What is the Darkside and Why?

twin1300 Sat Dec 15, 2007 12:04 am

It's mounting a car tire on the rear of a cruiser motorcycle. Now before you say aint no way it works, please at least stick around to hear us out.

This is a mod for better than average riders, people who are daily riders, commuters, people who travel a lot, or ride over 6,000 miles a year will want to try.

Please be patient while I put together what it is and why and how we got here. I have already lost all the data while typing this thread, so I can currently putting it in word document and then will cut and paste it here.

Thanks for your patience....................bobby

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smokey2255 Sun Dec 16, 2007 3:00 am

Twin

Looks like you got the wrapping and the package all together again............Another empty box. Twisted Evil

Smokey

twin1300 Sun Dec 16, 2007 3:15 pm

So…..What is the Darkside and Why?

Well it started some years ago when gas prices went thru the roof (not like now, they are out of this world) I was daily commuting. Six months go by and I need another rear tire. My wife say..”didn’t we just buy you some”…Yep, need some more. I began to think, I am saving all this money on gas and insurance commuting back and forth, only to pay it all back out twice a year for tires. Someone had to make a better tire.

Well, I found some websites of the bike I was riding at the time and the age old question of what’s the best tire…there were terrible tires and better tires, just NO great tires. Plus they all cost an arm and a leg for the price they wanted for them.

I got my twin brother riding about this time and told him he could only expect 6,000 to 9,000 miles out of a set of tires. Well that’s all he got…7,200 miles, if I remember correctly. Now we both are on a quest to find the tire that works. I mean with the technology that exist today with tire makers…price goes up for the latest and greatest with still no more mileage than the older tires.

Well, we found a site called “Life is a Road” by a guy named Daniel Meyer. He was running a car tire on his Valkyrie and traveling all over the world in all conditions and no problems out of his car tire. So, now me and my brother were on a quest to try this mod. We found wing guys were already doing this mod and by now my twin had bought his wing. He found some data and installed his. He loved it.

So, now I gotta have one. But, no data for a 1300 VTX. You could find all the data you wanted for an 1800, but none for an 1300…..shucks.

I did my own measuring and calculations and came up with a size that I thought I needed. I could not get one to seat the bead, because the car tires were all made for a 7” wide rim of a car tire. 1800’s have a wide rim and no problems with car tires, but not the 1300 (4” wide stock rim) I bought three different tires and tried them all, till I noticed they were too wide for the rim. Ding! I am an old VW guy and remembered they were 15” diameter tires and made for a 4” rim. Oila! It fit like a glove. Handle 100% better than my motorcycle tire and it was only $38 with tax.

So, I posted it on a board, thinking they are going to love what I found. Well, that part was wrong. But some guys accepted it…toasted asked me what and how and was the first to try it.

The rest is history, except that it grew too big for the site we were on…at least that was the rumor. They kept locking our threads. So my friend toasted had enough and he started one for us and now you are on it.

Thanks to my friend toasted…aka Burn out King for his vision and guts to jump.

……………..bobby

twin1300 Sun Dec 16, 2007 9:01 pm

Why don't you guys start posting your best darkside stories. Like people who you meet and what they say about it. Or how it handles, riding impressions....etc!

Like my twin brother who told a guy who was commenting to his friend what he thought was out of hear shot of my brother...."you see that car tire, you can't turn your bike with them tires!!!" My brothers says.....You are right, I just ride till I get to a curve and then stop my wing and get off and pick the back of the bike up and scoot it around till it gets straight and them I ride till the next turn and get off again. Laughing

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

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smokey2255 Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:29 am

Twin
I have used your brothers line a few times on some nay sayers. Once they have ridden with me or seen me ride they have a totally different attitude about the darkside. One of them was a fella in my little town that rides a wing. He is now darkside too.

Smokey

Toasted_311 Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:34 am

Got a local here that was going on about how it couldn't work. He knew I had a car tire on my bike...we went to leave about the same time so I did a nice somewhat smokey 360 in the parking spot. Pivoting on the right peg.

Looked at him and said.."guess those car tires just can't cut a tight turn eh?" Twisted Evil

twin1300 Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:43 pm

The other day we were leaving work and met up with another rider....I told him in the stop and go traffic that I had a car tire. He had doubts, so while we were rolling kinda past idle and let traffic get away from us......I did a rolling burn out by dumping the clutch. My friend said I should have seen his face. He looked like he was impressed. It feels impressive too.....it jumps with the tires spin a about 2 feet and then launch. Of course the HK make it complete.

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

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gstanfield Wed Dec 19, 2007 10:17 pm

My darkside story isn't near as fun,. but I'll tell it anyway for those wonderin why I'm here. I was once a member on some generic VTX site and a couple of my friends decided they would try a car tire on the back of their VTX. I knew it would work out fine and boy did it make me mad to see how much crap they kept getting. I stood by them and earned honorary membership into the darkside club Suspect

Now, for those wondering why I'm not runnign one myself let me explain. I am a MSF ridercoach and the guy who is the main fieldtrainer for the state of WY is kinda.....ummmm.... well I'll just say that I can't run a CT on my bike and work in peace. Plus I'd not recommend it to a novice rider on teh offhand chance that it would cause just enough trouble handling to THEM (not you guys) that a crash could result and then it would be from me being a bad example in class (or so goes the logic of the boss)

For those wondering, I tried a bunch of tires and have found Continental milestones in teh factory size to be a million times better than the stock Dunnies and the absolute best cruiser tires I've ever run in terms of milage and handling. One of these days I may mount me up a CT just for the heck of it and if I like it I'll be running it in the offseason or something.

Anyway, now you know the rest of the story behind the guy who hangs around the darksiders and teases them every chance.

George

Muntz Wed Dec 19, 2007 11:54 pm

Ok heres my story. My wife bought me my VTX for Valentines Day this year( '07). After several months of buying stuff online and not liking it I ran across the "other" site. WOW tons of information. I wish I had found it before I got the bike. I woulda never bought that Corbin Dual tourer. Now I have an Ultimate, but I digress. Anywho, picking through the 1300 threads I saw.....DARKSIDE. Being raised in an ultra strict christian home I was sure that the DARKSIDE was nothing I dare read about. I thought DS was a Satan Worshiping Motorcycle Riders Gang. -- seriously!

After a few weeks skipping over it, curiousity got me. I start reading on page 1. I see MT & CT and I wonder what the hell these DS are talking about. Finally I decided to check out this Daniel Meyer guy. Being a newbie to street bikes I think these guys are off their rockers.

Then I see that Twin lives close by, so I PM him with a few questions...you know the kind...the ones that you don't want to post on the board, so that everyone won't know how dumb you really are. So this Twin fella invites me to lunch. I go and meet him still skeptical. Seeing it and crusing over to the restaurant, Twin barks the CT a few times. I'm thinking I kinda like this guy. Then we get there and he shows me the bottoms of his pegs and pipes. Looks like the thing has gone down a few times. He explains that he can turn so tight he drags them. "No way" I said.

Before we eat Twin asked if I minded if he said grace. (( What a satan worshiper saying grace?? )) This gives us an opportunity to discuss our faith.

After lunch, Twin takes me to an empty parking lot and says jump on and try it for yourself. I immediately notice that the C is alot different than my R. This CT turns on a dime and gives 9 cents change. Then he takes it locks the bars to the side and makes the smallest circles I seen. Now I'm impressed.

A month or so later I meet Smokey. He stops by my work. I tell my boss that my friend from Illinois drove all the way down here in one day on his motorcycle. She says looks like great weather for riding today. Why don't you take the rest of the day off and go ride with your friend. (THUD) LMAO. We go to have lunch, and meet Twin. Twin gives us a smoke show. Twin goes back to work and Smokey and I go carve up some twisties. ((Well actually Smokey carved them, 2 up I might add...I negotiated them badly)) Later we all team up for a tech session at Twins house. It was like the 3 of us knew each other from way back. Instantly friends. Twin shows us his Durometer (a device he uses to measure the softness of the tires for his sons racing cart.) His CT is softer than our MT's. We finish our mods and We go for a midnite ride through some nice sweeping curves, and blast by a cop at 115+. Im thinking ok now we did it. He didn't even move. We hit a few twisties and Twin drags his pegs for us. Provong the DS will hold the road. Smokey and I are sold on the DS. We get back laugh alot and part ways.

Smokey goes home and switches to DS right away. I'm in sales so I'm not a daily rider. The weather has to be right for me to ride to work, so I'm wearing mine out at a slower pace. But when I do...DS here I come. Twisted Evil

Oh yeah....BTW... they are not a biker gang or Satan Worshipers....but if you're here you already know that. lol!

twin1300 Thu Dec 20, 2007 9:48 am

Muntz wrote:Ok heres my story. My wife bought me my VTX for Valentines Day this year( '07). After several months of buying stuff online and not liking it I ran across the "other" site. WOW tons of information. I wish I had found it before I got the bike. I woulda never bought that Corbin Dual tourer. Now I have an Ultimate, but I digress. Anywho, picking through the 1300 threads I saw.....DARKSIDE. Being raised in an ultra strict christian home I was sure that the DARKSIDE was nothing I dare read about. I thought DS was a Satan Worshiping Motorcycle Riders Gang. -- seriously!

After a few weeks skipping over it, curiousity got me. I start reading on page 1. I see MT & CT and I wonder what the hell these DS are talking about. Finally I decided to check out this Daniel Meyer guy. Being a newbie to street bikes I think these guys are off their rockers.

Then I see that Twin lives close by, so I PM him with a few questions...you know the kind...the ones that you don't want to post on the board, so that everyone won't know how dumb you really are. So this Twin fella invites me to lunch. I go and meet him still skeptical. Seeing it and crusing over to the restaurant, Twin barks the CT a few times. I'm thinking I kinda like this guy. Then we get there and he shows me the bottoms of his pegs and pipes. Looks like the thing has gone down a few times. He explains that he can turn so tight he drags them. "No way" I said.

Before we eat Twin asked if I minded if he said grace. (( What a satan worshiper saying grace?? )) This gives us an opportunity to discuss our faith.

After lunch, Twin takes me to an empty parking lot and says jump on and try it for yourself. I immediately notice that the C is alot different than my R. This CT turns on a dime and gives 9 cents change. Then he takes it locks the bars to the side and makes the smallest circles I seen. Now I'm impressed.

A month or so later I meet Smokey. He stops by my work. I tell my boss that my friend from Illinois drove all the way down here in one day on his motorcycle. She says looks like great weather for riding today. Why don't you take the rest of the day off and go ride with your friend. (THUD) LMAO. We go to have lunch, and meet Twin. Twin gives us a smoke show. Twin goes back to work and Smokey and I go carve up some twisties. ((Well actually Smokey carved them, 2 up I might add...I negotiated them badly)) Later we all team up for a tech session at Twins house. It was like the 3 of us knew each other from way back. Instantly friends. Twin shows us his Durometer (a device he uses to measure the softness of the tires for his sons racing cart.) His CT is softer than our MT's. We finish our mods and We go for a midnite ride through some nice sweeping curves, and blast by a cop at 115+. Im thinking ok now we did it. He didn't even move. We hit a few twisties and Twin drags his pegs for us. Provong the DS will hold the road. Smokey and I are sold on the DS. We get back laugh alot and part ways.

Smokey goes home and switches to DS right away. I'm in sales so I'm not a daily rider. The weather has to be right for me to ride to work, so I'm wearing mine out at a slower pace. But when I do...DS here I come.

Oh yeah....BTW... they are not a biker gang or Satan Worshipers....but if you're here you already know that.

You slay me Muntz!!!!!! lol!

But that's as pretty accurate to what I remember. Thanks for being a friend. Fun nite wasn't it.....and a boat load of laugh's that will last forever.

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

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twin1300 Fri Dec 28, 2007 2:08 pm

This is a story a lot of you can relate too and my most favorite story to tell.

I have belong to a lot of forums and a lot of different bikes (maybe not as many as some of you), but it's un-believeable that I have met so many friends and became friends with so many people of one silly tire mod that I did. And never been hated so much either. But it made picking friends easier.

Most of you would have never been my friend other wise or gave me the time of day. But what a ride it has been..... and the people I have talked to because of it. I have had guys ride for over 800 miles to see me and my car tire. That's another story, I will write soon, that ranks at the top of my riding experience with new found friends and a cop!....hehehehehehe

I am proud to be called a "DARKSIDER" and I will not change who I am for no one, nobody, or any amount of slander, or name calling.

Thanks to a car tire, good friends, new forum, and friendships to come from new guys and girls we will meet along the way.

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

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Guest Sat Dec 29, 2007 3:50 pm

twin1300 wrote:This is a story a lot of you can relate too and my most favorite story to tell.

I have belong to a lot of forums and a lot of different bikes (maybe not as many as some of you), but it's un-believeable that I have met so many friends and became friends with so many people of one silly tire mod that I did. And never been hated so much either. But it made picking friends easier.

Most of you would have never been my friend other wise or gave me the time of day. But what a ride it has been..... and the people I have talked to because of it. I have had guys ride for over 800 miles to see me and my car tire. That's another story, I will write soon, that ranks at the top of my riding experience with new found friends and a cop!....hehehehehehe

I am proud to be called a "DARKSIDER" and I will not change who I am for no one, nobody, or any amount of slander, or name calling.

Thanks to a car tire, good friends, new forum, and friendships to come from new guys and girls we will meet along the way.

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

.

This is a story a lot of you can relate too and one of my favorite to tell.

I have belong to a lot of forums and a couple of bikes, but it's un-believeable that I have met so many friends and became friends with so many people by learning to ride and joining an MC. And never been hated so much either. But it made picking friends easier.

Most of you would have never been my friend other wise or gave me the time of day. But what a ride it has been..... and the people I have talked to because of it. I have had Sisters ride for over 800 miles to get together and party. That's another story, I may write soon. It ranks at the top of my riding experience with new found friends and sisters!....hehehehehehe

Even though I don't run a CT, I am proud to be accepted by the "DARKSIDERS" and I will not change who I am for no one, nobody, or any amount of slander, or name calling. Nor will I allow any surgery to be done to my body parts that would make me more macho in order to fit in.

Thanks to learning to ride, good friends, new forum, and friendships to come from new guys and girls we will meet along the way.

. . . . . . . . shebear

Very Happy

Sorry, Bobby, I just couldn't resist!

twin1300 Sat Dec 29, 2007 8:30 pm

shebear wrote:
twin1300 wrote:This is a story a lot of you can relate too and my most favorite story to tell.

I have belong to a lot of forums and a lot of different bikes (maybe not as many as some of you), but it's un-believeable that I have met so many friends and became friends with so many people of one silly tire mod that I did. And never been hated so much either. But it made picking friends easier.

Most of you would have never been my friend other wise or gave me the time of day. But what a ride it has been..... and the people I have talked to because of it. I have had guys ride for over 800 miles to see me and my car tire. That's another story, I will write soon, that ranks at the top of my riding experience with new found friends and a cop!....hehehehehehe

I am proud to be called a "DARKSIDER" and I will not change who I am for no one, nobody, or any amount of slander, or name calling.

Thanks to a car tire, good friends, new forum, and friendships to come from new guys and girls we will meet along the way.

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

.

This is a story a lot of you can relate too and one of my favorite to tell.

I have belong to a lot of forums and a couple of bikes, but it's un-believeable that I have met so many friends and became friends with so many people by learning to ride and joining an MC. And never been hated so much either. But it made picking friends easier.

Most of you would have never been my friend other wise or gave me the time of day. But what a ride it has been..... and the people I have talked to because of it. I have had Sisters ride for over 800 miles to get together and party. That's another story, I may write soon. It ranks at the top of my riding experience with new found friends and sisters!....hehehehehehe

Even though I don't run a CT, I am proud to be accepted by the "DARKSIDERS" and I will not change who I am for no one, nobody, or any amount of slander, or name calling. Nor will I allow any surgery to be done to my body parts that would make me more macho in order to fit in.

Thanks to learning to ride, good friends, new forum, and friendships to come from new guys and girls we will meet along the way.

. . . . . . . . shebear

Sorry, Bobby, I just couldn't resist!

You should resist........... Cool

I like you better as a WOMAN rider....don't have surgery..... affraid

I couldn't resist..... cheers

We are gonna make you an "honorary darksider"........ Cool

.

Guest Sun Dec 30, 2007 10:58 am

I would be honored to be an honorary Darksider! Very Happy

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