New Darksider

Hey ya'll, I just came over to the darkside last week and am still getting all the bugs worked out to suit me. I have a 2009 Venture S with a little over 13,000 miles on it. Last week I put on a Kumho 165/80-15 on the rear. I started off with 45 psi in it but it felt like it wanted to hunt every imperfection in the road. Put about 600 miles on it this weekend and was about ready to go back to the mc tire when a friend told me to lower the psi. He said he runs 32 in his and doesn't have any of the problems I have been experiencing. Well, I was a little sceptical but yesterday my wife and I rode up to Macon, Ga to visit with her sister in the hospital. On the way up the bike rode superbly. I guess the added weight on the back countered the higher psi. So today before I started to work I lowered my psi to 32 and the difference was amazing! In the beginning, I thought the tire had too much sag in it with the lower psi so that was the main reason for me going to 45psi. All this made me remember way back when radial tires first came out that people ran too much air in them to keep them from sagging. Well duh, that's the same thing I was doing, going from a bias ply to a radial!!! I said all that to say this is still a new experience for me and any help you guys can give wil be greatly appreciated. BTW, I put in 2oz of Dynabeads and took the weights off.

Welcome to the darkside. Keep playing with the psi untill you get the ride your looking for. As the tire wears the ride will change a little and you'll get to play with the pressure again. I started at 38 on mine and took it to 32 after 20,000 mile to get the same ride. My current tire rides good at anything between 32 and 36 (best is 35.5) with just me on the bike and real good at 40 with my wife with me.
When you find your sweet spot you'll know.

Jerry