ST1300 finally darkside

I found a tread on the st1300 forum and ordered the tire they are using, 106 on ebay, hankook, 205/50-17, Hankook Ventus V12 EVO K110. The tire worked great. Larry simpson helped me mount it ( after he spilled dyna beads all over the shop), things went smooth.I ran a triple tread for about 65,000 miles on my vtx so, i was ready for this. thanks to all.

Picky Picky,Picky, you didn't need them anyway. Looks real good now break it in before you try it out anymore.

thanks for your help

Congrats.

Good thing you weren't using marbles... Larry already lost all of his.

Wes,you are closer than you know.The beads got spilled after he thumped me in the head with the breakdown bar.

Congrats ! It seems you had a good laugh.

Got my K110 mounted on my ST1300 about 2:30 PM Thursday. Ran 25 miles on twisty roads back home even though it's only 7 miles from the shop.

First impression... nice, quiet, tire with LOTS of sticky! It does take more effort to establish the lean and track through a corner without drifting to the outside. At first it was disconcerting when trying to make a parking lot turn, or a turn from the lot into roadway... went very wide just because I didn't know what to expect. The tire gives lots of feedback, especially if the composition of the pavement changes rapidly as it would on rough roads with lots of long patches like we have here in North Carolina.

I'm starting out at 38 PSI and will increase to 40 PSI after a few hundred miles just to see what it changes. The fitment was straightforward. In fact it never really 'Popped' onto the rim when first inflated and that worried us that the bead didn't take hold. Even went to the trouble of dismounting immediately to ensure the bead had not broken and then remounted and inflated. Balanced up easily with one small weight.

You MUST deflate the tire to get the wheel back onto the final drive. Once it was reinflated there didn't seem to be any clearance issues. This was the first C/T attempt by the guy that mounted it for me... he's a long time rider and takes that die hard "You gonna DIE with that on there" line... He wasn't impressed with how it handled in his parking lot and I expected that. At anything under 10-15 mph this tire requires your attention. I can see where some riders of the ST might add to their tip over count if they are the least bit timid when learning how to handle this tire.

Gonna ride about 1,400 miles in West Virginia over the week - east side of the state. So if you see the NC place TOURUS on the road ... just wave me down and we'll talk DarkSide experiences.... or go up to www.Roads www.RoadsAndRiders.com the middle of next week to see a complete article.

Hard to say after just 25 miles, but I think the tire will give me what I expect, which is a treadwear life of at least 20,000 miles - which for just $132 of total cost in tire and mount isn't bad on an ST.

Good writeup, we experienced the same when it beaded but, no problems. I'm running 32 for now.