Product Review: Moose Racing Ultimate Tire Repair Kit
The Next Best Thing to Having a Service Center on the Trail
By: Jason Giacchino
We here at ATV Connection know a thing or two about Murphy’s Law; most ATV riders do in fact. With that kind of reasoning, simply carrying a tire repair kit of any fashion on a ride goes a long way in reducing the risk of a blowout.
However, sometimes even meticulous preparation isn’t quite enough to ward off trouble. When that happens you’ll likely find yourself digging frantically through your tank bag/ backpack, ATV cargo hold and so on. If it’s a flat tire we’re talking about, finding the little black zipper bag marked “Moose Racing” is akin to a massive sigh of relief. And here’s why we say that…
Included
The Moose Racing Ultimate Tire Repair Kit includes the following bits: Three 16-gram CO2 cartridges, five tire plugs, eight patches, a reamer tool, insertion T-handle, a tube of rubber cement, instruction sheet, and said black nylon bag. The most notable part of the formula is the inflator device itself- which (in the event that you’ve ever used another) is pretty much the Cadillac of CO2 inflators. It is designed to accept either threaded or the cheaper non-threaded CO2 canisters and a trigger design so that you need not completely empty a “punched” canister in one usage. Very, very nice!
How Does it Work
A lot like an automotive tire plug kit just portable. The assurance that only comes with having access to a compressor is naturally lacking here but we did find that a single CO2 cartridge was enough to fully inflate an ATV tire from dead flat.
The process differs slightly depending on the type of damage you may have incurred resulting in a flat in the first place however. A damaged or leaking valve stem, for example, isn’t really this kit’s forte although we have actually managed to repair such damage trailside using Slime sealant in the past.
However a visible puncture is certainly tire plug material (or patch if you happen to be running tubes). In that case, we found the entire process of plugging and inflating the tire an absolute breeze. The kit comes with three CO2 cartridges and we needed only one to get us back to base camp but extra-neurotic riders (or those who frequently cross what was a former roofing nail factory) may wish to pick up additional CO2 carts for worse case scenarios.
Any Complaints
Actually two- and both involve what is technically missing from the kit. First some sort of gripping device (pliers) to remove glass, stones, metal or whatever it is that sliced its way into the tire would have been a priceless inclusion in this kit. In our case it was fortunate that someone in the group had a multi-tool with pliers to keep us from risking sliced skin in trying to yank the rusted and extremely sharp folded sheet metal corner we happened to pick up free from the tire before plugging it.
Also, as anyone who has ever installed a plug already knows, tire plugs are much longer (even when folded in half) than the tallest tire knobs. Hence when the job is done, the first step is to usually snip off the excess plug to prevent snagging on the way back. If not a razor blade to cut the plug, it would have been great if Moose included snips/side-cutters for that purpose. Again in our case a multi-tool came through again for this task but had Moose included a tool for these two tasks, we would really have nothing to complain about whatsoever.
Conclusion
In a world so laced with the potential to get one’s self into trouble, sometimes it’s hard to put a price on insurance. Moose gives it a try though at .95 (the MSRP of the Ultimate Tire Repair Kit). We were sure glad we made the investment the day our tire decided to flatten on us miles from civilization! With the addition of two more tools that were pretty much essentials to the flat-repair process in our case, we would have to concur with Moose that this would be the “ultimate” in portable tire repair kits.
Contact
http://www.mooseracing.com/catalog.jsp?level1=1758&product_group_id=7512
For .95, do you think this is a worthwhile product? Let us know!