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Post by rockynv on Jun 12, 2017 12:08:23 GMT -5
If I replaced tires that often the cost would be a little expensive. I'll replace a tire if it's dry rotted but not because it's three years old. Tires these days are ridiculously short lived already. Nothing lasts over 10,000 miles any more which is a major shortcoming to me. Since they won't live that long anyway plugging makes total sense to me. Especially since anecdotal evidence of plugged tires failing is fairly non-existent. As I said. Not riding at all is best since a flat can happen at anytime. I'm also saying if a tire is plugged then be aware of that and don't ride at top speed anymore. I suppose that you do not ride much then three years may seem excessive but that is only a bit more than 3,300 miles a year to wear out a 10,000 mile tire. On a high use year 10,000 miles only sees me through 9 months of riding while on light years it will still only make it a bit less than 2 years. For many scooter riders tire costs will be less than $40 a set. Most people spend more than that every month on things like smokes, pizza or beer and many times the cost of a set of tires on their Netflix or Cell Phone/Texting over the course of a few months. You can greatly minimize your chances of picking up a nail by not tailgating or riding in the gutters. Nails tend to roll away from the crown nearer the middle of the road so those who drive defensively and avoid the more nail prone sides and gutters can go many years without having those issues. If any of us had a dollar for each time an acquaintance lamented their plugged tire still had a slow leak we'd all have a nice little Mad Money jar going. It happens much more often than we like to admit and is hardly an anecdotal or comedic flight of fancy made up type event. |
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Post by rockynv on Jun 12, 2017 4:04:19 GMT -5
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Post by rockynv on Jun 12, 2017 3:59:04 GMT -5
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Post by rockynv on Jun 12, 2017 3:53:30 GMT -5
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Post by rockynv on Jun 12, 2017 0:34:24 GMT -5
It's something no one will ever agree on. Many of us have plugged with success while many others wouldn't dream of doing it. Yes, replacing the tire is the safer way to go but as Rocky's videos prove the safest thing to do is not ride on two wheels at all. After all that's the safest thing to do. Even an unplugged tire could fail on you too. That's why following "Best Practice" in tire maintenance and keeping fresh less than 3 year old tires on motorcycles and scooters is so critical. It goes a long way toward preventing so many of the single vehicle motorcycle accidents or the one rider going down from a failed tire in a group scenario and taking down everyone near to him. I was reviewing the way tire speed ratings are tested with someone the other day and they are determined based on a ten minute test spinning the perfectly inflated loaded tire against a steel drum at the rated speed without having a failure. Put a plug in and most authorities agree the tires speed rating is cut at least in half so your 94 mph P rated tire once plugged is past its limit at 48 mph and then again possibly 38 or even below 18 mph depending on the quality and freshness of the plug along with the adhesive and how good a job the person who installed it did. There are really no guarantees on how long a DIY emergency plug will last. The honest truth is - You might or may not make it limping to the shop and then again you may make it much longer but its a gamble with your life on the line. As Dirty Harry would say: "Do you feel lucky?" |
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Post by rockynv on Jun 8, 2017 4:10:07 GMT -5
Kat - My youngest brother rescued the Army Blanket when Mom died. It was always in a bag tucked away in their car in case we wanted to stop for a picnic or at the beach. Growing up in Coastal New England a drive on any given day could end up including a stop for fried clams, onion rings, slaw and fried dough. Oh and don't forget to fill the circa 1916 Universal Vacuum Bottle which was cleaned and wrapped up inside the blanket with Coffee when you stopped for the clams and such. The middle brother finally broke that one around 1976. 60 years was good from a glass lined thermos but...
Ah to Dinosaurs and Memories.
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Post by rockynv on Jun 8, 2017 3:59:34 GMT -5
Those 2 stroke 250's were fun. When Suzuki saw what Aprilia was doing with Rotax and their small engines they had Aprilia tweak their 250 with a deal to supply Aprilia blocks for their own use and the 150+ mph Aprilia Chesterfield 250 was born.
Could get similarly interesting with the small diesels that may be coming up for bikes and outboards. Boaters like them since their tenders now use the same fuel as their main boat and they don't have to worry as much about mixups. Really bad when you switch tanks and find they accidentaly put gasoline instead of diesel in the second one.
Whats next plaid blazers, checkered pants, bell bottoms and leisure suits? Oh my!
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Post by rockynv on Jun 5, 2017 4:11:45 GMT -5
If you already have the wheel off most Cycle Gear stores will change it while you wait. You also may be surprise at how accommodating a Yamaha, Suzuki or Honda dealer who also sells scooters can be. Many have better tire prices than you can get on the internet in order to encourage more riders to come into their showrooms with the added plus than you might get your bike washed and lightly detailed for no additional cost.
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Post by rockynv on Jun 5, 2017 3:50:28 GMT -5
Here is what can happen if the rear tire fails:
This guy should have checked the rear and almost went over the embankment as the bike drifted off to the left into what could have been oncoming traffic.
A little faster or a bit softer sidewall and these could have been fatalities.
If the front fails suddenly many may not be able to hang on and keep from going over. Some get fooled when they are down below 10 mph and almost stopped that they are really safe and then go down because centrifugal force is no longer keeping the tire centered on the rim and it really starts squirming.
Even in these mild cases both riders were extremely shaken by how close a call it actually was.
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Post by rockynv on Jun 4, 2017 15:43:52 GMT -5
The plugs even for car tires are temporary to get you to a tire shop to have the tire dismounted and patched from the inside even on the BMW's.
Yes some people do get away with abusing plugs but the failure rate of externally applied plugs is too high to make them guaranteed safe so regardless of how many other folks rolled that dice and won you are still taking a chance that you will among the 10 or 20 percent that will have a failure.
On a car its usually not that big an issue as you see the tire is low and refill it or finally have the tire replaced however on a bike having one tire go low and wobbly at highway speeds even if you do not have a blowout can be fatal. Add in some really hot roads and plugging can be a recipe for disaster.
A local attorney John Newsome I believe is his name has a number of warehouses full of rolled cars as part of the evidence locker being built against the tire industry in general for selling old new tires or plugging/patching unsafe tires and putting them back on the road. There may be a major shakeup coming making it illegal to service a tire that has a plug in it due to all the rollover accidents, injuries and deaths that have been recorded over the past few decades.
I understand some people get really rabid about this and have no qualms about causing others to incur losses however that is basically what you are doing when you encourage known unsafe behavior. If someone puts in a temporary plug as a long term solution at your cavalier recommendation are you financially able and willing to pay for any losses that are incurred? If not then think twice about making the recommendation.
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Post by rockynv on May 5, 2017 4:15:24 GMT -5
The wear yo see is with just a few hours run time. I can hardly imagine what this would look like in a challenging climate like in the Tropics were these Scoots ar ridden everyday thru wet sandy salt water mixed roads. A modern O ring chain will win every time. And again I'm sure this has to do with me using a impact on my Vari nut. just plain silly to imply such a thing Mine variator does not look like that even after 12,500 miles on a set of rollers and currently has 30,000 miles overall on it and is on the second replacement set of rollers/sliders. And yes you could have flipped some of the sliders over while rattling them about with an impact wrench however most times people are going to mess up the splines on the ramp plate or damage the drive face introducing som wobble using an impact wrench to install. You still have too much trouble for all the effort and expertise you claim. Showing a close tolerance brand new race piston has no bearing either on shoving a rope down a bore with some miles on it and enough wear to start developing a ridge. Forum advice on best practice has to be tempered by the fact that most folks here will be working on bikes with some miles and wear on them and possibly be in the hands of the second or third owners. We all don't have MegaBucs and money to burn on the best race tech on the market. If you don't/won't do it yourself then don't encourage others to do it either. I encourage all to go by the book and take the safe route when it comes to maintenance. It cost less in the long run and greatly lowers the failure rate. |
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Post by rockynv on May 5, 2017 3:59:59 GMT -5
why no grease? i literally slathered the inside of the variator with grease. If you have certain Honda and maybe some OEM Yamaha variators of the old design then yes there were some that absolutely required packing with grease. They were designed expressly for that while many of the newer designs would simply sling it out. Go by the book on what you have in your bike. |
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Post by rockynv on May 3, 2017 23:36:08 GMT -5
Many have had very good results with the options of scoops and ducted air. Little to no maintenance once you install them aside from an occasional cleaning aside from accident damage.
There have been a number of threads on doing this over the years.
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Post by rockynv on May 3, 2017 23:31:14 GMT -5
Im not advocating in any way shape or form of stuffing rope down a cylinder, there are several methods to get the job done. oil filter wrench, heck even your Belt around your waste wrapped around the Vari or flywheel will get it done. and as I stated a cheap Harbor freight Electric impact with a coupon is under $39. As far as I'm concerned your blowing theory of Fragile Stock Cast Pistons and have had 0 experience in a Piston cock off kilter, There Boat Anchors, The 50 or 150 CV carb is so forgiving I have Never seen one go lean to the point that is has taken the Temper out of the Piston or a Seizure and caused the smack your referring to.... what you running .250" piston to wall to clock a piston off kilter? utter bunk bro Your talking Smack with 0 hands on experience in what your referring to.... If you are not endosing it and use other methods making it appear that you have 0 experience with the results that can come from stuffing a rope or other objects down a cylinder to lock a crank shaft why would you be so bold as to make such statements to someone who has assisted in cleaning up this type of damage? Yes my experience is mostly with industrial, farm, marine and lawn equipment but it still happens on abused engines of higher quality than you see in a Chinese scooter. I was head of maintenance of a string of factories in Northern New England so I saw a lot of these types of tricks used and fail along with having to authorize the repairs and set up policies to prevent them from being used. I would terminate anyone on my staff who would do the rope trick or any other of these types of tricks after I specifically forbid them. Outside the factory environment I don't do the rope trick myself since its not best practice and it comes with known risks however have helped clean up/repair engines where this was done with most not using the best quality rope which leaves behind a large amount of sisal fibers and other debris. With a brand new braided rope that has no metal filinges or grit embedded or falling off of it on a perfect new piston of quality that has not been pitted or heat damaged from running lean it may not be as big an issue but most Chinese bikes are run hot and lean and have some level of piston top damage along with most tending to use any dirty old piece of shedding rope available so why endorse this practice? On my Lance 150 the piston top was anything but pristine and had obvious signs of heat damage from running lean at high speed. Even reccommending that an inexperienced person use an impact wrench on a variator is bad form especially coming from someone who appears to have such extreme issues with short variator service life and other reliability issues on their own scooters. One has to wonder... |
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Post by rockynv on May 2, 2017 3:46:55 GMT -5
Aluminum stock pistons are too fragile to me and the chance of cocking them too great. Just think through what happens on a used engine if you unevenly stuff a rope inside a spark plug hole and it cranks up.. Its going to cock off kilter and the top ring is going to contact the ridge in the cylinder wall and potentially distort the ring on the high side and already be scraping the top ring down making a small score in the cylinder wall on the opposite side. If the piston top has any damage from running lean for any amount of time which on a 50 to 150cc GY6 with a vacuum fuel pump is pretty likely the chance of finishing the job and pushing it to complete failure or closer to it is too great. Its simply bad form to stuff things down the spark plug hole to leverage a piston to block the crank unless you really do not care about the engine. I you just need to get er done for one race or to bug out during a south seas flooding event thats one thing but on something you are expecting to keep running for the next 50,000 to 100,000 miles with few repairs I won't ever reccomend it (remember that I am looking at things as a Piaggio owner when I state these milages). The proper tools to do it right are not very expensive and well worth it. Its is a cheat or a gamble at best which you do at your own risk and don't reccomend to others without stating the risks.
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