Looking for recommendation for new rear tire

Hello fellow members. Experienced my first flat tire yesterday after only 650 total miles on the bike. Plan on removing the wheel from the bike in the next couple of days. What brand of tire would you guys recommend as a replacement? This is the rear tire and I'm assuming I'll also need a new tube? Additionally, undecided at this point whether I want to tackle removing and replacing the tire myself or taking it to a shop. The extent of my "off road" riding is primarily dirt and gravel roads. Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the forum. What condition is your tire in? If the stock IRC GP-5 has been working for you and it's a simple and small puncture in the tread area, then you might just need to replace the tube and you may still get a few thousand miles out of the tire itself.

If you are entertaining the idea of aftermarket tires, there's a megathread of options here: https://hondatrail125.com/index.php?threads/tires-megathread.732/

Hi dmonkey. Thanks for your response. Yesterday I removed the wheel from the bike so I could get a better look at the tire. After a thorough inspection, the tire appears to be fine. I had a local tire shop reinflate it and found out air is leaking from the valve stem. I plan on removing the tube as soon as I receive the tools which should be here next week. Regards Brooksey.

These may be silly questions. Did you tighten the stem and recheck it? Why can't you just get a new stem core and replace it? Simple quick and cheap.

Often what seems like air leaking from the stem on a tubed tire is air leaking from the tube, and then finding its way out around the stem due to that being the easy way out of the wheel under pressure. It's easier for the air to come out there than through spoke holes. Easy way to test is to plug the valve stem with a cap or your finger and see if it continues to leak from around the stem rather than the valve core.

Glad to hear you're investing in tools to DIY! It's very rewarding to do your own work, even though it can be a hassle. Hope you're able to get it sorted out and get back to riding soon.

oldskool said:

These may be silly questions. Did you tighten the stem and recheck it? Why can't you just get a new stem core and replace it? Simple quick and cheap.

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Yes, did that already. Appears air is escaping where stem attaches to tube, but won't know for sure until I get tube out.

brooksey said:

Yes, did that already. Appears air is escaping where stem attaches to tube, but won't know for sure until I get tube out.

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Sometimes what causes this is a low tire that allows the tire to slip on the rim, ripping the valve stem as the tube moves with the tire. On lower pressure tires (dirtbikes, etc), the back wheel usually has a rimlock to keep the tire from spinning on the rim during hard acceleration. On higher pressure tires, there is a mixed bag of opinions and experiences about rimlocks - some have experienced flats actually caused by the rimlock.

Markbxr400, I think this is exactly what happened. Thanks for the comments. Regards Brooksey.