I got another flat on my brand new '12 990 adventure. A couple of weeks ago, I got a flat while ridding my 990 around town. No big deal, just a freak flat. I took it to the local bike shop to get repaired (with my own heavy duty tube) for a lack of time and still preparing for an out of town work trip. I got it back, rode about 60 miles to make sure everything was good, and it was. I come back, ready to take off for a few days on the 990, and the rear tire is flat again! I'm running the stock Pirelli Scorpion tires and they have about 350 miles on them (same as the bike at this point) Any ideas as to what may be causing all the flat tires? This makes me very afraid to take the bike on the long distance trips that I bought it for. I'm very capable of changing my own tires, but if it's a constant battle, it's no fun for me.
Pop off the tire and look inside to see if there is something stuck in the carcas that caused the flat. It might not have been removed the first time. Check the orientation of the leak to tire (make it before removal) so you know where to look for the source.
Ok, Yeah that's my first plan of attack on it. Any suggestions for a source of good heavy duty tubes for the big bike?
Motorcycle super store, RM ATV- etc. Do you know what caused the flats? What tire pressures are you running? A lot of people don't like slime in their tubes- for a lot of good reasons, but I find that if the slime doesn't stop the leak, it usually slows it, buying you more distance. I went through this when I first bought my 950, years ago. Every single time I rode the bike, I got a flat. Sometimes it was just shit luck, more often, I was not running enough pressure. It can be a discouraging SOB. I got to the point where I too thought about giving up hope. FWIW- I rarely get flats anymore and if I do, I've got my tire change technique down to less that 15 minutes on the big bikes. Hang in there. If it turns out your having shit luck and catching nails, well, not much you can do about that. The UHD tubes rarely pinch flat. I've split a rim on a 530 and the tube never went flat. Good luck
Thanks, Yeah I'm sure I'll work through it. The first time may very well have been not enough pressure. On that note, could I have severely damaged the tire the first time? I had to ride about 4 miles on pavement through town because I had no tools with me. The second time, I know I was running 35psi in the rear that went flat. I didn't go flat during the ride so I'm not sure what it was. Coming from the dirt bike world, flat tires are nothing new to me, but I used to be able to get 200 miles out of a dirt bike tire before getting a flat with crooked rims, duct tape as rim tape, and hitting every big sharp rock as fast as I could with 12 psi in the tires.
check under the rubber strip over the spoke nipples on my other bike had same problem turned out metal filings where the spoke holes got drilled out.
Also, It appears to me that the large tube is kind of hard to find. What size tubes work for the rear tire? Does the tube have to be 150/70?
One inmate posted pics (carnt remember who) of a front flat time after time, turned out to be splits in the tire casing that were opening and closing and nipping the tube. Might be worth spreading the tire and taking a close look to make sure this isn't one of those albeit rear tire.
I have run it for 50K miles in the street bike about 15K in the 990. It doesn't work for big punctures or pinch flats, end of story. I don't use it to seal leaks, I use it to help with the staples and such that I often ride over while commuting. that it does seem to seal up and I don't pull the staples out of the tire. The more important function it serves is to balance the wheels exsp the nobbies on the 990 as they wear. That is pretty much the only reason I run the stuff ( I have a case of it :huh). I does take care of an out of balance tire but I go 15K between rear tires on the street bike and almost double that for the front so I get good use out of the application for that use.
Interesting. All three bikes just had big lumps of congealed shit after about 1000 miles. There was no protective layer inside the tube. Brand new tubes- product installed exactly as instructed on the bottle. For as much as it costs, I was unwilling to try it again. YMMV
