Stop n Go Tire Plugger - Your Experiences?

I've always carried a SnG kit with me. This past summer in Colorado was the first time I've had to use it. I got a nail in a rear Heidenau, straight in, almost dead center.

Plugged it with the mushroom SnG plug and it held air overnight perfectly. Left the next morning with probably 50lbs of gear on the bike. 25 miles down the road I noticed it was sluggish and when I pulled over the tire was half flat. So I aired it up and made it to the next town.

When the shop pulled the tire to patch it properly, the mushroom head was severed off the plug, which I thought was pretty interesting.

Has anybody had good luck with the SnG plugs? I'm wondering if I should trust them in the future or if this was a fluke.

Thanks,
K

My favorite is the dynaplug.

http://www.dynaplug.com/products.html

Used the mushroom S&G plugs for maybe three flats and used four plugs. One I just pulled to hard on it so I think it was my fault. I still keep the kit and S&G air compressor on my bike just in case for me and others. It's better than nothing. Thinking I might add the black licorice type plug kit too for insurance.

My success ratio with my plug and go is less that fifty percent. Wanna buy a second one? ( if I can find it ) H

I have the gun-style Stop-N-Go plugging kit and it's awesome; I've plugged maybe a dozen tires and not yet had one fail significantly; the last was on my wife's scooter and she made it home over 100 miles on freeway after that without losing a PSI- the plug even seemed vulcanized in when I went to replace the tire. I swear by it, vs the rope plugs. I haven't tried Dynaplug yet but it looks a lot like S-N-G but with a metal tip. The one thing I've noticed is- don't tug it TOO hard when you're seating it- you want a gentle seat against the tire on the inside, and let the PSI do the rest.

Hardy, if you're really looking to part with a gun-style S-N-G kit let me know what you're asking- I could use three more right now.

I prefer the cat turd style available at any Walmart or auto parts store. On my Strom I had two rear tires that got punctures within the first 100-500 miles of tire life. Both were plugged and ridden to over 11k miles. Other than those, I have plugged countless tires in various stages of life left and never had a problem.

The only plug type that I have had to replace was the little mushroom type. A guy came to my garage with a leaking mushroom plug, so we pulled the tire off to inspect. It wasn't seated all the way against the tire. The next one we tried to seat better and the head of the mushroom popped off and out came the plug. The third one also didn't seat so we gave up and used the good ol' rope style.

The thing that bothered me about the little mushroom plugs were how easy they were to cut. That makes me feel like the cords of the tire might be able to actually cut the plug in the long run. Trying to cut the rope style plugs is a pain in the rear due to their fiber reinforcements. But that may just be me....

DFW_Warrior said:

I prefer the cat turd style available at any Walmart or auto parts store. On my Strom I had two rear tires that got punctures within the first 100-500 miles of tire life. Both were plugged and ridden to over 11k miles. Other than those, I have plugged countless tires in various stages of life left and never had

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I call em worms, and they're all I've ever used and had nothing but good luck.
Had an ATV tire the got a pretty bad gash on it once. Took 3 or 4 of those worms to fill it, but it held air just fine. Now I wouldn't do that on anything on the street, but a 13 psi ATV, no worries.


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I used three now. One replaced a leaking worm and sealed, another just worked, and a third leaked but was near the shoulder. A little Fix-a-flat took care of that one. So far I haven't needed to use one on the bike. Both leaks were 1-2 PSI/day.

My experience with the plugs was also about 50-75% success. I threw it away and went back to the rope-type plugs.

I have a stop-n-go kit and have used it with mixed results, usually positive. Success with either kind of "depends", a crap shoot either way

DFW_Warrior said:

I prefer the cat turd style available at any Walmart or auto parts store. On my Strom I had two rear tires that got punctures within the first 100-500 miles of tire life. Both were plugged and ridden to over 11k miles. Other than those, I have plugged countless tires in various stages of life left and never had a problem.

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That has been my experience though I didn't have as many miles on them. I reckon I had about 3-4K miles on the rear 919 before I got a new tire. Plug held up fine.

That's what I'm thinking, depending on the outcome of the experiences here. The licorice has never failed me.

M38A1 said:

Used the mushroom S&G plugs for maybe three flats and used four plugs. One I just pulled to hard on it so I think it was my fault. I still keep the kit and S&G air compressor on my bike just in case for me and others. It's better than nothing. Thinking I might add the black licorice type plug kit too for insurance.

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I've never used any type of plug other than the black role style, and I've always had good results. You just have to make sure to have decent plugging tools. I've bent/broken several cheap ones trying to plug some stout tires. I've busted a knuckle or two in the process as well.

I have no first hand expirence with the Stop-N-Go tire plugger kit (knock on wood) but I've carried them in my saddlebags for years. I do know friends that have had to use the kit on road trips before and they have always had good luck with them, no failures with Stop-N-Go. Good product!

Thanks to everyone that responded. I haven't had many flats in all the years of riding, but its probably good insurance to carry both. In thinking about the whole mushroom head inside the tire, I imagine the cord sheered it off when I got up to speed. That's all I can figure.

Have a Merry Christmas!

K

My SnG kit got me home after I sliced a tire on I-10, it took 4 plugs to get it close to sealed up (probably would have take ~6 of the rope types). Second time I used it was on another rider's R1, simple nail hole where 1 plug did the job; the only catch was, we didn't have enough CO2 cartridges to get the tire fully inflated.

Forget mushroom pluggers like Stop N Go - been there, tried that, quit that

If you want the be all and end all in tire pluggers, for both motorcycles and larger vehicles, you want Safety Seal

[ame="http://youtu.be/A_5GmVCCTn8"]Safety Seal Tire Repair - YouTube[/ame]

There are two sizes of string plugs for the Safety Seal - "regular" and "slim". I carry both on the GS when riding anywhere, especially Mexico

I bought the kit displayed, and tossed the plastic box. I take only the reamer and the inserter tool, plus a few of the two sizes of plugs.

Here's the key: once you plug the leak with Safety Seal, you won't have to worry about the plug coming loose, it'll be more permanent than the remaining life in your tire.

Tire plugging is a muscle memory task. I can't tell you how many times I've seen riders get a flat and the first time they try to figure out their tire plug kit is right then, on the side of the road with a flat. Don't be a doofus, use an old motorcycle tire and drill a hole in it, and practice with your plug kit at home, before you need those skills on the side of the road somewhere. If you've never fixed a motorcycle flat and you think you're brilliant because you bought some kind of plug kit online and you plan is to throw it in your tank bag "just in case", well, you sir are a fool and a doofus.

On Safety Seal plug strings: these are the real deal. There are super cheap imitations out there, but they're not worth a pot to, well, you know the word.

If you practice with a genuine Safety Seal string and inserter tool on a practice tire, take a look at the "knot" the string forms on the inside of your tire. Try to pull that string out with a pair of pliers. If you succeed, call me, and I'll ride up and buy you dinner.

The problem with mushroom pluggers, in addition to being much more difficult to use than a string plugger, is that the compounds used to make those mushroom plugs is suspect. And they take a lot of garage practice to get right. Notice the "success percentages" listed in above posts with Stop N Go type plugs - not very heart warming.

I've used Safety Seal on my motorcycle tires as well as my car and truck tires. Always a 100% success rate and I've never gone to a tire shop to have the puncture "permanently fixed", because with Safety Seal, 1 plug and youre done.


This is how the kit comes. I have a kit in my truck and the contents of another kit on my GS.


This is what the plug looks like just before insertion


Inserting the Safety Seal string plug. Remember: the quality of these string plugs is tops in the industry. There are two sizes of these strings, regular and slim. I carry a few of both sizes, both on the bike and in the truck.


Safety Seal slim strings. Make sure you at least have these.

No matter which brand type of plug you use, don't be a doofus and never practice with your kit. Get good at plugging in your garage, before your ride. Make sure you have the confidence that you can get off the bike and have your tire plugged and inflated in short order. This isn't to just save you time, it's to make sure you have all you need to get the job done AND ensure you've made a sure, safe repair that won't strand you much less kill you down the road.

And ditch those crappy mushroom plugs. You'll thank me later.

Hmmmm, having plugged lots of tires in my day I must say that I like the addition of the collar around the plug tool shaft. I might have to pick me up one or three of those.

Good experience with StopNGo but I always add Slime or Ride-on in addition to.

My WORST experience with a stop n go was a slow leak over the rest of the life of a tire. Otherwise, the 5 or so times i have used them, they functioned flawlessly for the rest of the tire life. I guess i just did it right.


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Alright Trice, you sold me. l was reading through your post and kept thinking, OK it looks like a fancy wrapper on the same old plug-ropes. Then I read about how these are truly different than the kind you buy at Napa or WallyWorld. So its worth 50 bucks.

Thanks for the reply.

Cheers,
K

I've had good experience with SnG plug kit. I also carry $20 Slime 12v compressor.

I've always used the rope plugs, but I learned to do something a little different. I don't use the rubber cement. (It's always dried out when I need it unless it's an untapped tube.) I keep a cigar lighter in my kit, and when I'm ready to put the rope in the hole, I light it off and let it burn about 15 seconds to melt it. THEN I push it in, give it two full turns, and pull the tool. Never had one leak this way.

^

Don't know what brand of string plugs you use, but with Safety Seal none of that lighter trickery or rubber cement goofery is needed. In fact, it would probably degrade the plug.

Low quality tire plugs of any type/brand, especially the cheapo blister pack offerings in convenience stores, are to be avoided at all costs.

The heat softens and causes the rubber to out-gas, creating a better CHEMICAL BOND, a step once standard in tire patching, whether plug or inside patch. No matter what brand of patch, it increases the bond. Victor is the brand I look for in both.