Tubeless Tyre Puncture Repair: Step-by-Step Guide for Two-Wheelers

While being interrupted by a puncture in the tubeless tyre of your two-wheeler can be a nuisance, it will not last long if you follow these basic steps to repair it in an emergency.

• In a tubeless tyre, air dissipates very slowly from a puncture hole.
• Repairing a puncture in a tubeless tyre is doable if you carry a basic puncture tyre repair kit in your two-wheeler.
• After repairing a puncture, it is essential to fill the air back in the tubeless tyre as soon as possible.

Keep the puncture tyre repair kit in hand with you

It is essential to keep a puncture tyre repair kit along with you while riding a two-wheeler. Especially, if you are riding your two-wheeler over long-distance trips. A puncture tyre repair kit for a two-wheeler generally consists of items like pliers for pulling out the puncture-causing object, puncture repair strips to fill in the puncture-causing holes, puncture strip insertion tool, a knife or blade and a puncture rubber solution tube. 

If you are riding a scooter, keep this kit inside the boot compartment below the seat, or keep the kit in the side body cowls or below the seat in case of motorcycles.

Detect the spot or hole causing the puncture

The first step to repairing a punctured tyre is finding the exact spot or hole from where the air is leaking. Finding such a hole or cut, which causes the puncture, can be hard to find in a tubeless tyre since the air leaks from a tubeless tyre at a slow and unnoticeable pace. Check for a protruding object like a nail or screw over the tyre's surface directly from your eyes. Usually, such a protruding object pierces into the tyre over its contact patch.

Pulling out the sharp object from the tyre that resulted in puncture

It is quite difficult at times to pull out a sharp object from the surface of the tyre, especially if that object is tiny in size. While a screw can be pulled out directly from the hand, the same cannot be about smaller objects like nails, pins or thorns. For such minutely-sized objects, it is advisable to play safe by using the pliers present in your puncture tyre repair kit. 

Ensure that the object is completely removed from the tyre's surface, as any part of that object left in that tyre will keep on causing leakage of air from that spot.

Create enough space for a puncture insertion strip to fill in the puncture hole

The puncture repair strips, which fill in the puncture holes, are linear and thin in shape, which can take the form and size of the puncture hole after penetrating it. To ensure that it gets accommodated completely in the puncture hole, create enough room for the puncture-repairing strip material. It can be done by using the puncture strip insertion tool, by pushing it into the hole and rotating it in a clockwise direction. Pull out that tool after it creates sufficient room for the strip to fill in that hole.

Time to take out the puncture insertion strip

Puncture insertion strips provided in the puncture tyre repair kit are covered in plastic seals, and to use them, you must remove that seal. After that, push the puncture insertion strip through the strip insertion tool from its lower strip. On doing so, the insertion strip gets stuck on the tool’s tip, and if that doesn’t happen, you can take the help of a needle or a thread. However, that happens in very rare cases, as the strip’s adhesive nature helps it in covering the tip of the tool.

Push the puncture insertion strip in the hole or cut

After applying the insertion strip on the tip of the puncture strip insertion tool, it is time to push that tool with the strip applied on its tip against the hole created by the tool earlier. It is to be noted that the strip might not be able to entirely cover the hole, as it can protrude after the tool is pushed into the hole. 

When the plastic part of the tool’s handle touches the tyre’s surface, it is time to gradually pull out the tool, while pushing the strip into the hole simultaneously. It will result in the strip completely covering the hole after the tool is pulled out completely.

Cut off the remaining part of the insertion strip with the knife

Once the strip protrudes into the puncture hole with the help of the insertion strip. It’s time to cut the remaining part of the strip, which sticks out over the tyre surface. You can remove this protruding part of the strip with the help of a blade or knife, which is a part of the puncture tyre repair kit.

Fill the tyre back with the recommended tyre pressure level

At this time, the air level in the punctured tyre might be completely zero, as the entire air earlier in the tyre blew out from the puncture hole during the repair process. After the puncture hole is sealed, it is time to refill it again with air, according to the tyre pressure level mentioned by the automaker. If no air leaks out of the puncture spot just repaired, it confirms that the puncture repairing process was successful.