Are puncture repairs to motorcycle tires a safe option, especially on high performance radial tires?

Michelin are the only tire manufacturers to approve repairs to their W and Z rated radials. The others, Avon, Bridgestone, Continental, Dunlop, Metzeler and Pirelli all follow the standard BS AU159/f, which allows repairs along the following guidelines:

J, what is about 100km/h, speed rating and below. Two repairs per tire, puncture hole to be 6mm or less. Over J rating and up to V, what is about 240km/h, rating, and one repair per tire, puncture hole to be 3mm or less. The repair to all tires must be confined within the central 25 percent of the tread. Repairs that comply with standard BS AU159/f and are performed by a competent tire technician are perfectly safe.

The tricky part of repairing a tire is the 'competent tire technician', as I not see many walking around in Thailand. And tires are not that expensive in Thailand.

Quote by: Anonymous

"Motorcycle Tire Punctures - use a puncture repair kit that you'll have stored under your seat "

Which, hopefully, leads to another article.
What kits are available and which are the better ones?

One big misconception is that a tubeless tire repair kit for a car is different than for a motorcycle, sure some tubeless tire repair kits are especially for motorcycles (mostly the special is that the package says MOTORCYCLE).

Anyway the kit I use, I bought at a car parts shop in the area behind MBK center, you can find a huge amount of car part and accessories sellers so you sure to find several... buy the smallest and one which comes with easy to carry Nitrous oxide (N2O) gas chargers.

You can buy the N2O gas chargers at any DIY store, I prefer to buy them at a department store like Central, which sells them as whip-cream chargers, that way I'm 100% sure that the gas inside the little tanks is not harmful for my tires...

Quote by: David

Thank you.
What's available for tubed tyres?

Basically you could use some bicycle tire repair kit for your tube tires, I did that a few times when I was still exploring Thailand and it's neighbors on a Honda CRF450X but I quickly found that taking a few spare inner-tubes was much easier. As the inner-tubes are often wet, dirty or you in a spot where you not want to foul around with clueing tires.

Another product I can highly recommend if you use inner-tubes is an instant tire sealant, you can find them also a car shops... This instant tire sealants work also with tubeless tires but they leave a serious mess inside the tire and rim... But with tires that use an inner-tube, they perfect to get to the hotel or get home and insert a new inner-tube with all the ease of the home garage comfort.

When your tire is flat, you need to scan the whole tire for what punctured it, when you removed the screw or what-every, then you insert the instant sealant liquid and pump the tire with your whip-cream nitrox gas cylinder... (depending on the size of your tire, you need 2 to 3 little nitrox cylinders to pump a tire)

Patches never last long for many resons If your really getting out and about, take a spare tube or 2
I'd rather have it and not use it than not have it and need it