Flat Tires

[tatom]

Can anyone tell me, whats up with all the flat tires on motorcycles? I have a Suzuki 110cc and in the past 10 years, I cant count the number of flats Ive had. Ive gone through 2 or 3 rear tires which is normal, (40,000 km.), but Ive replaced maybe 5 inner tubes each, front and rear, and dozens of patches. I also have to add air often. I can only assume its poor quality inner tubes.

Ive had several motorcycles in the US, and cant remember ever replacing a tube or adding air and I often rode on rough dirt roads.

I plan on buying a Phantom soon, and hope I dont have the same problem. Do any of you Phantom owners experience frequent flats? If so, is it possible to buy a better quality innertube?

[Phil Conners]

I think it's a combination of it all: dirty streets, poor quality tubes and the weather (heat/humidity/sun).

[chaiyapoon]

Particularly on hire bikes I had the same problem.After the first few I started checking the problems out,and found in a lot of cases the repaired patches were coming off!!I believe part of the problem was me caining the small bikes to go fast and the tires over heating.I was amazed at the repairmen setting fire to the patch to vulncanize them.Some of the repairs should never have been done as the original punture hole was too big.

Take care,you never know what the tubes like when you hire a bike!!!

[PeaceBlondie]

You may not have such problems if you could fit a high quality tubeless tire, such as those that come on the CBR150R. Check if the Phantom has tubeless tires. they are suitable for solid rimmed wheels like "mag wheels" but require special rims.And don't be surprised if somebody confuses "tubeless" with radials. Bias ply tubeless are suitable. But they're probably not applicable to 100-110 cc bikes. I only have had one tire failure in 36,000 km, and the Honda mechanic knew to send a tubless across the street to the auto tire repair shop.

[visarunner]

Surprised as well , for a Honda Dream , driven at normal speed I had to change the innertube already 4-5 times in appr 7500km, however I find it's just a minor inconvenience and set you back max THB 100.- and 20 min.

Repair shop's are everywhere.

[Pond Life]

Always buy the best quality (therefore most expensive) tyres & inner tubes you can find.

You will then have much less punctures/leaks.

If you buy a new Honda it will come with decent quality tires fitted.

Many of the small bike shop/puncture Walla's dont have any good quality tires & tubes, go to a big shop that has a big selection & dont spare the Baht.

[penzman]

Recently, I was getting a flat tire every week. Turns out the rim was slightly damaged and the inner tube was apparently slipping, cutting the valve every time.

New tube, new tire and I still have to inflate every few days, as since I've bought the bike brand new.

As someone mentioned, it's probably a combination of very dusty shoulder lanes, heat and cheap quality products.

[PeaceBlondie]

I'm too worried about my safety to drive anything that's prone to sudden flat tires. If these are slow leaks, okay. But one thing you definitely don't want happening at any speed over 40 km/hr is sudden loss of air in your front tire. Can you spell c-r-e-m-a-t-i-o-n?

[BlackRose]

Have you ever seen how they change the tire.........

no wonder that the live of the tire is so short

did they ever check the weel first?

[Gazza]

In over 200,000 kms of riding in Thailand I've only ever had two flats. First was on a small stepthru and the second was from a nail that I picked up from a carpark where I had left the Harley next to a wooden and corrugate-sheeted spirit house.

I ride in the R/H lane as much as possible and have never had any problem with tyres, either with flats or finding shallowly penetrated sharp objects in the tyres.

Only tyre problem I have is losing air pressure. Losing as much 14 lbs in a rear tyre on one occassion in the space of about 2 weeks sounds weird. Most of the time I'll only lose a couple of lbs.

Anyone ever noticed how it's nearly always the rear tyre that gets punctured?

[tracker]

using a big bike and a phantom, for several years, i can attest for loosing air quickly. Never had these problems in europe.

Where many trucks drive, expect to have many debris lying around. In times of 600km/week i have a flat about every two months....

as already said before, stay in the right lanes if possible