Riding on the Darkside
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My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...

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Badmoon
twin1300
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My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before... Empty My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before...

Post  midwestrider Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:47 pm

I got a flat tire!!! That both a motorcycle tire flat and a car tire flat within 1 month!!

Here's the story. I put a Bridgestone Potenza G009 195/65R15 car tire on the bike a week ago Sunday. Actually I started almost 2 weeks before that but had a lot of problems seating the beads. But last Sunday I finally seated the beads on both sides and got the wheel back on the bike.

Tonight, I decided to ride to a buddy house. In order to avoid getting rained on (which I didn't) I took some country roads to try and stay away from the rains path.

As I was riding at one point I was on a frontage road next to I55 near Bloomington. I was looking over at the highway and a little boy in a semi-truck (he was the passenger) was watching me so I gave him a friendly wave and he enthusiastically returned a wave back! I got a really big kick out of this and was smiling under my helmet. Well the frontage road crossed over I55 and while I was on the other side I was looking to my right at the highway just to see if anyone else was watching me. As I was doing this I felt that I ran over something. I heard a sound of metal hitting metal and I quickly glanced in my mirror to see if I could see anything on the road or if anything was flying around behind me because I ran over it. I didn't see anything. A few seconds later I heard a rattling noise coming from the rear and immediately slowed down and pulled over to check things out. Knowing that I just ran over something and hearing metal to metal sounds I first looked at the tire to see if it was losing any air. I pushed on the sidewall and couldn't see that anything was different. So I slowly took off again and got back up to speed when I heard the rattling sound again and this time I could immediately feel that I was losing air in the rear tire. Again I slowed down and pulled over. This time when looking at the tire it was completely flat!

I wasn't very far from a delivery entrance to the Nestle candy factory so I duck walked the bike over there using the engine to move the bike. I got off of the bike and this is what I found.

My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before... VTX%201300C%20with%20flat%20CT

My first thought was that since I had such a hard time seating the bead that maybe it had broken loose and let all the air out. But upon closer inspection I realized this was not the case.

I ended up rolling the bike forward and inspecting the tire for some kind of puncture. Well, I found it! After look at it a while I used my pocket knife's flat blade screwdriver to determine if the tire had a hole in it all the way through.

Here's the pictures to tell the story.

My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before... Before%20pushing%20into%20top%20hole
This is before pushing on the knife and just letting the blade sit in the depth of the tread.

There was a gash at least 2 inches long but only of the top and bottom of the gash would the blade go through.

My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before... After%20pushing%20into%20top%20hole
This is the top hole.

My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before... After%20pushing%20into%20bottom%20hole
This is the bottom hole

Luckily I got ahold of the guy I was going to visit and he had a buddy with a motorcycle trailer and they came and got me and we got the bike back to my house.

Here's a couple of pics of what I saw when I first pulled over and found the problem. I left the pics big so you can easily see all of the detail.

My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before... Puncture%20view%201
View 1

My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before... Puncture%20view%202
View 2

I just praise God that I wasn't hurt and the bike wasn't damaged at all. Believe it or not I plan to remount another car tire. But because of the difficulty I had with getting this tire beaded up I'm gonna try a different brand this time. I believe that I will put on a Goodyear Assurance TripleTred.

For those of you who are already Darksiders is the any reason to pick a 205 width tire over a 195 width? Does it just look cooler cuz it bigger or are there other advantages?

Let me know what you think.
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Post  nodakbassmaster Wed Jul 08, 2009 1:57 am

size, looks, straight traction and especially variety of availability... good luck with the next tire... that one didn't last long! Neutral
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Post  smokey2255 Wed Jul 08, 2009 2:38 am

nodakbassmaster wrote:size, looks, straight traction and especially variety of availability... good luck with the next tire... that one didn't last long! Neutral

+1 Imagine if it had been a mc tire. Car tires are tough. Glad all is well.

See you out there
Smokey
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Post  docbiggles Wed Jul 08, 2009 5:46 am

Thats gotta suck mate, good luck with your next choice.

You didn't find the offending article did you?

Is everything ok up under the guard?

Cheers

Doc.
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Post  Steve-O Wed Jul 08, 2009 7:49 am

Good that nobody was hurt. Sucks to be stranded.

I don't think you will find much difference between a 205 and a 195 on your bike. I've had a 165 and now a 205. I'm going back to a 185 to see if I can find the sweet spot between handling and superslap stability. I found the 165 to be more "nimble", while the 205 was great on the interstate. I'm putting the 185 on this weekend so I'll send out a report.

You DO have a lot more choices with the 205s. But go with a tried and true one to avoid seating and fit issues
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Post  jedishon Wed Jul 08, 2009 7:51 am

What a PITA. But how did you like the ride you did have?

Jerry
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Post  marine-mp Wed Jul 08, 2009 11:09 am

Midwestrider,
It almost sounds like you believe it was a defect in the tire or something like that. I may be mistaken on that one, but.....it surely looks like you ran over something, from the looks of the large pics. I been saying for a while, and nobody seems to take me serious, but a run-flat tire wpold have let you get home without the trailer, and they can be ridden on with 0 air pressure. You might try seeing if you can get one in your size and try it. Kuhmo, Continental, Goodyear, etc. all make a run-flat tire. See my signature. JMHO Semper-fi MIke

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Post  midwestrider Wed Jul 08, 2009 12:31 pm

No, I don't believe this was a tire defect. I obviously ran over something that punctured and cut the tire. I also didn't have a warranty on the tire because I bought it at Sam's Club and they told me that if they didn't mount it they couldn't warranty it. I realize in this case I'm just out the $75 I spent to buy the tire. But in light of how things turned out (me un-injured and the bike not damaged) I'm not at all upset about the situation. I was definitely counting my blessing as I sat there waiting for my friends to arrive!

To answer other questions:

You didn't find the offending article did you?

Is everything ok up under the guard?

No I didn't find what I hit. We drove by where it happened but didn't get out of the vehicle to look around because of traffic. As far as I could tell everything under the fender looked fine no scratches or scrapes from what I hit.

What a PITA. But how did you like the ride you did have?

Yes and yes. I really did like the car tire. After the initial 200+ miles it seemed to have lost the "edgey" feeling when turning. My wife told me that the ride in the passenger seat was better because the tire soaked up more bumps than before.
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Post  twin1300 Wed Jul 08, 2009 1:33 pm

Glad you are OK! Darkside did it's job! Didn't do nothing stupid.

So, here's the reason I would go with the 205 instead of the 195! Because they would be so much shorter than in height than the 205 and would make your gas mileage go down and too many rpm's when on highway!
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Post  jedishon Wed Jul 08, 2009 1:52 pm

That is a good edorsement..... Thanks for posting the whole thing.

Jerry
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Post  Badmoon Wed Jul 08, 2009 2:09 pm

Not to mention $75 beats $200+.

Glad you are ok and bike not damaged. Could have been bad, real bad.
Blessings and more blessings.

Peace.
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Post  dino Thu Jul 09, 2009 11:15 pm

hey, just a question, why don't you try to plug it in with tire plug kit from wallmart??
As soon when I got mine general grabber on the bike, next few days picked up the long screw in the tire, plugged in with that plug kit from wally world and still it's going strong, after 5K on it rode almost daily.
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Post  midwestrider Fri Jul 10, 2009 9:02 am

I really don't think that damage to my tire can be succesfully fixed with a plug kit. My tire was damaged by something with an edge on it and not by something round (like a nail) that could be plugged. My tire has at least 2 holes (not round) in it with cut rubber in between. I would not feel comfortable plugging this tire and then riding on it. Especially since the damage to the steel belt is far more than a nail alone would have done.
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Post  ttexastim Fri Jul 10, 2009 10:13 am

midwestrider wrote:I really don't think that damage to my tire can be succesfully fixed with a plug kit. My tire was damaged by something with an edge on it and not by something round (like a nail) that could be plugged. My tire has at least 2 holes (not round) in it with cut rubber in between. I would not feel comfortable plugging this tire and then riding on it. Especially since the damage to the steel belt is far more than a nail alone would have done.

+1 on that!

I had a similar hole on my truck once, and I tried to plug it with 4 or 5 plugs. I think after the 5th one it finally held air, but 100 feet down the road the entire wad of plugs blew out. With a slit like that, the tire can flex around it too much and blow the plug out. You are better off just getting an new tire and staying safe.
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Post  horseman8m Fri Jul 10, 2009 2:04 pm

ttexastim wrote:
midwestrider wrote:I really don't think that damage to my tire can be succesfully fixed with a plug kit. My tire was damaged by something with an edge on it and not by something round (like a nail) that could be plugged. My tire has at least 2 holes (not round) in it with cut rubber in between. I would not feel comfortable plugging this tire and then riding on it. Especially since the damage to the steel belt is far more than a nail alone would have done.

+1 on that!

I had a similar hole on my truck once, and I tried to plug it with 4 or 5 plugs. I think after the 5th one it finally held air, but 100 feet down the road the entire wad of plugs blew out. With a slit like that, the tire can flex around it too much and blow the plug out. You are better off just getting an new tire and staying safe.


++1,,,,, new tire
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Post  horseman8m Mon Jul 13, 2009 2:33 pm

Troy did you get a new tire put on ????
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Post  midwestrider Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:26 am

No, lack of funds at the moment are keeping me from doing anything.

But my wife would feel more comfortable on the bike if I go back to a motorcycle tire. So, I'm gonna do that to ease her mind and keep her riding with me as often as possible. I'm gonna have a set of Metzeler ME880's put on. I'll have an 180 in the rear though instead of the stock size, 170.

I will still be a big promoter of the Darkside though! In fact, I know I've got at least one buddy at work considering it for his bike, but he's gotta do some engine work first.

I did get the car tire off the rim last night and the damage from inside the tire supports that fact that something I ran over punctured the tire. I will post pics of that soon.

I did use air soft pellets (.20 gram weight) and they all looked good. I found one pellet that had split in half. Granted mine only had about 300+ miles on them but from my experience air soft pellets (I recommend the .20 gram ones, not the .12 gram) are a cheaper alternative to Dyna Beads.
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Post  midwestrider Fri Jul 24, 2009 4:14 pm

Well, I was so glad to get some tire mounted on the bike that I've been riding as much as possible and have taken to long to post these follow-up pics.

Here's a view of inside the tire where the punctures were.

My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before... Puncture%20view%203
Puncture view 3

And for those that wonder about using air soft pellets instead of Dyna Beads, here's a look at the pellets I had in the bike compared to some new ones.

My Darkside conversion only lasted 10 days before... New%20to%20used%20comparison
New and used comparison

For the most part the beads maintained their round shape. I did find one that was split in half and maybe 2 or 3 that had some flat spots. They worked as well as Dyna Beads in my opinion. I've got Dyna Beads in the Metzelers that I have on the back now and can't tell a difference between those and what I had in the car tire.

I'm very happy with the ME880's I put on. They are great tires, it'll be interesting to see how many miles I can get out of them. Even though I'm no longer Darksided I'll keep checking in once in a while.
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Post  Dan Fri Jul 24, 2009 4:49 pm

I've heard BB's work fine for balancing as well Cool
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