Flat tyre twice

[karl von fatboy]

Short story:
Uncovered my Evo Fatboy a couple of weeks ago ( lives outside and was wrapped and sprayed with inhibitor for Winter ) to find the rear tyre completely flat. Foot pumped it and checked pressure. Checked again the next morning and it had lost 7 psi. As I have nowhere to work on her ,even if I knew what I was doing, I booked it into a local indie garage to have the assumed puncture repaired.

Repair was carried out but was told it was not a puncture but must be the tyre not sealed to the rim as there is corrosion. Wheel was cleaned and tyre sealed onto it. New valve and stem also and away I went £42 lighter but satisfied.

Uncovered her yesterday having not ridden since the repair. Bloody tyre is as a pancake again. Garage man said the corrosion is most prob the cause and had two ideas -
1. Have a run and heat the tyre up as this may seal the tyre/rim

2.Have a tube put in ( cost about £25 to do this )

Other people suggest

Over inflating the tyre slightly and letting air out to required pressure

Putting a liquid sealer in thru the valve to seal any gaps

Obviously I will give the old girl a run and try over inflating to see what happens as these cost nothing.

Know this is nothing in the grand scheme of things but want to do the right thing
What do you think and what would you do?

Pee'd off KvF

[BaZa®]

Ask if they submerged the wheel in a water tank when inflated?
Best to do this when over inflated to check for puncture.

DON'T ride the bike with over inflated tyre to try and seal it.

Seeing as they did NOT do the job satisfactory they should fit a tube labour free you pay only for innertube (cost circa £12) . Argue with them.

[girlyglide]

Was the bike sat on its tyres in the same position all winter?

If so the tyre could have become misshaped and no amount of cleaning, inflating or tube repair will safely fix it. Bite the bullet and fit a new tyre which is the only safe fix for a puncture or deflating problem.

I don't know who the Indy is but I would suggest discussing the problem with him in the first instance rather than arguing with him (naughty Baza)

[karl von fatboy]

Thanks for the replies

I was told, Baza, that the wheel had been stood in a tank with no leaks detected

Phil, yes the wheel was left in the same position but when I say all Winter its actually only Nov, Dec and Jan and the tyre was new last Summer so a bit hesitant to replace without trying other remedies first( but of course it might have to come to having a new one to go with the new front that is needed soon)

At least its early season and crap wather so not missing too much at the mo

Cheers

Karl

[devon.john]

I ve had small air loses after new tyres , igot hold of some tyre sealant

from amate that repaires tractor and 4x4 tyres .I put 250 ml in each tyre

this has done the trick this only cost £6 per ltr i have used this for 3 years

with no problems , i allways fit my own tyres never balanced them i ride hard

and cruse at 90 ish on m roads i use avon venoms and get 10.000 out the back

and 14.000 from the front agood tyre

hope this may help

john

[Hawkeye]

With Baza on this, they charged to do a job that was not done basically............take it back or ask for a refund

[BrunoKatz WW1FighterPilot]

I`ve had this problem with my tear tyre just recently, in fact, it`s plagued me for over a year now. My Fatty is 12 years old now and i suspected it was corrosion causing the tyre to loose it`s seal around the rim. Recently removed wheel and tyre and was confronted by horrendous lumps and flaking ally on the inner rim. I set to with a wire brush on a drill, a file and lots of emery.
I re-installed everything and still she went down, about 15lb a day loss. Fitting a tube is not an option with a Fatboy wheel cos of the angle of the valve hole, it just tears the rubber straight off. I tried "Slime" This worked very well, no pressure loss but, blobs of green stuff kept appearing all around the circumference of the rim so i wasn`t too happy with this as it could compromise safety at any time.
Soooo, i ordered two new chrome, slotted Fatboy wheels from the U.S. from a company in Illinois [Genuine HD] Total cost of both wheels, including bearings, hardware and new chrome spacers and shipping was £625.
Haven`t fitted them yet but, think they should last another 12 years

[Hawkeye]

Originally Posted by BrunoKatz WW1FighterPilot

I`ve had this problem with my tear tyre just recently, in fact, it`s plagued me for over a year now. My Fatty is 12 years old now and i suspected it was corrosion causing the tyre to loose it`s seal around the rim. Recently removed wheel and tyre and was confronted by horrendous lumps and flaking ally on the inner rim. I set to with a wire brush on a drill, a file and lots of emery.
I re-installed everything and still she went down, about 15lb a day loss. Fitting a tube is not an option with a Fatboy wheel cos of the angle of the valve hole, it just tears the rubber straight off. I tried "Slime" This worked very well, no pressure loss but, blobs of green stuff kept appearing all around the circumference of the rim so i wasn`t too happy with this as it could compromise safety at any time.
Soooo, i ordered two new chrome, slotted Fatboy wheels from the U.S. from a company in Illinois [Genuine HD] Total cost of both wheels, including bearings, hardware and new chrome spacers and shipping was £625.
Haven`t fitted them yet but, think they should last another 12 years

WOW thats one expensive flat !!!

Bet they look good though

[BrunoKatz WW1FighterPilot]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

WOW thats one expensive flat !!!

Bet they look good though

Tw@t Well considering those wheels cost over £450 each over here, think i did pretty good!
Once the insides start corroding on those solid cast wheels, not a whole lot you can do to stop them. Think i had pretty good use out of them though.
The new ones have elongated slots in them just below the rim, so i figured the air will travel through, especially in a cross wind so, i shouldn`t get the buffeting and "Acting like a rudder" syndrome you get with standard Fatboy wheels?

[waywardchild]

If you are getting air pressure losses like this it suggests that the wheel rim is not round or "true" where the tyre bead seats in the rim,it may be possible to "skim" them in a lathe. Give a local engineering firm a ring to see if they can help............