Riding the Darkside?

[mayassa]

I know people who have done it on the Honda reflex forum but I will stick to bike tires on my bike

 

[Darth Fazer]

I know several people, personally & on other forums, who have "gone to the Darkside" & none have ever come back. I had made up my mind to do it on my Road Star next tire change until I decided I wanted to sell it to buy my current FZ6. When you ride a 800 lb cruiser putting over 100 ft/lbs of torque to the ground and you're going through rear tires every 4k miles, a 25k mile car tire doesn't seem like a bad idea. I wouldn't put one on a bike that can lean over 35 degrees, but most cruisers can't. I'll go out onto a limb and say that you can find more online stories of Michelin Pilot Road *motorcycle* tires failing and causing crashes than Darkside tires. And yes, all car tires flex, on a motorcycle or automobile. If you don't believe me, push down on your car's fender while watching the tire. That little "love handle" on the tire close to the ground is flex. Remember, you're pushing down with less than 200 lb of force. Imagine how much it flexes in corners with thousands of pounds of the car's weight against it. If tires didn't have to flex, they could make the sidewalls out of aluminum or something. Darkside tires are definately not for everyone on every bike, but they work very well for those who understand their characteristics & are tired of hanging out at the motorcycle tire shops every few months. Look at alot of the tires from older American bikes (the ones that cruisers try to emulate) & they often have squared-profile tires on the back AND front! BTW, those of us who are using Rotella oil (diesel truck oil) in our bikes are thinking outside the (motorcycle) box too!

 

[ghostdog]

If it works for you, them or whoever then let's celebrate the savings, but at the same time if something bad happens I'd have a hard time sympathizing the decision to add a weak link to your ride that could possibly kill you.

Just trying to stay safe. My 0.02

 

[Motogiro]

I know several people, personally & on other forums, who have "gone to the Darkside" & none have ever come back. I had made up my mind to do it on my Road Star next tire change until I decided I wanted to sell it to buy my current FZ6. When you ride a 800 lb cruiser putting over 100 ft/lbs of torque to the ground and you're going through rear tires every 4k miles, a 25k mile car tire doesn't seem like a bad idea. I wouldn't put one on a bike that can lean over 35 degrees, but most cruisers can't. I'll go out onto a limb and say that you can find more online stories of Michelin Pilot Road *motorcycle* tires failing and causing crashes than Darkside tires. And yes, all car tires flex, on a motorcycle or automobile. If you don't believe me, push down on your car's fender while watching the tire. That little "love handle" on the tire close to the ground is flex. Remember, you're pushing down with less than 200 lb of force. Imagine how much it flexes in corners with thousands of pounds of the car's weight against it. If tires didn't have to flex, they could make the sidewalls out of aluminum or something. Darkside tires are definately not for everyone on every bike, but they work very well for those who understand their characteristics & are tired of hanging out at the motorcycle tire shops every few months. Look at alot of the tires from older American bikes (the ones that cruisers try to emulate) & they often have squared-profile tires on the back AND front! BTW, those of us who are using Rotella oil (diesel truck oil) in our bikes are thinking outside the (motorcycle) box too!

My bike makes 73-74 ft/lbs of torque and I get about 4000 miles out of a rear. My bike is a few pounds lighter than the FZ6. I use a pretty sticky tire (BT-016 Pro) To me, tire technology is a very complex science, pretty much beyond my personal knowledge and I do know what performance characteristics give me confidence. Even if structural technology for sidewall and tread remain static, the compound nano technology seems to be changing where tires are gaining in the wear and wet performance arenas.

My personal criteria for a good tire besides economics is do I improve my riding skills, experience and enjoyment. My BT-016 Pros have never failed me and have surprised me above and beyond my expectations.

I realize that this is a personal choice but there are proven standards in design that you can pretty much depend on. I don't think the Dark Side is thinking or living/thinking outside of the box.

 

[mrphotoman]

I put solid tires (like on a lawnmower or forklift) on my bike. Saves me about $100 a year in tires but the bike can only go in a straight line and I crash about every 5 feet. BUT LOOK AT THE MONEY I SAVE ON TIRES! :thumbup:

 

[tupac]

didnt know this was like a honda-tech forum.

say one thing and if people dont agree with you they say stuff like that.

or stuff like "thats hella gay and stupid, n00b"

instead of being instructional it turns to be a huge feeding frenzy.

kinda like a fight in highschool when kids egg a group of kids to "fight fight fight" instead of being the bigger man and taking a more mature approach.

I hope there is hope in this forum since i just joined and the internet trolls stay away.

id hate to start a thread and have trolls comment.:spank:

I had something informative to ad to the thread in my previous post

 

[ChevyFazer]

Come to think of it I don't believe I've ever herd a "darkside" crash couldn't find one on google or YouTube either, didn't look too hard tho. Guys who ride big cruiser bikes are not looking for peg/exhaust scraping performance out of there bikes "although a picture shows its very possible" and when you ride over 30k a year changing tires once a month gets old and expensive. I'm sure the guys who barely do 5k a year would never think of it, why would they it serves no benefit to em but the guys who like long runs IBA types, they do. And surprisingly a lot of IBA riders go to the darkside and "statistically" they some of the safer riders.

 

[cjjones18]

square tire means no turning... what will you do, if an obstacle gets in front of you? pray?

you will never be able to turn fast enough to avoid it.

As stated above, I've run some of my tires, squared center, and the handling was awful.

It don't matter the tire if you're going to fast you won't be able to get out of the way anyways. But I had a car tire on my vtx 1300c and it was better than any of the bike tires I put on it (personal opinon)

 

[mrphotoman]

didnt know this was like a honda-tech forum.

say one thing and if people dont agree with you they say stuff like that.

or stuff like "thats hella gay and stupid, n00b"

instead of being instructional it turns to be a huge feeding frenzy.

kinda like a fight in highschool when kids egg a group of kids to "fight fight fight" instead of being the bigger man and taking a more mature approach.

I hope there is hope in this forum since i just joined and the internet trolls stay away.

id hate to start a thread and have trolls comment.:spank:

I had something informative to ad to the thread in my previous post

Lmao, this thread is no different than someone starting a thread on "hey check out my vid of me riding in flip flops doing wheelies in traffic!" Stupid is stupid.

 

[Red Wazp]

Well boys I went Darkside on my Wing last fall.

Absolutely love it, the bike handles just about the same and I can drag the pegs 2 up just like a regular tire.

The Honda and FJR boys have been using ct's for years now without anyone crashing and burning because of the tire, in fact the traction in wet or loose gravel is amazing.

Would I run a ct on a FZ6 or my KTM, hell no but on a mega cruiser it's great.
Knock it all you want but for me it works just fine.

 

[red06]

this is just as good as that one guy on here who has ape hangers on his fz6

 

[motojoe122]

Well boys I went Darkside on my Wing last fall.

Absolutely love it, the bike handles just about the same and I can drag the pegs 2 up just like a regular tire.

The Honda and FJR boys have been using ct's for years now without anyone crashing and burning because of the tire, in fact the traction in wet or loose gravel is amazing.

Would I run a ct on a FZ6 or my KTM, hell no but on a mega cruiser it's great.
Knock it all you want but for me it works just fine.

I think it's interesting and it seems like it will work fine on a large cruiser. Keeps us posted from time to time:thumbup:

 

[Water Bear]

The question that comes immediately to mind:

If it's possible to mount car tires on touring motorcycles, why don't tire and motorcycle companies do that? Do they stand to gain a profit? Would it be more profitable to just sell more of a tire design you already produce?

The next question that comes to mind is:

Can we answer the previous questions? If not, then take your best guess.