Finally!!

Got my hitch made last Saturday.........it's removable and doesn't look out of place on the bike. Also, got my tire ordered today. Local tire dealer was supposed to have ordered it Monday, then Tuesday.........he didn't call today,(ya try to give the locals your business first, and they just dont' care) so when I got home, I ordered it from TireRack.com and it should be here by Friday. GYTT 205/60/16. Also learned that a friend of mine has a friend who has a tire changer in his automotive shop. Went and talked to the guy and he said he'd be glad to let me use his machine. Have had DynaBeads for about a week now. Looks like I'll be Darksiding by next weekend!!!!!!! Should have plenty of time to get used to riding the CT before I head out to Rally-In-The-Valley on April 24th. The only thing (or should I say) the next thing to get done is build the trailer. Won't need it for 3 days of Maggie Valley, but hope to have it done before we head out to the Blueridge Parkway in June to carry some camping gear.

Am I right about using vegetable oil on the tire, and plenty of psi? I read on another site where someone couldn't get his to seat, so he left 75psi in it overnite, and it had seated by the next morning. Hopefully, mine won't take that long.

Vege oil and air seem to work. I have mounted 2 different car tires and have not needed the vege oil. Getting my third tire mounted tomorrow I will let you know hew that works.

The overnight trick has worked for several folks as well.

Take pics ad do a write up with your trailer build as well. Looking forward to seeing your build

See you out there
Smokey

Good job Bulldog! Did ya end up with a hidden hitch or go outside the fender? I'm in the process of modding my hidden hitch to enable me to go darkside -- maybe --- if I don't stop dropping my fender on the floor.

PICS!!!

Pics, pics. I wanna see. A trailer is a sweet thing, but I dont like the hitches for the F. Guess I am gonna have to get another bike. Keeping the X and parking another next to it is in the mix.

I'll post pics, but I've been too busy with other projects to get them posted just yet. The hitch I wound up with u-bolts across the frame close to the oil filter. It comes out under the pipes, runs back to the fender with several contour bends. It's made from 1" chrome/moly hydraulic tubing (VERY hard to bend) and has a stabilizing support that attaches over the rear most inner fender gussett at the tail light. The trailer itself is from Harbor Freight, and the box is in the design stages. I'm wanting to come up with something different from the usual rectangle shaped boxes that most folks have.

If you want a unique trailer design, you can copy one I saw early last summer. Black and chrome cruiser pulling a trailer that was a gloss black coffin with chrome handles. Morbid, but also looked neat. Erik

erik..b wrote:If you want a unique trailer design, you can copy one I saw early last summer. Black and chrome cruiser pulling a trailer that was a gloss black coffin with chrome handles. Morbid, but also looked neat. Erik

I was just fixin to say I saw the same thing. I was a small casket about 4 1/2 to 5 foot long. This one was white. Pretty cool but a tad morbid as said above. Real nice with chrome wheels.

Moon

Weeelllllll. Believe it or not, that was my first idea. I was thinking of the old style casket like you see in westerns. Then I went for a nuclear warhead/rocket look, now I'm pretty set on taking a canoe, cutting a section out of it, and making a lid for it. I mean, who says you can't pull your boat with your bike?

Badmoon wrote:

erik..b wrote:If you want a unique trailer design, you can copy one I saw early last summer. Black and chrome cruiser pulling a trailer that was a gloss black coffin with chrome handles. Morbid, but also looked neat. Erik

I was just fixin to say I saw the same thing. I was a small casket about 4 1/2 to 5 foot long. This one was white. Pretty cool but a tad morbid as said above. Real nice with chrome wheels.

Moon

how can you call it unique if your copying the idea?


Still waitin on PICS!

Bass - I meant unique as in not the same old s-car-go bucket from sears on a small frame and something that not everybody would have :-) erik

Ok. The tire is on the rim. GYTT 205/60-16. I sure hope it fooled me last night when I put the unmounted tire in the fender. It was rather snug.........NO, it was dang well tight getting it in there!!! Now that it's on the rim, I know it's gonna be quite a learning experience getting in on the bike. I'm even worried that I may have to loosen the bolts on the driveshaft tube, and pull the final drive away from the tire a little to get it in there. Once past the axle point, there was plenty of room under the fender. It's supposed to be raining all day today and tomorrow, but clear up Sunday afternoon . I hope I'll have a chance to try it out then.

And yes, Moon, Smokey, and the rest of you guys, I'm taking pics and will get them posted ASAP.

Bulldogparts wrote:Ok. The tire is on the rim. GYTT 205/60-16. I sure hope it fooled me last night when I put the unmounted tire in the fender. It was rather snug.........NO, it was dang well tight getting it in there!!! Now that it's on the rim, I know it's gonna be quite a learning experience getting in on the bike. I'm even worried that I may have to loosen the bolts on the driveshaft tube, and pull the final drive away from the tire a little to get it in there. Once past the axle point, there was plenty of room under the fender. It's supposed to be raining all day today and tomorrow, but clear up Sunday afternoon . I hope I'll have a chance to try it out then.

And yes, Moon, Smokey, and the rest of you guys, I'm taking pics and will get them posted ASAP.

When a tight fit like that...let the air out of the tire is what some of the guys who have the 1800's have to do and then air it back up when it all bolted in!


.

That was gonna be my first experiment. But, like I said, it was tight to say the least, without the rim. Just gonna take some fenagaling and patience (Dang! I'm sure glad I'm not still in my 20's or I'd trash the bike if it didn't go easily), but it'll be on there before the sun sets on Saturday.

I'm officially a Darksider!! Got the tire mounted this morning by a friend of a friend who owns a tire store and happens to be a biker too. He knew of the Darkside, and said he'd be glad to do it. I left the tire, rim, and Dynabeads, and when I went back to pick it up, he said it only took about 50psi to get it to seat. He used some of the super slick lube they use on all tires. I got home at 6:00pm, and was testing it out by 6:45. The worries I had about getting the tire between the final drive and swing arm were TOTAL WASTE OF BRAIN CELLS. The car tire actually went in almost as easily as the motorcycle tire. I rode it around the neighborhood first, weaving back and forth, and then taking a couple of corners really tightly. I loved the way it felt in those tight turns. The only problem that I might have is gonna be when riding 2-up. Just looking up into the fender, it looks like it might scrub on the inner fender gussets. If it isn't raining tomorrow, I'll find out about that. But, this time, I ain't gonna worry about it until I need to.

As everyone says, "it's a different feel, but it's a good feel". It's definately gonna take some miles to get used to, but then, isn't that what weekends are made for??????

Cool. Still lookin for pics of the canoe and of the bike.

Well, the canoe isn't falling into place. Have had no luck finding one, so I've decided to go another direction. Have the basic box to put on the trailer, just trying to come up with a "different" theme for it. As for the pictures of the bike.........I'm trying to figure out how to get them on here now. Anyone able to tell me how? I've looked in the help section and don't see it anywhere.

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Got the sheet scared out of me yesterday afternoon, but learned one valuable lesson in the process. THE DARKSIDE AIN'T FRIENDLY ON DIRT WITH RUTS!! I live in the country, and my driveway is 1/4 mile long and gravel. With all the rain we've had lately, there are ruts in it. I haven't scraped it because I don't want a mudpie from the next rain. I keep my bike at my girlfriend's house in her garage, and it was very nice yesterday afternoon, so I decided we would ride before it got dark on us. I started down my driveway (did I also mention that it's all downhill?) and the first rut I hit sent me to the opposite side of the drive. It was like a D-runk trying to ride the Dragon (a LIVE one), all the way to the bottom. I actually had to stop and restart a couple of times. When I left out, I thought I'd better just get on the grass and ride on it from now on. That was still a little wobbly, but not much worse than a MT, and MUCH better than my buckin-bronc ride down.

So, to any of you newbie Darksiders, just beware of this possibility. I didn't drop it, but I did have to change undies and wash my arse before I went riding.

looks like you got it!