I used to ride a cruiser, and it's interesting to see this thread here, considering there is also a thread that just started up on the Texas VTX board, where almost all the guys are fessing up and admitting that putting a car tire on their bike was a dumb decision. A couple are still defending it from a cost perspective, but is that really a good tradeoff? Crappy ride to save a few shekels?
The folks that complain about the "crappy" ride, usually didn't do the research before they tried it, or never actually tried it themselves, just briefly rode someone else's bike and never took the time to get used to the different handling characteristics.
If you want real cruiser darkside info from people that actually run the tires, and have for lots of miles, go
HERE. The mcdarksiders forum has tons of cruiser info. There is some FJR info there, but it's just my post and a link to the FJR forum thread.
I can usually tell if someone is a good candidate for the darkside by the way they ride and wear out tires. I try very hard to discourage riders that are more on the Sport end from trying the darkside. It's just not what they want, but they sometimes don't understand that for their type of riding, they won't like it. So far, no FJR rider that put the CT on has taken it off and gone back to a moto tire. The only public statement to that effect was a rider selling the bike, which made sense. Although I think it may actually have been sold with the CT still in place. Not sure what the new owner did.
Motorcycle dual compound tires have the harder compound in the center, the softer one on the sides. That's because of how we wear a moto tire out. (FredW is correct) Multi-compound Car Tires, (usually dual compound), have the harder compound on the outsides with the softer compound in the middle. Cars stress the outside tread blocks in hard cornering. Sport driving tends to wear the outsides down long before the middle, thus this arrangement for car tires.
Now, before you get your panties in a bunch, keep in mind that the harder compound of the outside of the CT is still softer than the moto tire. Yes, I know it sounds odd. The car tires are overall softer rubber than moto tires. More surface area is one reason, there are a bunch of others due to construction. This means that even though the 019 Grid is
softer than a moto tire, it still lasts far longer. This is part of the reason we get such great traction from a CT on the back of the bike too. More sipes, tread blocks and deeper tread depth are also contributors.
I'm all for a Howie Darkside thread. Good luck keeping it fairly clean and free from the harassing posts.
I may also try a Darkside FAQ thread that gleans the data from this thread, but if I do, it will be with the up front co-operation of the admins and non contributing posts will be deleted. Much the same as the other FJR FAQ threads.