First time to travel and cannot find anyone to help on what to have on the bike if a puncture--tubed tyres--been told deflate tyres and then fill with this special foam stuff and then inflate--automatically repairs smaller holes! Or have the special foam can and if a puncture then use--not sure if good for many miles or just to get to the repair garage--any help appreciated.

I carry a spare tube for front and rear, a tube patch kit. tire irons, and a small electric pump that can be run from your bike battery. If I get a flat, I'll replace the tube and then patch the bad one if possible sometime later. It's a skill worth practicing at home before you travel, I think. It can be difficult to get help in many places and it only takes an hour or so to get yourself back on the road if you have the tools and skills.

.......................shu

Thanks Shu--much appreciated.

Clive

Good advice, but practice at home first if you've not done it before is the important bit. The theory is simple enough - remove punctured tube and replace with new one but as the saying goes "there's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip". You really don't want to be doing this for the first time at the side of the road and finding you've got the wrong sort of tyre levers or you can't break the bead on the tyre.

Regarding foam (or any other) puncture fixer - there's loads of posts here on whether they're any good. Some people swear by them but on balance probably more people swear at them. I'm in the later camp. I've used a few (various types) over the years and never had a successful result, but that's probably just me. I had a puncture a couple of weeks ago where the foam in a can stuff would probably have worked but I didn't have any. C'est la vie.

Pedant alert: it depends where Clive is going

The foam in a can stuff works maybe every other time, if the can is new and the damage small. The way to have a new can of the stuff is to buy it as you go. For say the US where you can buy a can of foam at any gas station but recovery services don't do bikes these can get you to a tyre place. Bit of advice, ring the tyre place, some would rather come get your wheel than deal with the muck in the can.

Plan B is Ultraseal or gloop. Either put it in the tube before you leave home or after the puncture. Works (in my case) 12 times out of 13. Hole number 13 was where the nail found the tube seam and make a V-cut too big to seal. The French-Polish tyre fitter cursed the stuff in at least three languages but we were up and running in a couple of hours.

The 100% method is the tube change. In Mongolia, France or Salt Lake City on a Sunday, the UK if anyone is having a day as bad as yours etc. this makes you self sufficient and free of the limits imposed by supply chain managers. Change the tube, patch the one you burst when you stop for the night and repeat until the shops have stock.

A tip about tyre levers: it's not the size it's what you do with them

Practice, practice, practice until you know what your rims are like. Some (MZ, Triumph) can be changed with a pair of T-spoons. Others (Moto Guzzi, F650) need heat, lube, a G-clamp, two prop forwards...

Good Luck

Andy

Hey Clive. After suffering three punctures this year so far I'm getting some tyreseal installed. This stuff is a liquid that expands to fill punctures. Works on tubed and un-tubed tyres.

As TWB said, I'd perfect my tyre & tube changing at home in the comfort of a garage, it's the only guaranteed result. I had a puncture at the start of trailride last Saturday AM, removed the wheel & tyre to check what had caused it before fitting a new HD tube followed by the tyre etc. Back on the road within 30 minutes or so.

I used the foam repair once & it didn't work, never bothered again. Had a 3" gash in the side of a friends R12GS on a trail in the Pyrenees a few years ago. Popped the tyre off & fitted the spare 18" tube from my KTM in to his 17" BMW wheel, all done with the bike on it's side & the wheel attached as he'd lost his toolkit, unable to remove the wheel.

No amount of gloop/Ultraseal etc will fix something like this:

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My experiences: Had a cut something like in Steves photo above in Malawi on the R100GS. The tyre fitted was tubeless and the first problem was breaking the bead. I then fitted the spare tube which was new but nothing special (not heavy duty). We inflated the tyre with the last of our CO2. It only lasted about 10 miles and when we dismantled it again found that the jagged adges of the original damage had rubbed through the tube - it may have helped if it had been pumped up a lot harder. Repaired the tube and turned it round and pumped it up with our knackered footpump but it didn't last long. After much messing about we got back to Llilongwe and spent a week trying to find a 17" tyre somewhere in Malawi which was an adventure in itself. We eventually had to get one flown in from Johannesburg.

Since then, I have learned from experience that tubed tyres are a slightly easier fit on the rim and that makes it easier to break the bead at the roadside and that electric pumps can be of suspect reliability so at the very least have a back up (I like C02), also some tyre lube is really useful and the inside of a badly cut tyre can be repaired using the car type mushroom tubeless repair patches with the right glue and cleaner.

In summary, to be absolutely sure you've got a 'get you home' fix for pretty much any tyre situation you need to carry quite a lot of kit.

HI i carry a tubeless repair kit had to use it for first time last week in spain found the 3 small co2 canisters didnt put much pressure in but enough to get to a garage to inflate properly i then bought a small bike pump you can get your tyre pretty well inflated with it and its only small . if you split your tyre as badly as in photo in previous post on tubeless id be stuffed but on tubed wheels use your old tube as a sleeve ,cut your valve out slit around center and put your new tube inside or duct tape over split inside tyre ,giving a double thickness and poss much needed miles