Can I plug my flat tubeless mountain bike tire?

Bicycle newbie here. Took my brand new Trek mountain bike out on a paved path. After a few miles a had a flat from a small sharp rock. I watched videos of people fixing tubeless tires with plugs, so I walked into my local bike shop looking for a tire repair kit. The guy told me they had to take off the tire to repair it, that there is no such thing as plugging a tubeless bike tire, and it would cost me $50.00.

So can I fix this tire with a tubeless repair kit like this Dynaplug?

Or do I have to use something like this Vulcanizing patch from Park Tool.

What if I’m in the middle of a ride, or biking from city to city? Is this guy really claiming there is no way to repair these tires when out on a ride?(he said the sealant prevents 99.9 percent of flats)

I was reading Park Tools guide to repairing a tubeless tire(the long way) and it said “If a sealant is used, it will make the tire casing diffiuclt if not impossible to repair by patching.” Are they implying that people should not use sealant in tubeless tires? I thought that was pretty standard.

I didn’t even know bikes had tubeless tires.

My experience with car tires is that ideally a patch from inside is the best and preferred way, but I have used patch kits like in your link to a very high success rate (IIRC one failure, constant slow leak still usable). (car) Tire shops don’t recommend the patch kit repairs that go through the tire. The cost to repair a car tire is usually under $20, though I haven’t needed such service in over 8 years so prices may have risen, but the cost of a new tire is always a limiting factor of how much they can charge. $50 seems excessive, but if it’s cuban fiber Kevlar reinforced with titanium belts perhaps that’s a OK price.

Hope this helps

Here’s a much better place to ask this question:

Tubeless tires can be plugged. They make small plugs specifically for bike tires. The other option is to patch the tire casing from the inside of the tire.

If you patch the casing, here are some things to know:

  1. The film of sealant that may have formed on the inside of the casing needs to be removed. This can usually be done fairly easily with a shop rag. If the sealant is still wet it is easier. If it’s dried out then wetting it with water will make it much easier. What you want to do is expose the rubber on the inside of the tire. Sealant is useful on tubeless tires, it just needs to be removed before the tire can be patched.

  2. You can use a normal bike tube patch to repair the tire, but DO NOT use the sandpaper to roughen up the rubber on the tire like you would when patching a tube. If you do, you will cut the case threads of the tire and will ruin the tire. Once a few of these threads are cut, the tire will distort when it is aired up. I learned this the hard way. Sanding is not required, just make sure the inside of the tire is clean and dry.

  3. Before remounting a tire that has had sealant in it, take a shop rag and clean off all of the sealant that is on the bead of the tire. Clean the bead on the rim also. This debris will make it harder for the tire to seat on the rim.

As for on the trail (or road) repairs, usually sealant will eventually seal any hole that it is capable of sealing, but you might have to add sealant if there is not enough in the tire. You can buy 2 ounce bottles to carry in your pack. If all else fails, you simply remove the valve stem from the wheel and install a normal tube. This almost always works. Of course, if the tire failure is a big sidewall tear, a temporary boot may also be needed.

It sounds like a hassle, but in my experience tubeless tires are far better than tubes. There is a bit of a learning curve to it, but it is well worth it. So if your tires were installed by the bike shop and you have never mounted and inflated a tubeless tire before, then take the time to do it in your garage or shop to get the hang of it. You don’t want to do it for the first time on the side of the road during a ride.

Oh, and for what it is worth, the Bontrager tires that come with Trek bikes are junk. I switched from Bontragers to Specialized tires on my Trek and will never get another Bontrager tire again.

It would seem that any thread you start in General Questions would illicit the response of:

Epic username/post combo!

That sounds mighty fishy to me. I suspect you can plug a tubeless bike tire, and kits for doing it are out there. You may have to go searching. Once you find something that works, fix your tire, then have all your friends one at a time go into the shop and ask them if they can fix a tubeless bike tire. When they say “no”, have them lift up the wheel, show them the patch, and say “Wrong!”. The more friends you can get to do this, the better, and the more people in the shop at the time, the better!:smiley:

As for using sealant, I suspect that you shouldn’t use it with a tubeless tire. The sealant stuff might make it hard for you to ream out a hole and push the plug in. I’m not a sealant user myself. I think it’s only good for tubes, not tires. Again, you should search online.