is any of this normal? Frequent tube punctures etc

[tahrey]

let's see how far i get thru this, having to interweb from my n79 on gsm only in the sticks...

Having some recurrent issues with my CG and i don't know if i should be worried or not, can anyone advise? Now i'm largely over the headlamp thing and am leaving the sidestand thing to mull (complicated wiring diagrams make brain hurt).

First and most relevant, i'm on something like my fifth new inner tube since buying the bike, and i still ended up by the side of the road pumping merrily away with my hands earlier tonight. Its been a year and something like 6k miles. Given how much it costs to replace one, it seems a bit too frequent. Always seems to be at the worst possible time - tonight i was on the way to an overnight stopoff ahead of my mod1 in the morning then a long ride into work (don't ask). Could have taken the train, or driven, but wanted to save on petrol, get in the mood, etc, and the problem didn't arrive until mile 30 of 35. Most of the planning is now boned and a lift there & back will be needed anyway.
Should tubes die this frequently?

(can feel myself drifting off, so this'll be speedier)
anyone noticed a problem with this bike's centre stand? Namely it's very weak and needs special care and technique to get it on/off the stand without a fair bit of heft and sending the alignment out. Before i had it changed, the old one was showing like a 20 degree tilt and scraping on every left hander. This one hasn't reached that level but is getting there. I'll like to have one which is a bit more solid!

The power seems to drop off, turbo(diesel) style at low revs, at wide throttle, which isn't normally an issue (as the boundary - about 3500 - still means like 25mph in top), but it has led to many embarrassing near-stall incidents whilst trying for fast but not noisy or clutch slipping starts when i've fallen off the bottom of that range (with no lower gear to shift down into). All the power just goes, within a few hundred rpms. The answer seems to be rolling off the throttle, but that's so counterintuitive i just can't get used to it and find clutch slipping is far easier. Again, is this perfectly normal or a sign of something that'll need fixed?

Cheers for any insight you can spill my way... Now, i really gotta sleep. Thanks, t

[panrider_uk]

No they shouldn't.

Have you made sure that there's nothing on the inside of the tyre that could be causing it?

I'm assuming you ride well away from the sides of the road where crap accumulates.

Mark
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Current bikes: Honda ST1100 Pan European. Moto Guzzi V85 TT Travel

[LordShaftesbu...]

Have you tried filling the tube with that puncture-prevention stuff? Not the foam, the other stuff, that the Post Office trialled - dammit can't remember the name.

[Pete.]

Either you are using a really crap quality tube, or there's something causing the tube to be punctured.

When you pull out the punctured tube did you pump it up outside of the tyre and check to see where the leak is? If it's on the side or outside you probably have something poking through the tyre causing recurring punctures. If it's on the inside of the tube it's likely to be a spoke or a burr on one of the spoke nuts poking a hole in the tube. It might also be a burr on the rim from tyre levers causing it.

You do have the protective tape on the rim covering the tops of the spokes don't you?
____________________
a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[Ste]

[LordShaftesbu...]

Puncturesafe, that's what it's called.

https://www.ultrasealuk.biz/flashintro.html

[Itchy]

Tubes can last a very long time or a short time, too many factors to consider.

Tiffany's BMW tubes for instance over 200,000KM of bike travel did not get a single puncture.

However on Mongolian Mayhem she got 3 of them. My own trek I had an enormous number of punctures, And discovered why 1000miles from Khabavosk in Siberia, something embedded in my tyre wall which poked out slightly when the tyre was bent a certain way.

Just repair tubes and keep 2 spares and don't repair them at the roadside.

Once you get home take the wheel off and look at the rim for holes in the rim tape and or foreign objects in the inner tyre wall of the tyre.

It may also be something to do with where you ride, filtering on dirty patches of the road will invariably have more rubbish and therefore catch little bits of debris which will kill your tubes.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[Blue_SV650S]

Where are the punctures appearing in the tube?

Do you have lots of rust (and rust flakes) inside the rim? Do you have the rubber tape in there that goes over the spokes?

Now presuming the puncture isn't from the outside 9nails etc) then it is MOST likely to be this ... It is common for these type of wheels to rust up badly inside, you need to take the tyre off, wire brush the rim to get rid of as many flakes as possible. Get some of that cure-rust type stuff (rust eater paint) and paint straight over the rust, this should prevent it from reoccurring for a bit. Then get some electrical tape and go round the wheel a few times to give an extra barrier between tube and wheel that the spoke rubber bit doesn't cover.

This should see you right!!
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The purpose of life is to fight maturity.

[tahrey]

Doug: from hearing others talk about it, I believe it's sometimes also called Slime? I've filled up a dead tube with "Flat Mate" rescue aerosol before, which may have a similar effect, but I'm wary about riding on such things because of how long they may or may not last. However if it PREVENTS a puncture (or auto seals little ones, which this must have been), I'm all for it.

I have no idea where the holes are appearing, as every time thus far I've had it done professionally as I didn't really have the time to cock about playing with it, and generally I've ridden on the flat for enough of a distance (just to get home ... standing leant over the bars etc, pumping up every couple of miles) to cause further damage in some of the cases. However if it goes again soon, I'll be doing the primary investigation at home. Can't hurt.

The last 2, maybe 3 times I've already been suspicious and asked them to check really well for anything that may be causing it. Second to last, I think it was a roofing staple --- neighbours had been having some building work done, and I found something on the driveway roughly matching the appearance of a mashed thing in one of the treads (NOT sticking THROUGH the tyre, tho). Possibly it did the dirty deed and fell out. Spent more than an hour giving the drive a public school-standard sweep-up after that...

Do try to ride in the middle of the road, but as it's an urban weapon I am filtering all over the place quite often. Not doing anything thick like riding over piles of broken glass and all that though! It's the original Slovenian "Sava" tyre, which I think might be a bit weak - worth chopping it for something else, would another brand actually offer any better resistance?

The inside of the rim is rusting a little, but apparently not enough for the guys who mentioned it to seem very concerned that it may be a risk factor. There could be a shard sticking out they didn't notice? The spoke/rim rape is allegedly good... though I did already joke about one of them about lining it with a cut-up dead tube.

The last one didn't even seem to be properly punctured, maybe it was a duff valve or something. The dude took it out and inflated it to check, and it was still happily holding enough air to keep its shape after a couple of hours. Didn't think to grab it and bring with, unfortunately. He put a new "larger" one in there as a preventative measure, which I hope also means "thicker" and "not as stretched when inflated to proper pressure" so less susceptible to things poking it.

Itchy - ooh, things hidden in the sidewall, I do believe we didn't even think of that. The last two changes, the tube that's come out HAS had a little bulge on the side. Maybe it's where something's rubbing and it eventually makes just a TINY hole in the middle of the bulge?

Hmm... Well, for now, I guess it's a matter of wait and see. Maybe I just had a run of extraordinary bad luck, fingers crossed it ends here. I did manage a good few months in between no's 3 & 4 without incident, after all.

Some good came of it anyway, despite being up writing that surprisingly lucid keypad message. With the part of my mind that would otherwise over concentrate on the test being preoccupied, the moral support of the kind lift-giver, and a last minute gulp of coffee, I passed the yard test. Now, what horrors will await the next?
(Hope I haven't given too much away there :p)

Any ideas on the other stuff, BTW?

[Pete.]

Whenever I've found sharp stuff lodged in the tread/wall of a tyre the rough location has always been conveniently marked by a spurt of blood from my fingertips
____________________
a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[Robby]

As said by Geri and Blue, make sure your rim still has the rubber strip that goes over the spoke tops. An old bike of mine had a similar problem, and a couple of layers of gaffer tape under the rubber strip fixed it.

As for the power problem, likely causes are water in your carb or a blockage around the micture needle. Strip the carb down a clean it. If it has an accelerator pump, make sure you clean its chamber. If some rusty water has collected in there then the only way to clear it is with a carb strip.

If you find a slime type sealant that works, post it on here. I should probably put some in my inner tubes as a preventative measure.

[tahrey]

Hmm if I get bored I may try getting it off myself and seeing what's what. Don't think they went to the bother of balancing it etc.

Another thing I'm wondering about - some time back I thought I had a wobbly rear wheel and was going to get someone to tweak the spokes (went so far as to buy a spoke tool before realising I didn't have any way of suspending the wheel and I had roughly 0% chance of doing it properly without a trained eye)... but it seemed to sort itself out so I put it down to a loose axle nut or something. Would that be of any significance?

As regards the carb, it only happens at low rpms on wide throttle, so I don't know if it's maybe just a characteristic of that carburettor/engine/etc rather than a fault.

If it's jacked wide and I hit too steep a hill at 40 without changing gear, it'll go OK til a bit below 30, start missing and stuttering a little, then lose all power in the 20-25 area (and will run down to a total stall unless I ease off, shift down, pull the clutch etc). Can go from idle to running speed in 5th if I'm slow and progressive with opening it. Same story in all gears, only not so bad in 1st as by the time I've got the throttle fully open it's already revved up enough.

I'm going to have to get into carb servicing at some point, but right now it seriously gives me the fear. No guide to it that I read makes a great deal of sense, it seems a right arcane piece of equipment. All I do know is it doesn't have an accelerator pump - they removed it for some reason, may explain the strange power curve. It doesn't seem to have any issues with me slamming it wide open once running >3500ish however.

Would a bit of Wynn's Dry Fuel (which I've got lurking in the garage from a previous car problem) do any good for clearing potential water, or is it more likely to cause engine damage?