Would like to know what people do with their bikes when they get the dreaded tyre puncture.

I got a nail in the rear tyre the other day. Luckily I found out out the next morning after a 350 km squirt the

previous day into the middle of nowhere in between country towns.

To take the wheel of my fatty, is in all honesty a bit of work, not like a car, 5 bolts and chuck the spare on, you've got to

take the whole rear guard off and the brakes and when I had my VH 2 into 1's on I  would have to undo them as well.

Anyway I was lucky I wasnt on the side of the road. I was looking at the tyre repair kits but I notice they say theyre  

a temporary fix and dont come with air and then I was thinking the green slime cans. I am with RAC and Harley breakdown

so I know I,m not going to be stranded on the side of the road but either way  it could be could be expensive  if you're way

out of their towing range. Shit I cant remember the last time I had a flat on a bike,and

like I say lucky it went flat at home. Please tell me what you do, I'm all ears

Regards 

Fat Tom

With mag wheels like you have, you can use one of those puncture repair kits where you kind of glue in a plug after drilling a hole into the tyre.Then you can inflate it again with a couple of those little compressed air cylinders that look a bit like the things you used to use on an old fashioned soda syphon. Would reckon most non Harley bike shops stock these kits, they take hardly any room in your luggage. They may only be a temporary fix but you can do the reapair in minutes (if you can find the puncture point) and be on your way. No need to take wheel off. Beats waiting for Harley assist if you are on the Nullabour or similar woop woop location.

Only bummer is they dont work for spoked wheels.

Funny you should be asking. (sorry, there were 2 replies to OP while I was penning this tale of woe)

I've got an 03 Soft tail Deuce. Solid rear wheel (tubeless) and spoked front wheel (tubed) 70K trouble free Km's travelled in the time I've had it.

On the morning of a Sunday ride with Winger to Swan Reach, had a flat back tyre caused by a nail. Raced down to supercheap and bought one of those vehicle drill out / glue up / push in / pull out / trim off plug kits. Had the tyre fixed and inflated within 20 mins and met the boys albeit an hour late. It's still holding OK. (just off to one side of the centre bead.)

Go forward one month, Flat front tyre (tubed. Who knew?) in the middle of no where at Clare, late Saturday afternoon. Ride mate came to the rescue with a tin of the inflatable rubber compound. Fixed the tyre OK and I travelled 150kms safely home.

Anyway had another ride planned for the next day Sunday. Tyre had stayed up all night, and got me to the destination the next day. Came out from a meal and the tyre was flat. Bought and tried another can and worryiningly it was bubbling out of the spoke holes but stayed inflated. Made a mad dash to nearest big town 30 ks away where I knew the missus could find and recover me with the bike trailer (you know one of those things you buy and never expect to use). About 2/3 of the way there, rubber compound catherine wheeling out of the tyre, spoke holes and everywhere. Got to the town and wheeled into the servo, completely flat front tyre. Waited for wife to humiliatingly collect me.  

Trailered the bike to Adelaide Bike Works the next day, Alex had the bike off the trailer, tubed replaced (they couldnt find the hole for the mess), bike substantially cleaned up and back on the trailer in no time at all for a very reasonable price. Love those guys.

I guess moral of story is, work out what rim / tyre combo you have and have a couple options. The plugs wouldn't have worked on the front tyre, and the spray stuff may have worked on both wheels but still made a mess. The missus bought me some of that Slime but I dont know whether I'll use it. Opinions invited.

AND be grateful to just get home on that emergency inflatable stuff. Don't tempt fate and go for another 200k ride.

Plenty of tyre repair kits which do both and even have little compressed air cannisters to save space / and or little bike only compressors on EBay.

These are both WA guys Tom who will be able to assist, not only with a tyre issues. Worth putting there contact in your phone, and if things turn to s#it hope your in phone range ?

OK, I'll chime in. On my Softail Deluxe I noticed the rear tyre was wearing down to the tread wear indicators and decided to purchase a tyre from E Bay with the intention of fitting it in the next week or two. I decided to keep on riding for a bit as it seemed OK. Lo and behold early on a sunny Sunday morning, I get the wobbly rear end, managed to pull over safely, and guess what...a flat. Now, I'm rooted as I'm 125k's from home. I called a bike transporter to pick me up and $200 later, my bike is at Blacktown Harley awaiting some TLC. As much as I love the look of old machinery , I swore I will never own another bike with spokes. Fast forward a couple of years, riding my Kwaka ZRX through the beautiful Southern Highlands of NSW, I notice a screw in my newly fitted Pirelli Angel. No worries, when she goes flat, I'll screw in a bit of sticky stuff covered in goo, hit it with a CO2 canister, and be on my way. Well, I checked my flat tyre kit hidden away under the seat for the last three years and the glue is rock hard...not good, I'll ride as long as the screw stays put. After 250 k's of carving canyons, we say our goodbyes and guess what...I had a flat. Had to call my mate who was an hour from home, left a message and two hours later he rocks up with a new kit bought freshly bought from MCA Liverpool. Anyhow, the moral of the story, if you have spokes, pray to the biking gods you never get a flat, or if you have tubeless tyres, ensure your puncture repair kit is up to date.

Dear Fat Tom.

Doesn't seem right that you have to take the rear guard off to remove the wheel. I had a look on Youtube and videos don't show the guard being removed. My guess is your great little stand isn't high enough to drop the wheel from out the bottom. Exhausts may have to be taken off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGQ2aj0M-TA

This is why I put Switchback wheels on my Wideglide and a puncture repair kit and small hand pump in my kit when I go away somewhere...

Cheers...

Cool Pauly. Have a ball .

Just no flat tyres.

Seething with jealousy.

Got the green goop in the fatty wheels. So far so good, but I do carry a plug/repair type kit on longer rides.

Tyre repair kit and small Rocky Creek Designs air compressor. Great little bare bones compressor that doesn't take up much room. Its an easy life these days. Remember fixing a flat on my old GS1000 Suzuki near Cooper Pedy. 40+ degrees, tyre levers,patches and an old foot pump.

yep thats right my little stand wont get me up high enough. I had one of the larger bike lifts but it was down right dangerous when it came

down at a rate of knots so I chucked it. I know my bikes a fatty but it has crossed my mind to chuck a dovetail guard on, hey how often do

you get a flat 

Green slime,best shit ever!!! Put it in and forget about flats forever.

Here's a couple of links I found when I googled converting spoked rims to tubeless tyres.
Found it interesting and as I've got a tubeless spoked DNA rear on my project build and the
front is tubed spokes I'm thinking of trying out one of these systems on the front and ditching
the tube up front. There seem to be plenty of systems out there to convert spoked wheels to
tubeless tyre setups.

http://www.bartubeless.it/en/bartubeless
(this seems ok)

http://www.ronin-cycles.com/product/27
(This seems like a better system cause you can still turn the nipples to true the wheel if needed)

Food for thought. There's an old post I put up about shit that you can line your tires with if you search for
"1000% puncture proof tyre treatment" (or something like that). I've wanted to use that shit as you'll see
from the YouTube vids in thatpost it's pretty amazing stuff! Course a few people had doubts about it but I
suppose it's the same as having a tyre full of the green slime - worth a look.

I replaced the spoked front rim on my FXSTD for the reason of having tubeless front and rear. Now carry just a plug kit.

Would of been nice if I was told that I cannot have matching rear rim at the time, but you live and learn.

This green goo claims to do tubed and tubeless tyres as an instant and permanent hole sealer up to 6mm.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/251997247307?_trksid=p2057872.m570.l5999&_trkparms=gh1g%3DI251997247307.N36.S2.R1.TR2

Baloffski it's a 686 weighted barrel with the tolerances and finish much better than the stock S&W line as its like the CVO or HSV part of the company and each pistol is held to the strictest manufacturing and finished performance standards the company offers. It's refered to as a 686 'competitor'. You can remove the stainless weights under the front of the barrel and put in spacers between on leave out all together to weight it to suit you or leave all the weight in for quick follow up shots due to minimal muzzle lift. Has a picatinny rail for accessories etc. It's VERY accurate. Took me under 18 shots to hit a 50c piece at around 250m with open sights. Great piece of kit. 

150m far canal sorry!!! It was 3x50m lengths. But had the sucker sprayed Fluro orange and it was within 3 reloads of the 6 shot was so long ago I can't remember how many shots it was. Blue tacked it to a post and used some (from memory) federal .357mag. Can't remember if it was that or my home pressed wad cutters? The federal weren't as good as home pressed as I was mega picky about weighing each projectile and using a Dillion press. Still have my old Lee 6 stage press with a HEAP of dies and extras I've been meaning to sell.