Well, my fresh-ish rear Metzeler picked up a particularly sharp piece of metal at some point during the last ride, and when I measured my tyre pressures today, a week later, the rear was down to 1.5 bar. Took a while to spot the offender since it was exactly in one the aforementioned fresh tread canyons.
So, I read the very simple
Dynaplug instructions, and got everything ready for these 4 steps:
1. Pull out offending metal shard
2. Check alignment of the hole
3. Push in gooey plug/string (see link above - it has a nice sharp brass tip you push into offending hole)
4. Pull tool back out to leave the brass+string in the tyre
5. Cut off the excess plug/string
I've even watched the video - a 30-60s fix. Easy peasy.
Step 1: Easy, obvs. Pull, hisssssssss.
Step 2: Hmmm, the hole is 5-6mm into the tread groove and difficult to see what angle the shard came out at, but that won't be a problem.
Steps 3 & 4: Whoa, this isn't easy. Shove shove, shove. Nope. 5 sweaty minutes later, with the bike rocking dangerously on the centre stand, I can't get the bloody brass tip to disappear more than halfway into the hole.
I try letting the tyre down in case that helps it flex a little better. Nope.
The metal shard is about half the width of the brass, so maybe I need to ream the hole a bit. Fetch a small Phillips screwdriver, and shove - that goes in OK after a couple of goes, but I don't want to use a big screwdriver because that's just making the problem hole bigger.
Another 5 mins properly hard shoving and eventually the brass tip has disappeared, but not really in a convincing manner. Removing the tool didn't really feel like the brass tip was definitely inside the tyre. Pump the tyre up, and hissssssssssssss. Grrr.
However, I remember when Rae fixed Matt's puncture he used more than one stringy thingy.
So, push in another one - and hey that definitely went right in this time, AND the tool pulled out with a satisfying noise. Still hissing.
And another one. Even easier - only about 20s shoving, and again a clean withdrawal.
Ah, 3 plugs/strings inserted now, and it seems to have gone quiet (proof of the pudding will be tomorrow morning).
Step 5. Snip. At last, finished.
I couldn't have done all that on a dark wet night. :-(
Lesson 1: Check your tyre pressures the night before a ride, even though you've got TPMS fitted. I often don't if I've ridden within a week, and rely on TPMS, which I guess would have alerted me, but the ride would have been stuffed.
Lesson 2: Try & get someone else to help, if it's the rear wheel. I really needed two hands to shove the tipped plugs in, with someone steadying the bike from the front, so it didn't roll off the centre stand.
Last bit: was there anything I could have done to make it easier? Maybe lubricate the brass tip?
Advice welcome.