Ran Over a Screw

[Chim]

And it sucks. Luckily it didn't go flat, it went in at kind of a weird angle: sideways inside a groove in the tread. I noticed it later at home, when I was looking over my tires. I'll try to take a picture later, though I've already pulled the screw out.

After agonizing for days over what to do I went ahead and ordered a new tire and am thinking I'll take a crack at changing it myself (changed a tire on a moped before... but this is pretty different. Mostly I'm actually more worried about taking the wheel on and off the bike properly, but so long as I follow the service manual, hopefully it'll go alright... )

The thing that really sucks to me is, it isn't even a puncture, the inner tube is just fine. I thought about plugging the hole, but it seemed like a reamer/plugger kit meant for a tubeless tire might actually do MORE damage. In other words, puncture the tube.

I'm still new to riding and owning a motorcycle, but from all my hours of googling and asking my boss (who rides) what he figured, it seems like the general consensus is that the safest thing to do is just to replace the tire. It's a pain, and there are still plenty of miles left in the tire, but it is kind of old, anyway, and it's not like there aren't certain cracks and such I've been 'overlooking,' so I might as well. Still, for future reference and just for the sake of learning everything I can, if this were a brand new tire and the situation were the same (screw goes in tread, doesn't penetrate the tube) what would y'all suggest doing? Can a tubed tire be plugged safely? What are the dangers of riding with a hole like that in the tire? Pretty much, if you were in my situation, what would you have done?

Thanks for the advice!

(And like I said, I'll try to post a picture later. As for depth, I'd say the screw itself (the head had ground off by the time I found it) was probably an inch or so long, with maybe 3/4 of that in the tire? Also, this was in the rear tire, if that makes any difference.)