Thursday, November 1, 2007

CURSE YOU FLAT TIRES!!!

So I called a number of places and most said they probably couldn't do anything. One guy actually hung up on me. So my mom made some calls for me and today I went to the place she found. They said they didn't want to risk fixing my segway because they'd never worked on one before. Then I went to a Yamaha dealership and they said to fix a tire you have to replace the tube inside the tire. They don't have tubes as small as needed and called the segway people who said you have to buy brand new tires because they don't sell just the tubes. You have to buy a new tire through your local dealership (which for me is two hours away) and that it would cost around $200 per tire. What should I do? I would try the slime stuff and air it up myself, but I have no idea how to use a tire gauge.

6 comments:

Poorhouse Dad said...

I talked to the guy at GlideMarin.com. He didn't know yet Slime=good, Fix-a-Flat=bad (for Segways). But he did confirm that your Segway uses tubes.

He looked up some of the other answers for me.

The tube can be replaced with a standard ATV innertube, sized either 14x2.75 or 14x3. We've encountered so many surprises, I don't trust that until you send me the information off the side of the tires.

For that matter, any shop that repairs ATVs should be able to replace the tube. The steps:
- remove the valve cap
- depress the center pin of the valve to let remaining air pressure out of the tube
- remove one side of the tire
- slip out the inner tube
- check the tire for foreign objects (e.g., nails)
- either patch the tube or replace it
-- I'd patch the tube
-- it may be cheaper to buy a new tube than to pay a mechanic to patch the old tube
- slip the tube back into the tire
- slip the tire back onto the rim
- make sure the valve is correctly aligned
- inflate
- replace the valve cap.

Also, make them give you the old tube.

Segway's price of your specific tires is 133.95 each, plus S/H (shipping & handling). (Not many places charge the full MSRP.)

The Segway guy is trying to locate an experienced Segway repair shop near you.

Anonymous said...

Find a local auto supply shop, and buy a 20oz bottle of SLIME for TUBED tires. Following the directions on the bottle.... put 10oz in each tire and inflate to about 18psi.
Depending on the size of the puncture, the slime should slowdown or stop any leaks.

There's lots of tire information on www.segwaychat.com

nora_k said...

Harmony,

I saw you linked to our website below - thank you so much! I'm not sure if you bought here or back home, or if you have ever contacted us or another dealer. However, depending on when you bought your machine this might help. Your tires are under 90 day warranty so unless you saw a patch of glass and thought,"glass is no match for my i2!" you might want to contact a dealer and try to get a new tire before you have to buy one.

Also, if you have to buy a wheel kit, it's $133.95 (plus tax,) which might be a little closer to $100 than the $200 you were expecting. We have them in stock in Indy and if you could get you hands on all the right tool could mail one to you to change on your own. If not, we'd happily do it at the store.

If you call the shop there is a 90% chance I'll answer the phone (unless I'm on a plane or watching a Colts game) and we can talk about it further.

However it ends up I wish you happy gliding! There are several people in FW who own and use their machines. I could put you in touch with one another and perhaps you could get a gliding group together!

nora
store manager
segway of indiana

NYCindividual said...

It would be very hard for me to get a ride to Indianapolis, so a new tire is probably out of my options (I don't really have the money anyway). I bought my segway back in California, used, through glidemarin.com and the guy who sold it to me has been very kind. He's trying to help. There's no obvious hole. I don't see any glass or nails, so I'm assuming it's a slow leak. I'd say I just need to pump it back up if it hadn't gone flat so suddenly. I don't think my parents would want me gliding with strangers, lol.

NYCindividual said...

I didn't know there were other people with segways in town. I never see anyone else anyway, and the people who comment on my segway claim they've never seen one before either.

nora_k said...

do you know when the warranty on the i2 expired? the machines have been out just over a year, so even if you purchased it used it might still be in warranty!