blowup

I sent the bike in for progressive fork springs, new bearings, pipes, and a new Sonar Multi-Mile. The guy doing the work is EXPERIENCED rider and EXPERIENCED mechanic. He called and said the tire blew out the sidewall at about 80 pounds. Had to order another. He felt bad but he had no idea what would have caused it because he knew what it would take in pressure. He lubed it well as he knew it was going to be tough as he had done it for many HDs. Anyone else have this happen? Any suggestions? The DARKSIDE just got a little more expensive.

Sounds to me like a defective tire. Be glad it happened at the shop and not in a tight twisty. The manufacturer should eat that one. Just leave out the 80 psi thing. Even though it damm sure should be able to handle it.

JMHO

Smokey

I may have missed something but why would you put 80 psi in a tire ? Sounds like he wanted to pop it .

that is what I'm hoping---a defective tire. Sure got the guy's attn. He used to be able to hear a squirrel cut on a peach at a 100 yards. not now.

To seat my Kumho it took 110 psi. Most of the 1300s take more air pressure to seat the tire to the rim.

Glad I don't have to do that with my Cooper Zeon 2XS . I just mount it and air it up to 40 psi then do again in 10,500 miles when its toast.

same thing happened to me and the mechanic (experienced in doing goldwing darksides for years) that put mine on. we were trying to put on a gillette widetracker 165r15 and it blew putting it on. the air blew my hat and sunglasses off about 10 feet behind me. it looked like someone had took a case cutter and cut the tire from the bead toward the center of the tire. looking at the bead their was wire on one side of the cut but not on the other so we thought maybe that is where it was supposed to be molded together. fortunately my old lady had bought two because the stealer had a sale on them. now we know why but this tire does great under 80 mph. over 80 mph it wants to wobble, talked to a dyna bead dealer and he suggested adding some more beads in the tire to see if that would eliminate the wobble. already done the stem bearing mod so i know thats not the problem. it that doesn't resolve the wobble, i think i am going to chose a different brand of tire. i noticed that a lot of the tires darksiders are using are more rounded than this tire. tj. http://tech.vtxoa.com/index.php?action=artikel&cat=36&id=199&artlang=en safe riding,tj

Do you folks have to " Run " that much air pressure on the VTX or do you back it back down to around 40ish after it seats ? I'd hate to be ridin' one with that much pressure and it pop at 85 mph that could leave a mark.

Just run the pressure up to get them to seat then we drop it down. Most of us are running about 44 psi
Smokey

To "seat" the tire (done to all tires) you air it up way beyond correct riding pressure. It will have a max pressure written on it. On a 4 wheeler it takes around 50 lbs to seat and you ride with 3 lbs !!

LOL! I take it that your Christmas pic was in the spirit of goodwill towards men!

My tire took 110 psi to seat but I run 45 psi.

Yeah, the 1300s have a slight issue requiring alot of PSI to seat the bead. Mine took 105, then I did the Foots Mod with the 1800 wheel...it took less than 40 psi to bead it.

But i'd agree that it was a defective tire.

I am glad i did not have to put that much air in my tire my toyo was allmost ste when it went over the rim

Fillup,

The one thing that the 165's take to seat the bead correctly, is to help seat the bead. Wash the rim with a water hose to get the old soap off from previous mountings because the tire will grip it and not seat the bead and then soap the whole bead and rim...NOT the once around that most tire guys do.

Next thing to do is make sure the tire is correctly centered on the rim before trying to seat the bead...the rubber is so soft it rolls instead of pushing the edge of the tire out. I have seen one other blow up and you could see where it wasn't centered on the rim and rolled the tire and popped it.

Next problem with the 165 is we got taller side walls than the the 1800 guys use for their bikes and makes the side walls stiffer.

I hope this answers some of your questions.

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

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