you've gotten something useful out of reading all this.) The practical side of doing it myself and doing it the hard way is that I know I can handle roadside repairs -- keeps me in practice, doncha know -- which is very important to a dualsport rider who might find himself a hundred miles out in the boonies with a flat tire.

What about balancing? My approach is simple: I don't do it. In the last four years, with five different street bikes and more tire changes than I can remember, I haven't had a problem. My reasoning is that tires are manufactured these days to fairly exacting standards and for the most part are true in and of themselves. The real variance lies in the wheels -- valve steam placement primarily -- which were originally balanced from the manufacturer/dealer when I bought the bike. If they were balanced correctly to begin with and haven't thrown off a weight or been damaged, they should remain balanced when mounting a new tire. I do take note of and use the tire manufacturer's balancing spot (generally a yellow dot of paint letting you know the lightest part of the tire; line it up with the valve steam on your wheel), but fewer and fewer manufacturers are even marking their tires these days, probably an indicator of what I said earlier, that today's tires are pretty well balanced right from the factory.

If I eventually have a problem, I'll either take that wheel-tire combo to a bike shop and pay to have it balanced or I'll build a simple balancing stand of my own (if you do some Googling, you'll find plans from other motorcyclists that have done this), but -- knock on wood -- I haven't had a significant problem in the last four years, even on my ZZR1200 which has been rock-steady all the way out to nearly 160 mph (actual mph as verified by GPS, not indicated) on tires that I mounted by hand.

For some reason, this time around, I did have a hell of a time breaking the bead on the ZZR's tires, especially the front. The new tires went on easy as you please, probably because of how long they'd been softening in the hot sun on my driveway, but getting the old shoes off was a bugger. (Here comes that tip I promised.) I eventually used a technique I picked up from other dualsport riders. I dragged the ZZR's wheel over to my BMW Dakar and used the Dakar's sidestand to break the bead. According to BMW, the Dakar weighs 425 pounds with a full tank of gas -- much more than my puny 170 pounds. Worked like a champ (you'd expect nothing less from a $9,000 bead breaker!), and I'll be sure to use this method again, especially if I find myself out on the trail with a flat sometime. Of course, this technique isn't possible if you're riding alone.

Over the years, I've heard of other crafty methods for breaking a bead: running over it with an auto, creating a fulcrum with a couple two-by-fours, C-clamps, etc. Got a clever tire-changing technique you'd like to share? Hit that comment link below...