Flat Tire, Los Angeles Riders, I need your help!

fred · May 25, 2009, 03:41:25 AM

Last night on the way home from work I noticed the GS handling very strangely. When I got home, I found my rear tire had a big screw in it and almost no air pressure. The screw is in the very edge of the tread pattern, almost into the sidewall, so even if I thought patching a motorcycle tire would be a good idea, it probably wouldn't be possible.

I spent today calling and driving around to try to find a new Pirelli Sport Demon for the bike, but no one so far has the tire I need. I'm just looking for the stock 130/70 Sport Demon. I've already tried Del Amo Motorsports, Bert's, and Honda of Hollywood. Does anyone in the LA area know of another good place to look? I'm planning on riding up to the bay area on Friday, so I need to find a place that can get me the tire by early Thursday at latest so I can get it installed. This couldn't have happened at a worse time, given that I can't get any place to ship one out on Monday, so if I have to order I'm in a much larger crunch.

Thanks in advance for your help.

scottpA_GS · May 25, 2009, 07:41:00 AM

Expand your search to other brands, some/most 140's will fit as well.

qwertydude · May 25, 2009, 09:57:46 AM

If you're desperate you can remove the tire and install a patch-plug. These are about the strongest and most permanent patch systems around. Believe me I've tried the rope ones and they pull out because of the lateral loading on the tire during turns.

fred · May 25, 2009, 11:40:15 AM

Quote from: qwertydude on May 25, 2009, 09:57:46 AM
If you're desperate you can remove the tire and install a patch-plug. These are about the strongest and most permanent patch systems around. Believe me I've tried the rope ones and they pull out because of the lateral loading on the tire during turns.

The puncture is so close to the sidewall, I doubt it can be patched. I have a project bike with the same tire on it, so if I get desperate, I can swap that tire onto the good rim. The project bike's wheel has a bad rotor and sprocket on it, and while I have spares, the PO was a fan of red loctite, so there is a really good chance a mill and helicoils will be involved in changing the rotor. I don't know if I could get that done this week... I'm going to get on the phone with every motorcycle dealership I can and see if one of them happens to have the tire I need in stock. Wish me luck.

TheGoodGuy · May 25, 2009, 12:28:02 PM

Chapparal motorsports in san bernadino..
you can go pick it up form them too.

qwertydude · May 25, 2009, 01:44:14 PM

Red loctite is not necessarily a death sentence for the bolt and possibly the hole. It's weakness is heat, use a propane torch to heat up the part pretty hot and then use an light impact wrench and it should come off no problem. There are specialty thread lockers out there that are truly a death sentence for the bolt, but they actually acid etch the and seize bolt and threads but rarely do I see anyone stupid enough to use that.

tripleb · May 25, 2009, 02:14:55 PM

why don't you try moving up to a 140/70 and see if that improves your chances?

fred · May 25, 2009, 03:13:02 PM

Quote from: qwertydude on May 25, 2009, 01:44:14 PM
Red loctite is not necessarily a death sentence for the bolt and possibly the hole. It's weakness is heat, use a propane torch to heat up the part pretty hot and then use an light impact wrench and it should come off no problem. There are specialty thread lockers out there that are truly a death sentence for the bolt, but they actually acid etch the and seize bolt and threads but rarely do I see anyone stupid enough to use that.

Yes, you are right, but I worry about applying heat that close to the bearing. I'd much rather mill and helicoil (I have access to a machine shop) than replace the bearing. Helicoils sure are cheaper than bearings...

qwertydude · May 25, 2009, 04:05:15 PM

If you use localized heat like a small pencil torch you won't damage it. I've done it several times on car hubs with rubber sealed bearings. The bearing never got hot enough to not be able to touch. Believe me brake heat probably will get the bearings hotter. The magic is that steel bolts conduct heat very poorly and so get hot enough to melt the loctite before they transfer heat to aluminum threads. And the excess heat after that will travel through the wheel and not really conduct itself through the bearings cause they're steel.

fred · May 26, 2009, 01:13:33 PM

Thank you all for your help. I ended up going with these guys: http://swmototires.com/. They had the tire in stock and could overnight it to me for cheaper than any local place, especially since they're out of state, so I save 9% in taxes. The tire should be here tomorrow in plenty of time for me to get it mounted before Friday. Thanks again!

scottpA_GS · May 26, 2009, 05:22:34 PM

Awesome

fred · May 27, 2009, 03:53:06 PM

I got the tire this morning at around 9:30 and it was mounted and balanced during my lunch break. I don't think I could have asked for anything more. The total cost was $164 for a 130/70-17 Sport Demon overnight shipped. Not bad at all, I will shop at swmototires.com again.

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Flat Tire, Los Angeles Riders, I need your help!