During a Cross Country race this past weekend. I hit a log on the first lap and put a puncture in the sidewall of one of my holeshot tires.
The tire stayed up without any trouble the whole race and for the ride home on the trailer. Today when I went out into the garage too work, the tire was flat.
I found the hole, and it is very small. I takes hours for the tire too go flat after I re-inflate it with air.
My question is......Do tire products such as "Slime" really work? Or is it not worth the trouble of spending $15 bucks on it, when a new tire costs $45? I am just wondering, because these are brand new tires, and it seems like such a waste too through one out after only one use.
Thanks for the replys.

Chris 00' TC Racing 300EX

 

I poked a hole in the sidewall of a stock rear tire on my 400EX, but the hole was so big it would go flat in about 5 minutes--I ended up having a plug installed and it's held air ever since. For smaller holes I've had pretty good luck with slime, although it can cause vibrations at higher speeds.

 

If you wanted a "permanant" type of repair:
depending on the size of the hole, it might be sensible to "bust the bead" on one side of the tire and put a patch on the inside of the sidewall.
If the hole was larger, say the size of a pencil, I would fix the hole with a plug kit available from a local auto parts store, like Kragens, Shuckers, AllPro, Grand Auto, etc. I have had pretty good luck with the plug kits, even plugging a slice in the sidewall that was 2 inches long.

Good luck.

 

On my first quad back in 89, I put a gallon of Slime in my four tires on my 89 KQ. I rode it for 7 yrs over cactus (only when unavoidable in S&R operations) and never did have a flat. I had seen many cactus needles sticking out of the tread area & pulled them out with pliers. Never lost a pound. I believe Slime or other similas products work better as preventative medicines than as after the fact cures. The problem some people have with it is not using enough to do the job.

 

I took the tire too a couple of different motorcycle and tire shops today. And the cheapest price anyone would quote me for a fix was $25 bucks(break the bead, patch, slime, and re-mount the tire).
That's over half of the price of a new tire, and no garantee that it will hold up for the next race.
This tire is going in the trash....
Thanks for the reply's everyone.

Chris 00' TC Racing 300EX

 

My buddy who rides a 400ex ran into the same problem last week. Three different dealers basically told him, "if the hole is in the sidewall there is nothing they can do." They wouldn't fix the tire.

He purchased a new tire & then they charged him another $12.50 to mount it on the rim. OUCH!

 

I just purchased some ATV tires at Wal Mart. They only charged $3.50 to mount. They have a very limited selection of tires so I do not know if they will mount tires that are not purchased from Wal Mart. It might be worth a call for the next time to save some cash.

 

Comment on tire slime, I put 8oz of tire slime in each of my 300ex tires. The directions calls for 160z per tire but I figured I better start of slow becauseposts about slime causing vibrationsThe 8oz work great with only little vibration winyou just first start to ride .Thinkthe reason being is it takes to slime a little time to spread evenly around the tires because the slime after a night of being storage all sinks to the bottom. Slime does the trick with little pin size holes but if you hit a nail or something pucturing the tire with more then a 1/8 hole the slime tends to leak a little. I know because this happen to me and the only option after that is to put a plug in it. I went discount and took my tire there and they fix it for free. Plug did the trick on the big hole and they also fix about five pin size holes with patchs. The small holes I didn't even know about because the slime was doing it job from letting air ecaspe for those. In conclusion 1/8 in hole or bigger plug it. Small pin size holes slime does the job it set out to do. Hope it helps.
Excuse my typing I was in a hurry.

 

They now have Superslime, it will seal a nail hole 3/8 inch. Works good, lasts a long time. $30.oo a gallon at the local farm store. That's enough for 8 ATV tires