Going to the Dark Side

[user 213]

166 pages to discuss a rear tire - wow.

Yes, and it's the many posts like yours that added to the pages.

 

[rbentnail]

That General G-Max should be good in the snow..

I was thinking the wet

. Down our way we're quickly moving into the summer heat so it rains a little nearly every evening. I work the graveyard shift so very often I miss the rain but the roads are still wet.

You'll love the Darkside in the wet. You have a metric butt load of traction, it's nearly impossible to hydroplane, and it throws a rooster tail so big NO ONE will tailgate you.

I haven't been in the actual falling stuff, just the remnants of it. I've been working with the pressure from 28 (too squishy) to 36 (too squirrely) and settled on 32. That's where it seems the most comfortable to me. This morning I finally whipped up the courage to put 'er to the test. IMHO this thing is more confidence inspiring than several of the harder m/c tires I've tried on tar snakes and with pegs dragging. Most of the differences you notice right off fade away and quickly become non-issues.

I shoulda made the change years ago and saved my wallet the trouble of buying 2 or 3 rear tires every year for the past 5 years.....

 

[user 213]

That's pretty much how I felt when I did it. Just not that much difference. You will appreciate that it stays the same feel throughout the life of the tire.

You will note in the FAQ that most found the sweet spot on tire pressure to be 31-32 psi.

 

[rbentnail]

That's pretty much how I felt when I did it. Just not that much difference. You will appreciate that it stays the same feel throughout the life of the tire.
You will note in the FAQ that most found the sweet spot on tire pressure to be 31-32 psi.

I did notice that spec in the thread and figured I'd prolly end up around it somewhere. But, as we all know, butt-feel is subjective so using the 32 as a baseline I was able to adjust it to my liking and see where it ends up rather than just take someone else's word for it. I'm funny that way. I tried 28 then pumped it up to 36 then rode. I just let about 2 seconds of air out and ride again. Then repeat until I found what felt good to me. Then repeat until it lost some comfort. Then pump up for 2 seconds. Voila! 32 cold psi.

 

[Bustanut joker]

166 pages to discuss a rear tire - wow.

Yes, and it's the many posts like yours that added to the pages.

No doubt a nay Sayer with an opinion that is contradictory... But he hasn't been down the road.

 

[rbentnail]

One other thing I noticed today on my 140 mile ride-round-the-block: the speedometer error (compared to gps) is now negligible. Mine was dead on until 45 mph then 55 gps = 57 speedo, 65 gps = 68 speedo, etc. Now it's dead on until 60, 70 gps = 71 speedo, 80 gps = 82 speedo. Nice little unexpected benefit that I'll have to retrain myself on.

 

[garyahouse]

Gettin' close to the wear bars now with a 6k tour across America trip behind me. Prolly took some extra rubber off it traveling at high speeds through those miserable SW deserts, but all in all it's held up well. It's been on for 2 1/2 years and 30k miles thus far. The way I drive, that would have been a minimum of three MT tires burned up.

Gary

darksider #44

 

[Bungie]

Update:

I had to call off the Alaska trip. I've been riding around since then with the Bridgestone on it. WAY better than the Cooper POS. It still has the negative traits of the Cooper, just not as severe. If I lived on the slab, I wouldn't have any problems running the CT full time. So, I'm going back to the bike tire, but I'm keeping the Bridgestone and will remount it when I'm doing major trips in the future.

So, I sort of backhanded thumbs up

 

[RadioHowie]

Gonna Darkside the '13???????

BTW, if you guys would just put a Michelin Exalto or A/S Plus back there, you wouldn't have ANY complaints!

 

[garyahouse]

+1 Howie. I was carving up the twisties coming out of the Mountains on I-8 after leaving San Diego two weeks ago, and had no issues on my Exalto. It just crossed the 30k mile mark.

Gary

darksider #44

 

[RadioHowie]

Just turned 36k on my Michelin. Have NEVER, NOT ONCE regretted the decision to Darkside Frankenbike...I'd have gone through about 6 different rears on him in this same time...October 2009 to today with the same back tire. Incredible! Getting to the point I'm gonna be worrying about dry-rot in the sidewalls before the tread ever wears out!

 

[TriggerT]

So some thoughts on using a car tire in the IBR.

First, IMHO, using a car tire for an event like this is an absolute must. At no point during the rally did I give the wear of the rear tire even a second thought. The tire performed perfectly, and I even found a new area in which a car tire outperforms a cycle tire; soft sand.

I did however find out the hard way that one preconception I had about a car tire was completely false. I believe I had read that even with ZERO air pressure in the car tire the sidewalls would be stiff enough to ride at low speeds. I can tell you for 100% FACT this is not the case. On the ride home from the rally something put a 3/16" hole in the car tire, and I lost air pressure very rapidly. Because the shoulder of the highway had a major slant to it I had to ride on the flat tire for several hundred yards, and in doing so the tire broke the bead lose. Luckily I had a ratchet strap I was able to put around the tire to get the bead back on, and I had the tire repaired and was back underway within about 15-20 minutes.

No question this is the way to go for lots of high mile days, but they are not run flat.(Which is OK with me as I don't want a run flat anyway)

 

[wfooshee]

Well, I got home from work with mine low enough it wouldn't read any pressure. It felt funny on the way home, I stopped and looked at it, saw nothing visibly wrong but my air gauge was missing, so I rode home, found the gauge in the garage where I'd laid it down some days before, and checked it. Could not get a reading.

That was not highway speed, though, for sure. Mine is a Dunlop something-or-other, can't be bothered to go look, so I'm sure there are tire-to-tire variances.

BTW, it needed no repair, has not leaked since, so I suspect some "friends" at work having a little amusement.

 

[gixxerjasen]

Break their fingers.

 

[wfooshee]

Then I'd have to do their work, but not receive their pay. Not worth it.

 

[gixxerjasen]

Break their toes?

 

[user 213]

I did however find out the hard way that one preconception I had about a car tire was completely false. I believe I had read that even with ZERO air pressure in the car tire the sidewalls would be stiff enough to ride at low speeds. I can tell you for 100% FACT this is not the case.

<snip>

No question this is the way to go for lots of high mile days, but they are not run flat.(Which is OK with me as I don't want a run flat anyway)

Glads you had a good IBR Tim, nice to meet you as well,.

The zero pressure characteristics do vary between tires, that is for certain. On my original BT-019G, it did surprisingly well at zero pressure, but my one experience with this was coming off the highway where centrifugal forces were in play. Another Darksider had to ride an extended distance on a known flat BT-019G and it did it, but destroyed the tire, with damage to the inside of the sidewalls.

I suspect there is a sweet spot on the speed factor with a flat. Too slow, the forces in play will not be enough to stand the tire up and you will separate the bead from the rim. Too fast and you build heat to the point of resulting in tire damage and separation. Even a run flat is not expected to allow you to run on it for any real distance, just enough to get you to a safe location for repair.

Thanks for sharing your first hand experience. What tire were you running?

 

[TriggerT]

Michelin Exalto. Like I said, there was a good 3/16" hole in the tire, but since I plugged it with a string type plug is has been good.

 

[txvoyager]

IMHO, using a car tire for an event like this is an absolute must. At no point during the rally did I give the wear of the rear tire even a second thought. The tire performed perfectly, and I even found a new area in which a car tire outperforms a cycle tire; soft sand.

Agreed! In addition to the 10k+ miles for the IBR, I rode a bit more than 3k miles to and from the event. No question I would have needed to pay attention to my rear tire, something that clouded the final couple of days of my 48+ ride last year.
On another note, I had about 2500 miles on my Mich Exalto prior to departing for Pitt, but had never ridden much other than slab for my daily commute. On leg 2 I got to follow Wendy C. up Pikes Peak and was really happy with the CT's performance on that most twisty of rides and a pretty decent pace...

So far, with a bit over 17k miles on the tire I can't think of even one reason to switch back...

 

[karstenp]

OK.. for the first time ever I am considering going to the darkside. Unlike TriggerT and txvoyager, I elected to go with a tire swap at the first IBR checkpoint in Pittsburgh. I had to shorten my first leg in order to ensure that I arrived at the checkpoint in enough time to perform the tire swap. After reflecting on the IBR and the areas where I can make improvements, I have decided to try changing the rear tire to a Mich. Exalto. I need to do my research on this thread first but I intend to switch asap in order to get as much seat time as possible prior to the next IBR.

Perry