Rhinotire Sealant

Rhinotire Sealant

CW EVALUATION

Are flats a thing of the past?

GETTING A FLAT TIRE IN AN AUTOMObile is aggravating enough. But on motorcycles, flats are a lot scarier, more troublesome to repair and can easily lead to serious harm for the bike’s operators. No wonder riders dread them so much.

New York-based Rhino Tire is out to assuage those fears with a patented “Rhinotire” tire treatment claimed to seal punctures immediately after they occur. The treatment involves a special adhesive polymer gel that is first sprayed and then baked on all around the inner circumference of the tire. The gel remains tacky after application so it can migrate into and seal any puncture holes. Rhino Tire will either sell you brand-new tires of most popular brands and sizes that have already been treated or apply the gel to your tires.

To see how well Rhinotire works, we mounted a set of treated Michelin Pilot Power tires on our long-term Benelli 1130 TnT and rode it over a bed of nails and wood screws. We merely emulated a demonstration video on Rhino Tire’s website in which a Honda CBR1000RR is repeatedly ridden over a nail-infested wooden plank and shows no apparent air leakage afterward.

Our outcome was not so positive. Spraying soapy water on the tread of both tires after two runs over the nails and screws revealed more than a dozen leaking holes in the front tire and half a dozen in the rear. Thinking that perhaps a little time and tire heat were needed for the gel to flow, we rode the bike a few miles and checked again; still just as many bubbling holes. So we reset the pressures in both tires, parked the bike in our shop overnight and checked the pressures again in the morning. The front tire had lost 28 psi and the rear 14, and both still had just about as many leaking holes.

We reset the pressures again and rode the bike hard for 20 miles, including full-throttle acceleration, speeds approaching 100 mph and braking at the limit. Immediately afterward, more than half the punctures were still leaking but the others had apparently sealed.

While this showed that Rhinotire does not, as the company claims, “automatically seal out any possibility of air leakage,” there is value in this technology nonetheless. Had we subjected untreated tires to as many punctures, they would have deflated immediately. And multiple punctures like ours rarely, if ever, occur; if a tire were to get the usual single puncture, Rhinotire would allow you to continue riding for many miles. Even if the tire eventually became too deflated for safe riding while you were in an isolated area, you could reinflate it with CO2 cartridges or any other air source and continue on a lot farther. That alone could make the expense of Rhinotire a worthwhile, confidence-boosting expenditure.

Just don’t expect it to ignore a puncture altogether. E3

DETAILS

Rhino Tire, LLC 39-39 47th Ave. Sunnyside, NY 11104 212/202-1606 www.rhinotire.com Price. . . $36 to $397 for pre-treated new tires

Ups

Extends post-puncture riding time

Seals some small punctures

Even multiple punctures won't cause rapid deflation

Downs

Adds unsprung weight (approx. 1 to 2 lb. per tire)

Could allow catastrophic carcass damage to go unnoticed

No usual Internet discounts on pre-treated tires