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A Great Tire Kit for Guzzi Riders

G

Greg Field

Cruisin' Guzzisti
Joined
Dec 7, 2008
Messages
102
After trying everything from bicycle pumps to electric pumps to CO2, here's the tire kit I found to be the best and handiest for use on a Guzzi. It's got an engine pump, patches for tubes, plugs for tubeless tires, and the tools to insert the plugs. It all fits in a handy little bag that stows under the seat of my V11 or in the saddlebag of the Eldo. You could even shove it in a jacket pocket. It takes up 1/4 the room of the smallest electrical pump and weighs less than half. You can't ever run out of cartridges, though you can run out of plugs if you have a very bad day. Carry at least five.

The plugs it comes with are the sticky, rope-type plugs. These are far better than those mushroom plugs for use in any tire that has steel cords or belts. Why? Those cords will eventually cut right through the stem of the mushroom plugs, and the plugs'll get sucked into your tire, and the tire will go flat. This happened to me several times before I gave up on them. Best of all are the thicker, brown plugs made for car tires that you can get at any good auto-parts store. I buy these and throw them into the kit. The pic below shows one I installed when I got a flat 90 miles from home on the way back to the National.

PICT0069.jpg


Yes, I know the tire is worn out. The left side had been roasted 1500 miles ago, so I spent most of the way back hanging off the left side and leaning the bike right and riding any reverse road crown I could find to shift more of the wear to the right side of the tire in effort to nurse it home. Stupid? Probably. But it got me home, where I had a free cast-off plugged Pilot Road 2 waiting to be installed. I guess I'm cheap.

PICT0071.jpg


That metal end is the pump itself. Thread it into one spark plug hole. Once you start the bike, compression from the engine drives a piston in there to pump fresh air into the tire. Be sure to ground the unused plug and wire to the engine somewhere to prevent damage to your ignition.

PICT0070.jpg


The other end screws solidly onto the valve stem. After plugging your tire, start the bike, rev it a little, and the tire'll be up to pressure faster than you could ever believe. I think that little pump'd be able to seat a bead, if it had to.

These are available from any Parts Unlimited dealer. We have 'em at Moto Intl., if your local dealer does not stock them.
 
I have, & have used the engine air pump, happily, on my older Tontis. Seems to me the potential problem with it is on twin plugged bikes to prevent a spark from the inner plug. Not on my twin plugged by aftermarket T3, easy enough to pull the plug wire to the inside plug at the coil, at least where mounted on my bike below the steering head. Rather, on the newer twin plugged Guzzis, ie, Norge, Griso, Breva. We all know it's hell to get at the inner plugs & the plug leads to them. Is there an easier place to interrupt spark from the inner plugs on these? Aren't the coils on the Norge butied underneath all the tupperware? I was thinking about picking up the small electric pump made by the Slime people, Kiwi Dave showed me how easy it was to use while we were coming back from the Natioanl. Pretty small, too.
 
So, the kit shown contains everything mentioned?

I've wondered about the fate of a mushroom plug through steel mesh, but what I fail to see is how the mushroom head could be sucked into the tyre? Sucking implies a vacuum, not what I'd expect in an inflated tyre ;)
 
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