Maybe a stupid question and maybe not. Wondering how many have fixed large holes in the sidewall of the front and rear tires?

I have 8 plugs in the sidewall of by front tire. It will generally hold for about 10-12 hours of riding then eventually air starts to leak again. So far I have been lucky in that the plugs haven't fallen out. Can a patch be installed inside the tire to fix a hole this size? I would say it is about a 1/2" tear.

Also, drove two hours to a riding spot in PA for a weekend getaway. My friend got about a 3/4" tear in the sidewall of the rear tire after 20 minutes of riding. We managed to shove 12 plugs in (not even using a plug tool). The plugs plus two bottles of Slime and 3 CO2 cartridges got us back to camp but that was pretty much it. We tried going out again but kept loosing the plugs. Although a tube was made available to us, we didn't figure it would work since the tube would just balloon out through the hole. How do you fix this? We lost out on what was supposed to be a great weekend. My friend already bought new tires but I was just wondering what other do. Is the solution to buy a new tire every time this happens?

Thanks for any suggestions!!

 

Before he gets rid of that old tire cut a good size piece out of the sidewall. Next time use contact adhesive and glue it to the inside of the tire over the tear. Then tube it. That will prevent the tube from coming out the tear.

 

You can also patch it on the inside if it's just a tear. I have 2 sidewall holes and one tread hole all in my rear tires and they don't leak. Better then having to buy new tires if there's good tread left. later