A plug pushed in from outside seals a small hole in the tread of a tubeless tyre so you can ride gently to a tyre shop. Treat it as a temporary repair. A lasting repair is a combined plug and patch fitted from inside the tyre by a tyre shop, to a recognised standard such as BS AU 159, or a new tyre.
Safety
- Only plug a small hole in the central tread area. Never plug the sidewall or the shoulder (the curved edge of the tread).
- Do not plug a tyre that was ridden flat or nearly flat. The inside may be damaged where you cannot see it. Replace it.
- After plugging: ride gently, keep speed down, no passenger and no heavy load until the tyre is properly repaired or replaced.
- Never fit an inner tube inside a tubeless tyre on a tubeless rim as a fix. The rough rim inside rubs the tube and it overheats.
You need
- A tubeless repair kit for motorcycles: a reamer (spiral rasp), an insertion needle and sticky plug strings. Some kits need rubber cement.
- Pliers, a knife, a pump or CO2 cartridges, soapy water.
- Check first that the tyre is tubeless: the sidewall says TUBELESS or TL, and the valve is fitted in the rim, not to a tube.
Steps
- Support the bike so the wheel can turn. Find the hole: spray soapy water over the tread and watch for bubbles. Mark it with chalk.
- Check the hole is in the tread centre and small (nail sized). If not, stop: get the bike to a tyre shop.
- Pull the object out with pliers. Note the angle it went in.
- Push the reamer into the hole along the same angle and work it in and out several times. This cleans and shapes the hole.
- Thread a plug string through the eye of the insertion needle so it sits halfway. Coat it with cement if your kit uses it.
- Push the needle into the hole until about a third of the plug is still outside. Pull the needle straight out with one quick movement. The plug stays in.
- Cut the ends off a few millimetres above the tread. Do not pull on the plug.
- Inflate to the correct pressure: Check tyre pressure.
- Spray soapy water over the plug. No bubbles should appear.
Check your work
- No bubbles at the plug or anywhere else on the tread.
- Pressure is unchanged after 10 minutes and again after a short slow ride.
If it did not fix the problem
- Still bubbling: try a second plug in the same hole once. If it still leaks, the hole is too big: do not ride on it.
- Losing air elsewhere: check the valve and bead, see Tyre slowly loses air.
- For the lasting repair or a new tyre: Replace a tyre.