Modern Vespa

I have not ridden my GTS in over a week. While in the garage, I noticed this spot on my rear tire and thought it was a pebble or something. Today, I went to pick it off and realized it's a darn nail. The tire is not leaking air at this moment.

My thoughts are...

1. Just pull it out since it's in the meat of tire and hope for the best and not leak air.

2. Remove the tire (which I really do not want to do) and take it to a Vespa dealer which is not really close.

3. Ride it to the Vespa dealer and let them do the work.

4. Just take the Vespa to my local tire place. I don't know if they do plugs anymore.

5. I guess I could always buy a tire reamer and plug kit myself if I need to. In all my years of riding, I have never needed to do this.

Any thoughts?

Punctures too near the side can't be repaired, but that's perfectly positioned for a repair job!

Buy a plug kit (most are about the price of a cup of coffee) and have a go at repairing it. It's a great learning experience incase it happens when you're out and about.

You can then decide whether to keep it as a temporary repair and ride out for a tyre replacement, or check the pressure a couple of days later - then keep using these tyres a bit longer.

The main thing is that you don't ride it with too low a pressure (it destroys the inners).

Personally, I'd get it to a repair shop so that they can plug it properly. Part of that process is taking the tyre off the rim - they'll be able to see if the inside took any damage if it was ridden with low pressure at any point. 🤞

That looks like a fairly new City Grip... If it were mine, I would call around and find a tire shop that can plug/patch it from the inside. I would remove the tire and bring it to them to do the work. Labor will be the same or slightly more than the labor to mount a new tire. You could try tire-ject or some other slime type of product. If it were really mine, I would pull it off and do it myself.

watch the video

Thanks for the responses.

I'll have to think about this one a bit. I just ordered a new tire repair kit. I don't want to remove the nail before it comes. As I mentioned, it's not leaking air now.

Sure, the best solution is to patch from the inside, but plugs work. They need to be used correctly and buy good ones though, something like Safety Seal.

I have thousands of miles with plugs, both motorcycle and 4 wheel vehicles. My last repair was on a tire with 2k miles, drove the vehicle for another 50k miles with that plug. High pressure tires too.

+1 on the rope plugs. A cheap, fast and easy solution that doesn't involve dismounting the tire.

chances are if you don't already have a slow leak that will require weekly top ups then it will soon after some more riding work it's way inwards and then leak slowly. so I'd rope plug it

Having a shop mount and dismount and patching a tire from the inside is a very safe way to go but kinda of a costly fix for a used tire that doesn't have thousands of miles left on it.

If it were me I'd plug it with one of the old school leather and glue plug kits and ride it around a bit longer but would change to a new tire before I hit the wear bars.
I have tested those plugs on rear tires many times at triple digit speeds back in the day.

Plenty of miles left on that City Grip!
But, agree a seal with a careful repair w/o removing tire will likely last the life of the tire.
Mine all have.
I prefer the mushroom plug kit...but most will work fine.
O.S.

please don't put slime if your tire unless it's an absolute, dire, end of times emergency. and if you do, please, please, please remember to tell the tech before they work on it. and don't get upset if you get charged more to clean it all up.

And for cleaning their clothes...

I ran over something in north New Mexico that put two holes in the rear tire while on the Cannonball.

I had brought sticky string and a pump so I could plug it.

But my rubber cement tube was dry and the first plugged hole still leaked.

Luckily my friend, Mike, stopped and had a fresh tube and I got the plugs to hold.

I had brought a spare tire but wouldn't be able to get it mounted until I got to Guymon, almost 200 miles away.

The plugs held but the pressure had dropped a few pounds, so I removed the wheel, found a motorcycle shop that could change it and got it done.

Has it not leaked and had I not had 2,000 more fast miles to run, I probably would have left the plugged tire on the scooter.

My recommendation for you is to plug it with sticky string and check tire pressure very time you ride.

But still change it if you are heading out on a long, fast, hot ride.

Bill

and the machine, and the floor, and a new coffee & pastry. and then probably a stiff drink.

Thanks. This was never, ever a consideration.

That does not look like fun...

This is the difference between tubeless tires and tube type tires. Had that been a tube type tire, it would have gone flat instantly, and there would have been no way to repair it out on the road. You would need a tow truck. Many times I have found objects stuck in my motorcycle tires while inspecting them at home. Some of them had probably been in there for hundreds of miles. What punctured the tire sealed the puncture. The couple of times I have needed to repair a tubeless tire out on the road, I used the sticky rope type plug, and they held.

Don't put Slime in ANYTHING. I have used Ride On successfully, and it would most likely seal that puncture. I no longer put it in new tires. I had a valve stem break off with a fairly new motorcycle tire. I no longer install my own motorcycle tires due to medical issues. I took it to a local independent shop, and I told them it had Ride On in it. They charged me about 5 times as much to replace that valve stem as they would have if I had not put the Ride On in it, but did thank me for telling them about it. Since then, I carry both a tire plug kit and a couple bottles of Ride On. But I will only put them in the tire if I already have a puncture, and the plug did not completely seal it.

I discovered over the past million miles or so that tubeless tires are far less likely to have a flat in the first place than tube type tires, and I have worn out dozens of tubeless tires with no flats. Ride On is not cheap, so there is no sense in using it if you don't need to, and then have to pay a shop a lot of money because the tire had Ride On in it.

... or....

I have a Stop n Go kit with mushroom and sticky rope that included a mini-compressor. I've used it once for myself, but numerous times to help other riders get to where they needed to be. That is an excellent candidate to be plugged. I prefer the mushroom style myself, but either should work in this instance.

If using a portable compressor powered by your scooter/motorcycle, start the bike 1st. You don't want to drain your battery down while inflating the tire.

I beat this around pretty good in my head and talked with my trusted local tire place and my Vespa dealer. I've decided to just do the safe thing and get the tire replaced at my dealer. They have a new City Grip in stock and I just made an appointment.

I figure for about $250, tire and labor, it's tremendous peace of mind.

Just the cost of riding on 2 wheels.

Thanks again for all the feedback.

Do not do this on an automatic bike if the puncture is in that bike's rear tyre! If the rear wheel rotates, the compressor airline can get mangled. Ask me how I know...

Better to let the compressor run a bit slow.

or strap the rear brake lever.

I had a similar situation with a nail in a similar position. I used a reamer and plug kit & fixed it. That was a couple years and 2000 plus miles ago. I plan to get new tires in April/May 2024. Hopefully it will still last.
Take your time, read the instructions and you should be good, as other members suggest you can use the repair to get you to a tire replacement place or keep riding at your discretion.

I just got back from my dealer after having them install a new tire. They said the nail was all the way through, so I'm glad I did not try to remove it. The tire seemed to be holding air with the nail in it. I guess I was lucky in that respect.

$225. Money well spent.

I did buy a new, fresh tire repair kit incase something like this happens while I am on the road somewhere. Although, I don't think I'm the kind of guy that will ride with a plug in a tire for very long before having it replaced.