Maiden Voyage on the Darkside

Just installed 205-55-16 Dunlop Direzza DZ101 on '08 goldwing. I hadn't ridden the bike in a while and noticed absolutely no difference once the tire was installed. The local discount tire mounted it for free, so the total cost was just shy of $105.

I was just looking at a receipt for when I had tires installed at a local motorcycle place in town and saw that just to install was $193. That and $325 worth of tires set a complete new set at just over $500. At the same time I went darkside I had the local Honda dealer put on a new dunlop D3 on the front. $217 out the door on that one. So grand total for a new front and to go darkside was $325.

I also went with Ride-On brand motorcycle tire sealer and balancer. 8 tubes and expedited shipping set me just under $160. Mind you this was to fill two bikes and to have enough to make sure I wasn't short. I was really sold on the Ride-On after seeing demonstrations on youtube and talking to their tech support. The install was easy and the bike is really smooth.

A note about doing the rear tire install. I went with the biggest tire I could find that would fit, being the 205-55-16. I initially couldn't get it on the hub, so I completely deflated it. Once deflated it went in relatively easy. In the future I might go with a narrow and taller tire. Once it, it was easy peasy.

When researching the tire, part of the search was what was locally available. There were a few, and I looked at the runflats as well. I decided on the Dunlop Direzza DZ101 mainly because it was a gummy tire. My thought is that even if these tires only last as long as a D3 I'm still ahead of the game. I expect them to last longer than that, but since it's so hot here, I will probably change it every other year. With regards to the RF tires, the same Dunlop in a RF was about $70 more(70%). I did read what was being said about w/o TPMS on a regular tire you may not notice it. Well, once the rear tire was deflated and installed I put the bike on the kick stand so and then the center stand so I could torque and air up. I took a look when it was on the kick stand and I have to say, there should not be any problem noticing that your rear tire has gone down on you. So overall I'm not worred about not having a RF on there.

I still haven't found a good TPMS system just yet, the ones that attach to the outside of the valve stems don't seem to like water (i.e. a Florida downpour), so I yanked them off. Maybe by the time I'm ready to redo my tires they'll have a good set up. Would love something that would integrate with my Zumo 550, but I don't know if that's even possible.

Having said all that I'm getting ready to head out on an 1100 mile ride as a darksider. I'll report back on my thoughts on the car tire, but I really don't expect to notice much difference. Just having ridden about 50 miles on the CT thus far, and this might be psychosematic, but it really does feel like there is more grip on the rear than I am used to.

Cheers

Congrats on your tire. Take it easy the first couple 100 to wear the slick off, then play with your pressures.
I'm guessing around 38psi might be where you will like it.