My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
+9
Badmoon
twin1300
marine-mp
jedishon
Steve-O
docbiggles
smokey2255
nodakbassmaster
midwestrider
13 posters
Page 1 of 1
My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
I got a flat tire!!! That both a motorcycle tire flat and a car tire flat within 1 month!!
Here's the story. I put a Bridgestone Potenza G009 195/65R15 car tire on the bike a week ago Sunday. Actually I started almost 2 weeks before that but had a lot of problems seating the beads. But last Sunday I finally seated the beads on both sides and got the wheel back on the bike.
Tonight, I decided to ride to a buddy house. In order to avoid getting rained on (which I didn't) I took some country roads to try and stay away from the rains path.
As I was riding at one point I was on a frontage road next to I55 near Bloomington. I was looking over at the highway and a little boy in a semi-truck (he was the passenger) was watching me so I gave him a friendly wave and he enthusiastically returned a wave back! I got a really big kick out of this and was smiling under my helmet. Well the frontage road crossed over I55 and while I was on the other side I was looking to my right at the highway just to see if anyone else was watching me. As I was doing this I felt that I ran over something. I heard a sound of metal hitting metal and I quickly glanced in my mirror to see if I could see anything on the road or if anything was flying around behind me because I ran over it. I didn't see anything. A few seconds later I heard a rattling noise coming from the rear and immediately slowed down and pulled over to check things out. Knowing that I just ran over something and hearing metal to metal sounds I first looked at the tire to see if it was losing any air. I pushed on the sidewall and couldn't see that anything was different. So I slowly took off again and got back up to speed when I heard the rattling sound again and this time I could immediately feel that I was losing air in the rear tire. Again I slowed down and pulled over. This time when looking at the tire it was completely flat!
I wasn't very far from a delivery entrance to the Nestle candy factory so I duck walked the bike over there using the engine to move the bike. I got off of the bike and this is what I found.
My first thought was that since I had such a hard time seating the bead that maybe it had broken loose and let all the air out. But upon closer inspection I realized this was not the case.
I ended up rolling the bike forward and inspecting the tire for some kind of puncture. Well, I found it! After look at it a while I used my pocket knife's flat blade screwdriver to determine if the tire had a hole in it all the way through.
Here's the pictures to tell the story.
This is before pushing on the knife and just letting the blade sit in the depth of the tread.
There was a gash at least 2 inches long but only of the top and bottom of the gash would the blade go through.
This is the top hole.
This is the bottom hole
Luckily I got ahold of the guy I was going to visit and he had a buddy with a motorcycle trailer and they came and got me and we got the bike back to my house.
Here's a couple of pics of what I saw when I first pulled over and found the problem. I left the pics big so you can easily see all of the detail.
View 1
View 2
I just praise God that I wasn't hurt and the bike wasn't damaged at all. Believe it or not I plan to remount another car tire. But because of the difficulty I had with getting this tire beaded up I'm gonna try a different brand this time. I believe that I will put on a Goodyear Assurance TripleTred.
For those of you who are already Darksiders is the any reason to pick a 205 width tire over a 195 width? Does it just look cooler cuz it bigger or are there other advantages?
Let me know what you think.
Here's the story. I put a Bridgestone Potenza G009 195/65R15 car tire on the bike a week ago Sunday. Actually I started almost 2 weeks before that but had a lot of problems seating the beads. But last Sunday I finally seated the beads on both sides and got the wheel back on the bike.
Tonight, I decided to ride to a buddy house. In order to avoid getting rained on (which I didn't) I took some country roads to try and stay away from the rains path.
As I was riding at one point I was on a frontage road next to I55 near Bloomington. I was looking over at the highway and a little boy in a semi-truck (he was the passenger) was watching me so I gave him a friendly wave and he enthusiastically returned a wave back! I got a really big kick out of this and was smiling under my helmet. Well the frontage road crossed over I55 and while I was on the other side I was looking to my right at the highway just to see if anyone else was watching me. As I was doing this I felt that I ran over something. I heard a sound of metal hitting metal and I quickly glanced in my mirror to see if I could see anything on the road or if anything was flying around behind me because I ran over it. I didn't see anything. A few seconds later I heard a rattling noise coming from the rear and immediately slowed down and pulled over to check things out. Knowing that I just ran over something and hearing metal to metal sounds I first looked at the tire to see if it was losing any air. I pushed on the sidewall and couldn't see that anything was different. So I slowly took off again and got back up to speed when I heard the rattling sound again and this time I could immediately feel that I was losing air in the rear tire. Again I slowed down and pulled over. This time when looking at the tire it was completely flat!
I wasn't very far from a delivery entrance to the Nestle candy factory so I duck walked the bike over there using the engine to move the bike. I got off of the bike and this is what I found.
My first thought was that since I had such a hard time seating the bead that maybe it had broken loose and let all the air out. But upon closer inspection I realized this was not the case.
I ended up rolling the bike forward and inspecting the tire for some kind of puncture. Well, I found it! After look at it a while I used my pocket knife's flat blade screwdriver to determine if the tire had a hole in it all the way through.
Here's the pictures to tell the story.
This is before pushing on the knife and just letting the blade sit in the depth of the tread.
There was a gash at least 2 inches long but only of the top and bottom of the gash would the blade go through.
This is the top hole.
This is the bottom hole
Luckily I got ahold of the guy I was going to visit and he had a buddy with a motorcycle trailer and they came and got me and we got the bike back to my house.
Here's a couple of pics of what I saw when I first pulled over and found the problem. I left the pics big so you can easily see all of the detail.
View 1
View 2
I just praise God that I wasn't hurt and the bike wasn't damaged at all. Believe it or not I plan to remount another car tire. But because of the difficulty I had with getting this tire beaded up I'm gonna try a different brand this time. I believe that I will put on a Goodyear Assurance TripleTred.
For those of you who are already Darksiders is the any reason to pick a 205 width tire over a 195 width? Does it just look cooler cuz it bigger or are there other advantages?
Let me know what you think.
midwestrider- Number of posts : 17
Location : Wapella, IL
Registration date : 2009-06-23
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
size, looks, straight traction and especially variety of availability... good luck with the next tire... that one didn't last long!
nodakbassmaster- Admin
- Number of posts : 1604
Age : 45
Location : Rapid City, SD
Registration date : 2007-12-15
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
nodakbassmaster wrote:size, looks, straight traction and especially variety of availability... good luck with the next tire... that one didn't last long!
+1 Imagine if it had been a mc tire. Car tires are tough. Glad all is well.
See you out there
Smokey
smokey2255- Admin
- Number of posts : 2451
Age : 57
Location : Westfield Illinois
Registration date : 2007-12-14
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
Thats gotta suck mate, good luck with your next choice.
You didn't find the offending article did you?
Is everything ok up under the guard?
Cheers
Doc.
You didn't find the offending article did you?
Is everything ok up under the guard?
Cheers
Doc.
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
Good that nobody was hurt. Sucks to be stranded.
I don't think you will find much difference between a 205 and a 195 on your bike. I've had a 165 and now a 205. I'm going back to a 185 to see if I can find the sweet spot between handling and superslap stability. I found the 165 to be more "nimble", while the 205 was great on the interstate. I'm putting the 185 on this weekend so I'll send out a report.
You DO have a lot more choices with the 205s. But go with a tried and true one to avoid seating and fit issues
I don't think you will find much difference between a 205 and a 195 on your bike. I've had a 165 and now a 205. I'm going back to a 185 to see if I can find the sweet spot between handling and superslap stability. I found the 165 to be more "nimble", while the 205 was great on the interstate. I'm putting the 185 on this weekend so I'll send out a report.
You DO have a lot more choices with the 205s. But go with a tried and true one to avoid seating and fit issues
Steve-O- Moderate user
- Number of posts : 1153
Age : 65
Location : Dallas, TX
Registration date : 2008-02-05
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
What a PITA. But how did you like the ride you did have?
Jerry
Jerry
jedishon- Super User
- Number of posts : 4436
Age : 73
Location : Rogersville, Al
Registration date : 2007-12-18
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
Midwestrider,
It almost sounds like you believe it was a defect in the tire or something like that. I may be mistaken on that one, but.....it surely looks like you ran over something, from the looks of the large pics. I been saying for a while, and nobody seems to take me serious, but a run-flat tire wpold have let you get home without the trailer, and they can be ridden on with 0 air pressure. You might try seeing if you can get one in your size and try it. Kuhmo, Continental, Goodyear, etc. all make a run-flat tire. See my signature. JMHO Semper-fi MIke
It almost sounds like you believe it was a defect in the tire or something like that. I may be mistaken on that one, but.....it surely looks like you ran over something, from the looks of the large pics. I been saying for a while, and nobody seems to take me serious, but a run-flat tire wpold have let you get home without the trailer, and they can be ridden on with 0 air pressure. You might try seeing if you can get one in your size and try it. Kuhmo, Continental, Goodyear, etc. all make a run-flat tire. See my signature. JMHO Semper-fi MIke
marine-mp- Number of posts : 119
Age : 68
Location : Murphy, NC (backyard of the Dragon)
Registration date : 2009-01-19
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
No, I don't believe this was a tire defect. I obviously ran over something that punctured and cut the tire. I also didn't have a warranty on the tire because I bought it at Sam's Club and they told me that if they didn't mount it they couldn't warranty it. I realize in this case I'm just out the $75 I spent to buy the tire. But in light of how things turned out (me un-injured and the bike not damaged) I'm not at all upset about the situation. I was definitely counting my blessing as I sat there waiting for my friends to arrive!
To answer other questions:
No I didn't find what I hit. We drove by where it happened but didn't get out of the vehicle to look around because of traffic. As far as I could tell everything under the fender looked fine no scratches or scrapes from what I hit.
Yes and yes. I really did like the car tire. After the initial 200+ miles it seemed to have lost the "edgey" feeling when turning. My wife told me that the ride in the passenger seat was better because the tire soaked up more bumps than before.
To answer other questions:
You didn't find the offending article did you?
Is everything ok up under the guard?
No I didn't find what I hit. We drove by where it happened but didn't get out of the vehicle to look around because of traffic. As far as I could tell everything under the fender looked fine no scratches or scrapes from what I hit.
What a PITA. But how did you like the ride you did have?
Yes and yes. I really did like the car tire. After the initial 200+ miles it seemed to have lost the "edgey" feeling when turning. My wife told me that the ride in the passenger seat was better because the tire soaked up more bumps than before.
midwestrider- Number of posts : 17
Location : Wapella, IL
Registration date : 2009-06-23
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
Glad you are OK! Darkside did it's job! Didn't do nothing stupid.
So, here's the reason I would go with the 205 instead of the 195! Because they would be so much shorter than in height than the 205 and would make your gas mileage go down and too many rpm's when on highway!
So, here's the reason I would go with the 205 instead of the 195! Because they would be so much shorter than in height than the 205 and would make your gas mileage go down and too many rpm's when on highway!
twin1300- Admin
- Number of posts : 4689
Age : 64
Location : Denham Springs, La.
Registration date : 2007-12-14
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
That is a good edorsement..... Thanks for posting the whole thing.
Jerry
Jerry
jedishon- Super User
- Number of posts : 4436
Age : 73
Location : Rogersville, Al
Registration date : 2007-12-18
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
Not to mention $75 beats $200+.
Glad you are ok and bike not damaged. Could have been bad, real bad.
Blessings and more blessings.
Peace.
Moon
Glad you are ok and bike not damaged. Could have been bad, real bad.
Blessings and more blessings.
Peace.
Moon
Badmoon- Number of posts : 1699
Age : 57
Location : Swanpland (Gods Country) It is my horns that hold up my halo.
Registration date : 2007-12-20
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
hey, just a question, why don't you try to plug it in with tire plug kit from wallmart??
As soon when I got mine general grabber on the bike, next few days picked up the long screw in the tire, plugged in with that plug kit from wally world and still it's going strong, after 5K on it rode almost daily.
As soon when I got mine general grabber on the bike, next few days picked up the long screw in the tire, plugged in with that plug kit from wally world and still it's going strong, after 5K on it rode almost daily.
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
I really don't think that damage to my tire can be succesfully fixed with a plug kit. My tire was damaged by something with an edge on it and not by something round (like a nail) that could be plugged. My tire has at least 2 holes (not round) in it with cut rubber in between. I would not feel comfortable plugging this tire and then riding on it. Especially since the damage to the steel belt is far more than a nail alone would have done.
midwestrider- Number of posts : 17
Location : Wapella, IL
Registration date : 2009-06-23
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
midwestrider wrote:I really don't think that damage to my tire can be succesfully fixed with a plug kit. My tire was damaged by something with an edge on it and not by something round (like a nail) that could be plugged. My tire has at least 2 holes (not round) in it with cut rubber in between. I would not feel comfortable plugging this tire and then riding on it. Especially since the damage to the steel belt is far more than a nail alone would have done.
+1 on that!
I had a similar hole on my truck once, and I tried to plug it with 4 or 5 plugs. I think after the 5th one it finally held air, but 100 feet down the road the entire wad of plugs blew out. With a slit like that, the tire can flex around it too much and blow the plug out. You are better off just getting an new tire and staying safe.
ttexastim- Number of posts : 593
Location : Greenville, TX
Registration date : 2007-12-27
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
ttexastim wrote:midwestrider wrote:I really don't think that damage to my tire can be succesfully fixed with a plug kit. My tire was damaged by something with an edge on it and not by something round (like a nail) that could be plugged. My tire has at least 2 holes (not round) in it with cut rubber in between. I would not feel comfortable plugging this tire and then riding on it. Especially since the damage to the steel belt is far more than a nail alone would have done.
+1 on that!
I had a similar hole on my truck once, and I tried to plug it with 4 or 5 plugs. I think after the 5th one it finally held air, but 100 feet down the road the entire wad of plugs blew out. With a slit like that, the tire can flex around it too much and blow the plug out. You are better off just getting an new tire and staying safe.
++1,,,,, new tire
horseman8m- Number of posts : 1449
Age : 35
Location : valdosta , GA.
Registration date : 2008-02-09
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
Troy did you get a new tire put on ????
horseman8m- Number of posts : 1449
Age : 35
Location : valdosta , GA.
Registration date : 2008-02-09
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
No, lack of funds at the moment are keeping me from doing anything.
But my wife would feel more comfortable on the bike if I go back to a motorcycle tire. So, I'm gonna do that to ease her mind and keep her riding with me as often as possible. I'm gonna have a set of Metzeler ME880's put on. I'll have an 180 in the rear though instead of the stock size, 170.
I will still be a big promoter of the Darkside though! In fact, I know I've got at least one buddy at work considering it for his bike, but he's gotta do some engine work first.
I did get the car tire off the rim last night and the damage from inside the tire supports that fact that something I ran over punctured the tire. I will post pics of that soon.
I did use air soft pellets (.20 gram weight) and they all looked good. I found one pellet that had split in half. Granted mine only had about 300+ miles on them but from my experience air soft pellets (I recommend the .20 gram ones, not the .12 gram) are a cheaper alternative to Dyna Beads.
But my wife would feel more comfortable on the bike if I go back to a motorcycle tire. So, I'm gonna do that to ease her mind and keep her riding with me as often as possible. I'm gonna have a set of Metzeler ME880's put on. I'll have an 180 in the rear though instead of the stock size, 170.
I will still be a big promoter of the Darkside though! In fact, I know I've got at least one buddy at work considering it for his bike, but he's gotta do some engine work first.
I did get the car tire off the rim last night and the damage from inside the tire supports that fact that something I ran over punctured the tire. I will post pics of that soon.
I did use air soft pellets (.20 gram weight) and they all looked good. I found one pellet that had split in half. Granted mine only had about 300+ miles on them but from my experience air soft pellets (I recommend the .20 gram ones, not the .12 gram) are a cheaper alternative to Dyna Beads.
midwestrider- Number of posts : 17
Location : Wapella, IL
Registration date : 2009-06-23
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
Well, I was so glad to get some tire mounted on the bike that I've been riding as much as possible and have taken to long to post these follow-up pics.
Here's a view of inside the tire where the punctures were.
Puncture view 3
And for those that wonder about using air soft pellets instead of Dyna Beads, here's a look at the pellets I had in the bike compared to some new ones.
New and used comparison
For the most part the beads maintained their round shape. I did find one that was split in half and maybe 2 or 3 that had some flat spots. They worked as well as Dyna Beads in my opinion. I've got Dyna Beads in the Metzelers that I have on the back now and can't tell a difference between those and what I had in the car tire.
I'm very happy with the ME880's I put on. They are great tires, it'll be interesting to see how many miles I can get out of them. Even though I'm no longer Darksided I'll keep checking in once in a while.
Here's a view of inside the tire where the punctures were.
Puncture view 3
And for those that wonder about using air soft pellets instead of Dyna Beads, here's a look at the pellets I had in the bike compared to some new ones.
New and used comparison
For the most part the beads maintained their round shape. I did find one that was split in half and maybe 2 or 3 that had some flat spots. They worked as well as Dyna Beads in my opinion. I've got Dyna Beads in the Metzelers that I have on the back now and can't tell a difference between those and what I had in the car tire.
I'm very happy with the ME880's I put on. They are great tires, it'll be interesting to see how many miles I can get out of them. Even though I'm no longer Darksided I'll keep checking in once in a while.
midwestrider- Number of posts : 17
Location : Wapella, IL
Registration date : 2009-06-23
Re: My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...
I've heard BB's work fine for balancing as well
Dan- Number of posts : 211
Location : NH
Registration date : 2008-05-15
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