[Jeff Higgins]

With tubeless tires, we all carry a kit to just plug them. Pretty easy to do. With tubes, we carry a patch kit and tire irons.

That said, tubed tires on the wrong bike can strand you. I bought a new Road King in 2000 that had spoked wheels, demanding tubes. They were an option, already on the bike that someone else had ordered and wound up not able to pay for the bike. I asked that they be removed and the stock cast wheels fitted instead. The dealership refused, because in those days, they could have had the bike sold as-is to someone else in about five minutes. So I was stuck with laced wheels and tubes, unless I wanted to get in line and wait a year for a bike.

Just as I knew it would, that bike stranded me three or four times with flat tires over the next 13 years. No way to manually break a bead on those rims and fix a flat. Got flat-bedded to a dealership every time. Pretty frustrating, especially since I knew better. My new 2013 Road King has tubeless cast wheels, so I can plug tires.

Other than that set of circumstances, everyone I know who rides can pretty much take care of themselves. One of my laments, however, is the sheer reliability of the modern motorcycle - that reliability has opened up the sport to the less than mechanically inclined, and hence the legions of RUBs who can no more fix a flat then gap a set of points. So I know they are out there - I just don't ride with them...