With the current situation in the world and mostly working from home, the motorcycles really only get out on the weekends. For the past couple of weeks I have had to check the air pressure in the rear tire of the Multistrada and pump it up before the ride due to a slow leak. The current tires are Dunlop Road Smart 3 with approximately 4,000 miles on them so I initially suspected that the valve stem or valve core would be the problem and not the tire itself, but the valve stem was tight to the wheel and a new valve core did not solve the problem.
Time to get out the soapy water and investigate further. After rotating the rear tire, soaping, and watching, I found a small fragment of an old nail embedded in the tread.
The Multistrada tool kit comes with tire plugs and CO2 cartridges for on the road puncture repairs, but I decided to use Dynaplug for the repair which indicates that it will repair punctures up to a 16D nail. The idea is to remove the nail from the tire, insert the plug, remove the tool, and you are done all while trying not to lose too much air from the tire.
In this case the bit of nail that punctured the tire was tiny and therefore very difficult to insert the plug into the same hole that you just removed the nail from. The directions did indicate that if it was small hole, you could drill the hole with a 3/32″ or 1/8″ drill bit which I probably should have done. The Dynaplug tool that I purchased also had a head on the end that allowed you to drive it in with a hammer and that is what I did.
You can use up to four plugs in one repair, but another soap test showed that the one plug was sufficient.
Once you are satisfied that the plug is airtight, you can trim the excess off of the plug. Hard work for the first attempt at a puncture repair. I was sweating trying to get the plug in while working in the garage. Not sure I would want to try to do this on the side of the road, but at least now I know the process.
Two Wheel Junkie 