Cruiser Magazine/Darkside

This is the responce I got from Mr. Zimmerman. His e-mail address is: Zimmemr@aol.com
You can read this and anyone who would like to talk to him to present facts or e-mail facts is invited to do so. I know there are people here that have great facts and info they could send him or even talk to him about. He is in Danbury, Connecticut. At this point, sounds like they want to do ANOTHER article about the Darkside.

Corey,
I've been reading through some of the postings on the Darkside web site. Since I can't post anything there I'm going to ask you to do it for me. First, while I have my opinions, I'm not out to do a hatchet job on anyone. Frankly, I don't care if you guys want to run steel implement tires on your bikes. The bottom line is they are your bikes, and you're free to do what you want. Secondly, I think I'm a good and fair journalist, that's capable of presenting both sides of the story, so regardless of what I think, if you guys can make a case I'll present it without bias. At this point I've talked to several reps from the tire companies and they all tell me the same things. But the two main issues (we'll forget profiles etc, because we're talking about cruisers here) are the following.

1. Car tire beads aren't designed to seat on motorcycle rims, so there's the potential that under certain conditions the bead could unseat.

2. To often when a car tire is installed on a motorcycle rim they are installed on narrower rims than they should be, For example the rim of a VTX 1800 is if memory serves me 5" wide, but a 200 series car tire is designed for a 5.5 inch rim. In fairness this is also a problem when overly wide MC tires are installed on a bike.

If someone in your group would like to get in touch and discuss the issue with me, and no rancor please, I'll distill what he has to say down into a few lines that we can run in support of your position. I really want to stress here that I'm not planning to write something that says "this is a dumb idea." What I'd really like to do is present both sides of the argument and let the reader make up their own minds.

On a personal note you might mention to the guy that invited me to ride with the woman from Texas in the expectation that I'd be humiliated that I've got several club and AMA District dirt track championships to my name and have been riding for over 40 years so I can get a bike around pretty good when I have to. Besides, In race career that started in 1972 I've been beaten by everyone from Gary Nixon to Ken Coolbeth so it's tough to embarrass me.

Best,
MZ

If anyone wants to talk to Mark Zimmerman or e-mail him any facts or info, he said he needs it ASAP. This was the last e-mail I had with him this morning:

In a message dated 3/13/2009 11:59:00 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, As far as the proof that it works, with all due respect, isn't that already been proven with all the people who have been on the Darkside for the last 5 years without problems? doesn't all that time and peoples experience count for anything?
Corey,
It absolutely does, and that's why I'm willing to listen to you and the guys that are doing this. And in that respect I'd offer this up. Back when I began dirt tracking nobody and I mean no body ran rear suspension, even though it had been used on street and road race bikes for a number of years.They were all convinced it wouldn't work. In 1962 Dick Mann, who was a fantastic rider and tuner started to use and won the AMA Grand National Championship. By 1968 there wasn't a serious contender or a rigid frame, so yeah things can change. And just so there is misunderstanding while I personally prefer the way a bike feels with a narrow tire, I like a very light feel to my bikes, that doesn't mean I think there's anything wrong as such with a large tire or even a flat profile, hell K70 Dunlops and Old Metzler Universal's were flat as billiard tables and they worked just fine. My only real concern with mounting a car tire at this point is the bead and size issues,
both of which could be rectified easily enough. I can certainly see the tire guys coming out with a hybrid tire that combines the foot print and compound needed to extend MT life to that of a cars, in the long term. And yes, this is good and I will hang onto your address.
Best,
MZ