newbie to the darkside

I just put a 165/80/15 kumho on my 00 shadow vt1100 this evening, took a short ride and it felt a little wishy-washy(32psi) I was thinking of trying thr CT and found this website and you pushed me over the edge.Should I go easy on cornering or just go for it? what air pressure is everybody running

By the way great website

Tire pressure seems to vary rider to rider,tire brand to tire brand and sometimes bike to bike. you just have to find your own sweet spot.I would advise scuff the tire some before you go for it. RIDE SAFE Larry S. Oh yeah welcome to the darkside

Welcome to the Darkside.
there is some great guys here that ride the shadow.
Steve-O and 85V-Twin just to name two but you will meat more soon.
as far a pressure goes, I started with 44 and thought it was to hard and dropped it to 42 .
and road on that for about 60 miles
the next day when i had more time i let out a little pressure and ride for a 15-20 mile ride then
let out another little bit of pressure and ride another 20 mile ride
took a wile but ended up that i like with my bike and my tire and the way i drive,, 36psi cold-40psi wormed up, but there are people like
Larry that has riddin a lot on car tires and he dropped his down to 32psi , now that was after he got the feel of the ride
and tire before he did it.
Matter of fact i was thinking of doing the same thing all over again but this time start with 36psi and going down from there.
good luck , and wait for the shadow guys to chime in before you change you psi on just what i said.
Horse

I ran my Kumho at 40 psi to start out. I'd recommend starting there. The thing to remember is that the tire is not slipping or anything, it just feels different. You don't have to go easy on the cornering ... the tire won't let you down.

I ran 38 to 41 in my 165/80/15. I would go up to these pressures, you will see a dramatic change.


..................bobby


.

horseman8m wrote:Welcome to the Darkside.
there is some great guys here that ride the shadow.
Steve-O and 85V-Twin just to name two but you will meat more soon.
as far a pressure goes, I started with 44 and thought it was to hard and dropped it to 42 .
and road on that for about 60 miles
the next day when i had more time i let out a little pressure and ride for a 15-20 mile ride then
let out another little bit of pressure and ride another 20 mile ride
took a wile but ended up that i like with my bike and my tire and the way i drive,, 36psi cold-40psi wormed up, but there are people like
Larry that has riddin a lot on car tires and he dropped his down to 32psi , now that was after he got the feel of the ride
and tire before he did it.
Matter of fact i was thinking of doing the same thing all over again but this time start with 36psi and going down from there.
good luck , and wait for the shadow guys to chime in before you change you psi on just what i said.
Horse

Found your problem Horse..... you are not supposed to put worms in your tires....

Jerry

PS: yes go up in pressure.

That's funny , I'm going to leave that like that.
LOL

I ran mine at about 40. I experienced the "drift effect" at pressures lower than that. it's just a sensation by the way. Lot's of folks run their tires at lower psi.

Great tire and welcome.

welcome too

my 165/80/15 runs good for me at 39-41lbs

I know you'll like it here.

mark

welcome to the safe zone !! two things here,one is, i run mine at 41 cold and thats where i like it with my shock setting on 4.two,i had a bridgestone on the front and kinda had the same feelin your describing a lil.anyway,i just put on a metzler on the front and went down in height.bridgestone was a 90,and the metz is an 80.my bike drives like a dream now.so maybe its your front tire as well as the low pressure.i know that bridgestone that was on the front made my handling bad and it wasnt the ct.it was such a dramatic change between the front tire brands,it felt like i was riding a totally different bike after the metz was put on.i dont feel any slippery feeling at all.the handling was such a dramatic change,that i had to take it easy in the curves for a couple of days because of how much easier it is to lean and turn the bike with the new front tire.as for as the kumho goes.i absolutely love everything about the tire and am sooo glad i was reffered to this sight so i could put a ct on my bike and enjoy the safety factor it brings with it.so just play with the pressure until you find the sweet spot.on a side note,you know you guys that are runnin 32psi in your ct's are wasting alot of gas and HP dont yA ?

rode the bike to work today aprox 75 miles round trip, mostly freeway. The bike is way more stable in the curves where they ground the road and when I pulled into the gravel parking lot at work it had tens more traction than the old m/c tire. I'll try some differant tire pressures once tha nubs wear off but 32 seamed pretty good

Welcome Dan!

lakecitydan wrote:rode the bike to work today aprox 75 miles round trip, mostly freeway. The bike is way more stable in the curves where they ground the road and when I pulled into the gravel parking lot at work it had tens more traction than the old m/c tire. I'll try some differant tire pressures once tha nubs wear off but 32 seamed pretty good

its nice to be riding down the road and have that solid feel to the bike.alot better than those tator skin mt's i do love my bike even though its 23 yrs old,but in the process of moddin the bike,the best mod so far is the c/t,and thats sayin alot.

THE DARKSIDE IS STRONGER !

Welcome to the darkside....

Jerry

85V-TWIN wrote:welcome to the safe zone !! two things here,one is, i run mine at 41 cold and thats where i like it with my shock setting on 4.two,i had a bridgestone on the front and kinda had the same feelin your describing a lil.anyway,i just put on a metzler on the front and went down in height.bridgestone was a 90,and the metz is an 80.my bike drives like a dream now.so maybe its your front tire as well as the low pressure.i know that bridgestone that was on the front made my handling bad and it wasnt the ct.it was such a dramatic change between the front tire brands,it felt like i was riding a totally different bike after the metz was put on.i dont feel any slippery feeling at all.the handling was such a dramatic change,that i had to take it easy in the curves for a couple of days because of how much easier it is to lean and turn the bike with the new front tire.as for as the kumho goes.i absolutely love everything about the tire and am sooo glad i was reffered to this sight so i could put a ct on my bike and enjoy the safety factor it brings with it.so just play with the pressure until you find the sweet spot.on a side note,you know you guys that are runnin 32psi in your ct's are wasting alot of gas and HP dont yA ?

I am sure we are using more fuel that being said,I am also sure we are saving wear and tear on our machines and our own bodies.At the same time getting better traction due to larger contact patch and tires should run more miles because we are not wearing out the center tread.

ok then,you can take the low side,and i'll take the high side

My milage went up a little when I went darkside....

Jerry

no no no lol,i was talking about the air pressures in the ct's.i was saying that 32psi will cause you to use more gas and is a lil harder on the engine due to inertia to get rolling.but thats not where i run mine. i run 41 cold.this allso applies to cages tires.for the 1100,its better to run 40-41 cold so it saves on gas and the engine.

Well I didn't loose much with darkside,when I bought the bike I was getting 40mpg after about 2or3 weeks(when I got comfortible with it ) it dropped to38,now with darkside I get 36 to 38 depending on mood. OK, I will take darkside -lowside .

Larry Simpson wrote:Well I didn't loose much with darkside,when I bought the bike I was getting 40mpg after about 2or3 weeks(when I got comfortible with it ) it dropped to38,now with darkside I get 36 to 38 depending on mood. OK, I will take darkside -lowside .

after aprox 2k miles I'm totaly happy with the switch to the darkside, still running 32psi, mileage is up slightly and comfortable pushing it into a corner until the pegs rub. If it ever wears out I think I'll go up a size or two

Excellent! Just put the same tire on my 2001 VLX. Ran it at 36psi but pushed it up to 38 and am enjoying it there. Kinda cool feeling like you can really push the corners now isn't it?

ksrider wrote:Excellent! Just put the same tire on my 2001 VLX. Ran it at 36psi but pushed it up to 38 and am enjoying it there. Kinda cool feeling like you can really push the corners now isn't it?

yes it is.i dont even worry about it anymore lol,only thing i have to worry about now is leaning the bike over too far in a turn to scrape my center stand.done it twice and i was like WTF ?? lol. i said it once and i'll say it again.i will NEVER run a mt on any bike i will ever own again.tire looks great on your bike BTW ENJOY..