heading off on a 10 day tour of Britain shortly and want minimal puncture grief. Any recommendations on what puncture protection/ repair kits to use would be welcome.
Is that goo that goes into tyre to self seal the puncture any use? or is better to use a tubeless repair kit?
Or just don’t bother and hope for the best from my recovery service?

cheers

tubeless repair kit plus recovery.

Take a self tapping screw (pretty thick one, tapered if possible) and some co2. That’s all I ever used to carry. If the leak is so fast that you can’t limp to a garage, force in the sel tapping screw and reinflate.

Huh? In many years of riding, I’ve never had one. I don’t think legaly you can have them repaired, and I don’t think I’d want to. Wouldn’t want the front tyre going down on me and causing my death due to a dodgy fixed puncture. Think you’d struggle to get the tyre off with roadside kit anyway.

Steve – motorcycle tubeless repair kits are fine – they work by inserting a plug from the outside then a co2 canister to reinflate. BMWs come with them supplied.

Some motorcycle tyres and some types of puncture can be repaired safely and legally.

Huh? In many years of riding, I’ve never had one

Neither have I, but I have had punctures with a car, so it does happen.
With or without recovery, I’d still want the option of being able to limp to the nearest garage.

In amny years of living, I haven’t died yet. That doesn’t mean it’s never going to happen.

I’ve always let the AA worry about it whenever I’ve gone touring. Self-repair kits are a bit of a pain.

Plugged tyres are perfectly legal, in fact I’m certain that the rear tyre on the ZX-10R I took to the Isle Of Man last year was plugged and that stood up to some quick bits over the Mountain.

I’ve got recovery, but will be in some fairly remote areas – Ireland’s west coast and the Yorkshire Dales – where phone signals might be a problem.
I’ll probably just get a plug setup as they’re not that expensive.
Was hoping someone might know about the goo stuff that goes into the tyres and self seals the tyre in the event of a puncture though.

personally i have heard good things about the slime in car tyres, enabling a limp home but most bikers i know carry the plug type, i think i would prefer the plug type, tho i do recall hearing stories from olden days about people stuffing tyres with grass….

Get a plug type and a couple of extra co2 cartridges, then try to have a practice somehow so you know whats going on if it does happen. Same procedure as tubeless mtb repairs. The plugs work pretty well, having done 5k miles on a euro tour over 3 weeks, heaps of passes and a day at the Nurburgring, seemed just fine till I got back. Admittedly, it was in the rear tyre so a slow leak is more controllable. If it was in the front, I would have worried a whole lot more.

sed this type of thing in the past.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/THREEBOND-SEAL-N-AIR-EMERGENCY-TYRE-SEALANT-TB60T004_W0QQitemZ310130643904QQcmdZViewItem

They’re a bit hit and miss but,it might get you out of a tight spot.

I recently had a repair done to my front tyre from the AA

The guy said they use the same as BMW supply as standered
only guaranteed up to 40mph and max 200miles

would prob look at getting one myself and some co2 pumps as well
very quick to repair

I rode up to Dunvegan on Skye a few months ago and rode past Dunvegan castle. The road gets rough up there and im not sure if i picked up a sharp stone up there, or closer to Invermorriston on the way home.. but i punctured in the dark.Joy!
I had a tiny electron led to see what i was doing so i held it in my teeth as i picked out the embedded stone. After removing it i roughed up the hole with a top top rasping tool,hooked on the plug and slapped glue everywhere inc inside the hole and only managed to get the plug 2/3rds of the way in as the hole was quite small.I trimmed the plug down and i rode at 50mph back to Inverness but it had a slow puncture after that. I used a tiptop kit that comes with 3 co2s but i would recommend taking around 6 of the same size for a big tour with extra glue. I also had a can of foam but didnt want to fill it up if i could help it.. bike shops hate it.

Fill the inside of bike tyres with some mtb specific ust goo? I might take a cup of milk down to the bike shop next time i get a new tyre!

You can get slime stuff specifically for motorcycle tyres – I have had it in tyres but I have no idea how well it works as as far as I know I didn’t get a puncture

For a bit of extra weight i might look into it as its never noticed on the motorbike.

Jeremy, im just back from this eves ride. I rode to loch maree and back to Inverness.. that road is just amazing. wish i took the camera as the sunset over Loch Maree from the viewpoint at the top (where some cyclist was camping) was a picture.

* and i`m still alive! Ive got out of that bad habit of sticking in 5th and 6th gear and cruising along.starting to enjoy the confidence of the new BT014 at the rear in the dry (after trying to learn thru the winter)

lots of chicken strips left but using a bit more of the revs compared to when i got the bike.. so far ive had no dodgy moments. fingers crossed.

A lot of crap is talked about patching tyres… I carry a standard external patch kit- bits of “string” and tube of goo, plus CO2 cartridges. These are very reliable if fitted right- they can leak air but they rarely fail completely, BMW’s “40mph and 200 miles” is purely from lawyer paranoia, liability protection. The most important thing is that if a patch does fail, all that happens is you get the exact same puncture back, some people talk like it’s a death sentence.

Once I get home I replace with an internal “mushroom” plug- the reason being these are 100% reliable if fitted right- they’re vulcanised in, but also the air pressure forces them into place- there’s no way they can come loose as long as there’s air in the tyre.

The only exception is big punctures with lots of carcass damage, and sidewall damage. Oh, and I don’t like to patch near the edge, but that’s just a personal paranoia. Probably 3/4 of the miles I’ve done on motorbikes (70000 or so) have been with at least one plug in a tyre, including trackdays 😉

Oh and beware of the wire in tyres if you go fingering the glue around the hole after rasping it.unlike a bicycle tyre, theres metal throughout the tyre in the treaded area.