What pressure

Enjoying the dark side so far, however, tire seems kinda squishy. I'm running 40psi, yet I read a lot of y'all are running in the 30's and even 20's? Wouldnt that make it even more "squishy"??

I found after i installed a tire pressure monitoring system that with 40 in the back it was hitting 47-48 after riding and the weather was cool. It seemed squirley. Set it to 34psi cold and it climbs to 37-39psi under load. I think its better still has the cushion which comes with a better tire but doesnt feal squirly at 25-30mph on poor condition roads. Also it corners much better with a little less air seems like more tread on the ground. I know the recomended air pressure for a car with the dunlop RF is 34-36 PSI. My corvette alarms at 24 psi with eagle Run Flats so i wouldnt advise less than 30-32 PSI. Tires will over heat with low air pressure. Also if you have a flat a little more air gives you more time to deal with it. Too much air seems to make it need more counter steering as does the width. The narrower tires like the 175R/16 run flat act closer to a MT.

Regards Paul K

Yup bring it down....a lot ! I'm riding about 32psi now, and it rides like I'm on rails, and no squishy feeling at all.

I run 40 to42 in my hydroedge, and when it gets hot in 90 plus weather it only goes to 46 to 47 and it fells OK at that temp

Your hydro edge looks rounder like some radials, so is the dunlop winter sport but feels more like a MT at the lower pressure. Im stayin with the 34psi at 70 degrees as in the winter it will get a little lower and in the summer it will go higher. I also think at 40 psi your tire will wear in the center as a bike is lighter than the car / 2 . The load rating is 20% higher on the car tire also so it wont need max air pressure. I would never run my 07 Z06 vette with more than 36 psi or it wont corner well either. Less is better but never below 30 psi. the alarms on run flats are at 24-26 lb depending on the car and it has stronger side walls. But running max air on a bike probably wont give the best performance or mileage. Below 32 is probably the limit too . from my experiances as a master certified mechanic for goodyear. Typically the sweet spot for tires is 32-34 psi for car tires. Your front MT should be near 40 psi. Max is 41-44 depending on the tire. Never exceed max air pressure cold 70 degrees F. Also make sure your gauge is accurate as i just tested 5 and threw 3 in the trash. The 2 i kept match the readings on my Doran TPMS. Best wishes on the darkside. Paul

Your tire pressure should NEVER go up in summer and down in winter because you should be CHECKING your pressure before every major ride!!!

I can't even IMAGINE the wife and I hitting the road without knowing every single thing on it is in perfect condition. Luck only goes so far, and
there are only two little patches of rubber between me and the next accident.

Stonesavage wrote:Enjoying the dark side so far, however, tire seems kinda squishy. I'm running 40psi, yet I read a lot of y'all are running in the 30's and even 20's? Wouldnt that make it even more "squishy"??

Most of it's just mental. You associate squishy with slipping because of the MT and your mind doesn't like it, so you think it's bad. But I love it. Very soft ride and I don't feel bump even when I am all hung out in a turn.



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

I agree with everthing above (even my own post lol). At first, I had a hard time getting use to the different feel, and one of the things I was doing wrong is I was constantly playing with the air pressure of the tires. It's good to play with the psi's, but I would only ride for a day with one psi, then the next I'd either add or remove from one of tires or both, and continue experimenting with short rides. All that did was confuse the hell out of me more. I realize now, the proper way to play with psi is to experiment for longer periods of time (unless you really feel your life is in jeopardy at a certain psi) try to get use to it for a few hundred miles, even a thousand if you can. That way, when you do raise or lower the psi by 2 lbs, you will feel the difference, either in a positive manner or negative.....by experimenting slowly, you will be able to find your true sweet spot. It's not easy being patient, cause we want to find our sweet spot right away and get the best out of our CT right away, but it's not something you should try to rush. Take your time, do as the seasoned Darksiders before you have done, meaning, if it's your first car tire, start at 40 psi, and work your way down "s-l-o-w-l-y" two pounds at a time, until you've reached 30 psi, then up again to the psi you thought felt best on your way down. If still not sure, start over again, s-l-o-w-l-y and try to pay attention, testing various scenarios and road conditions on your way down, but do at least 500 miles at each psi setting before trying another. Our brains at first are still thinking this is a CAR TIRE, and I'm in danger...truth is, it's a TIRE....PERIOD. When you replaced your motorcycle tire for another one of a different brand, it felt different right ? You adjusted and rode it at your comfort safety zone, until you learned to trust it, and felt comfortable and safe....same thing applies here for a car tire, except, the care tire is a lot more finicky about psi than your bike tire was. Always drive with caution until you are familiar with how the car tire reacts in all circumstances. Test it on steel grated bridges, tar snakes, curves, dips, parking lots, wet roads etc etc. The car tire is not perfect , but IMHO it's still a hell of a lot safer than a mc tire (if treated with respect and logic). The type of car tire you buy, the air pressure, the road conditions, and your riding style, ALL are very important factors to consider seriously when riding a car tire. I now have about 5000 k on my Hankook Optimo H426, and if you read my earliers posts, you'll read I was about to give up on this car tire thing, because I was getting a bad wobble at the 80+mph mark....Scared the eebie-jeebies out of me. However, I was hell bent and determined to at least find out why this was happening to me before I gave up. Turned out to be a variation of things, anywhere from rear turbulence from my rear cargo trunk, loose risers, not enough air pressure in the front tire, and improper amounts of oil in my front shocks. (most bikes don't have this many issues) So through the process of elimination, I got all these things tweaked and fixed. Now I can ride my bike at 80mph all day, and not feel a wobble at all. Using a death grip on the handlebars didn't help either. I could have given up, and blamed the car tire, but the tire had NOTHING to do with my wobble, other than amplify and direct me to problems I had on the bike that the mc tire never told me. The thing with the car tire, is that tire is always telling you what the road wind and turbulence conditions are like, but we tend to ignor these warnings from the bike and tire, until we start getting really in tuned with the bike...becoming one. When you feel the ass of the bike swaying or feeling funny on a 2 way highway, study the road, and you might realize that you're riding in paved ruts, created by heavy trucks etc. So if the bike is feeling a little weird, don't blame the tire, she is simply telling you the condition of the road. How do you correct this problem.....don't drive in the rut of the road, keep your bike in between the ruts and you'll see a major improvement. Same applies for uneven asphalt...try to stay on the higest part. These are all examples that we the newbies tend to ignor at first, but try to pay more attention to road surfaces and what the tire is telling you.....you have to learn to 'listen' to your tire now. If you do, you will feel that you and your bike are now corresponding better as one, and she'll take you places you never thought you could enjoy, and keep you safe in the process if you listen to what she is telling you. On smooth roads, the car tire glues to the road, and curve like it's on rails. The important thing here is safety, common sense, and being observant.
It's YOUR repsonsability to get to know your beast, and the boots she's wearing. From then on, it's nothing but open roads !

Some one is confused With the tire pressure monitoring system I always know what pressure i have in my tires. We stayed overnight in the mountains at 6 am my pressure alarm was on when we woke up. the rear was down to 30psi, but i didnt add air because the minute we started riding it came back up and was at 38psi within 5 minutes. If my tires are low in the winter i will add air as i always know what my pressures are but i dont want to much air as ive found it rides real good and doesnt slip or skip on the road with an operating pressure (hot) of 38psi. But i wont add and remove air like a yoyo i just try to keep it in that sweet spot of 38psi hot. The TPMS is a great tool for anyone with a motorcycle as you will know when you have a problem. I reccomend it to everyone with or without a run flat. It will let you know if your having a serious problem before it becomes a crash. Paul

Dudester.......nicely put sir!!!!!



.

Cool whos my darkside daddy

How does a Vader junior like me get get a Laser Sword and a Dark Side Patch???

Tshirtmeister wrote:Some one is confused With the tire pressure monitoring system I always know what pressure i have in my tires. We stayed overnight in the mountains at 6 am my pressure alarm was on when we woke up. the rear was down to 30psi, but i didnt add air because the minute we started riding it came back up and was at 38psi within 5 minutes. If my tires are low in the winter i will add air as i always know what my pressures are but i dont want to much air as ive found it rides real good and doesnt slip or skip on the road with an operating pressure (hot) of 38psi. But i wont add and remove air like a yoyo i just try to keep it in that sweet spot of 38psi hot. The TPMS is a great tool for anyone with a motorcycle as you will know when you have a problem. I reccomend it to everyone with or without a run flat. It will let you know if your having a serious problem before it becomes a crash. Paul

Yoyo ?? I've been called worst, but basically you're saying the same as me. Whether you test your tire hot or cold, as long as you test them at the same time, which is what the important thing is. I prefer cold, because it simplifies things, and I know exactly what my tires are before I ride off. I don't need a fancy pressure monitoring system to do that, just a 5 dollar air pressure guage, and the willingness to bend down and take the reading, however if some have a problem bending down to check their tires, a pressure monitoring system might be more suitable, as long as it's functioning properly.

I didnt call you a YOYO as you have a laser sword. I just dont wana be a yoyo changin pressure all the time. You have enough experiance to be a step above a vader jr like me. The tpms is important for me because i have a run flat tire installed and wont know if its flat and dont want to run flat for more than 5-10 miles, so thats why i installed it . as some experianced darksiders suggested. Its all good plus my GF likes it, when she feels the rear trackin a groove in the road she looks at the alarm light and she feels safer when its not red. Then shes sooo sweet. She didnt like sliding on the pavement when we had the blowout on the MT. So when we get home from a ride now " i ask her, Who's your Daddy " and shes sooo sweet. A Plus for the TPMS. Paul

Tshirtmeister wrote:I didnt call you a YOYO as you have a laser sword. I just dont wana be a yoyo changin pressure all the time. You have enough experiance to be a step above a vader jr like me. The tpms is important for me because i have a run flat tire installed and wont know if its flat and dont want to run flat for more than 5-10 miles, so thats why i installed it . as some experianced darksiders suggested. Its all good plus my GF likes it, when she feels the rear trackin a groove in the road she looks at the alarm light and she feels safer when its not red. Then shes sooo sweet. She didnt like sliding on the pavement when we had the blowout on the MT. So when we get home from a ride now " i ask her, Who's your Daddy " and shes sooo sweet. A Plus for the TPMS. Paul

No offense taken Jr lol. As far as being much more expereinced than you, all I can say is that there are a lot of more expereinced ppl than I in here, so I'm still learning as well. I simply call it as I see it with the experince I've had ....so far.
I'm sure I'll be learning more about DS'ing as the years and miles go by. Right now, NOTHING could ever make me go back to a bike tire, and I love the fact that I understand the car tire now, and it's a great feeling. I just ride according to what my tire tells me to, and all is good, in other words, I don't fight it no more. I just listen to what the tire is telling me, keep the grip loose, and enjoy the ride and the journey, so it's not about destination and how fast I can get there.
Best of luck on your journey, and I wish you safe roads ahead.

Many Happy Motoring Miles "MHMM"

Dudester60 wrote:I . I realize now, the proper way to play with psi is to experiment for longer periods of time (unless you really feel your life is in jeopardy at a certain psi) try to get use to it for a few hundred miles, even a thousand if you can. That way, when you do raise or lower the psi by 2 lbs, you will feel the difference, either in a positive manner or negative.....by experimenting slowly, you will be able to find your true sweet spot. It's not easy being patient, cause we want to find our sweet spot right away and get the best out of our CT right away, but it's not something you should try to rush. Take your time, do as the seasoned Darksiders before you have done, meaning, if it's your first car tire, start at 40 psi, and work your way down "s-l-o-w-l-y" two pounds at a time, until you've reached 30 psi, then up again to the psi you thought felt best on your way down. If still not sure, start over again, s-l-o-w-l-y and try to pay attention, testing various scenarios and road conditions on your way down, but do at least 500 miles at each psi setting before trying another.

thats basicly what I've done, first, I put in 45 and rode for about 4000 miles, then I dropped to 32, rode about 2000miles, then dropped ti to 25 rode another 500 or so miles, now I've got it back up to 30 for the past 1000 or so, might put it up to 31

I didn't mind the handling @ 25, but I seemed to have more wobble problems at high speeds, 32psi is about where I start noticing countersteer effort, I'm going to be adding a fork brace and steering damper, at 30, I still have some high speed wobble when passing thru the wake of a large vehicle

When I was a mechanic for Goodyear. We were instructed to never put less than 30psi in any tire our regs stated that and you could be disiplined for not setting every cars tire we worked on to at least 30, 32recommended. Goodyear taught us at under 30 psi the sidewall will begin to overheat and is considered unsafe at 25psi. This is the range most factory TPMS alarms are at 24-26psi. So i would be carefull to go to low on air. We never set to max pressure either. usually 32-36psi. MHMM

My vlx handles well at 39-41lbs,,rarely has it gotten lower, and have never had to add more the 3-4 lbs at one time

mark

So there Ya go between 30-40 whichever you like best , different tires will vary in the sweet spot.

Paul

I'm sure I am not done with the pressures but on the Road King I have found that the Hankook H426 is pretty sweet at 31-32 psi. Sure like that tire but it is my first modern car tire so take that with a grain of salt. Time will tell.

I thought 37-39 was scarry as it was a real handfull on gravel and with high spots and changing road surface. Some wobble also.