second darkside

Well this is a little long but I wanted to tell everyone about my darkside experience. I was # 7 or 8 on the darkside group and went through the vtx forum before they moved the thread. And yes I was told how dangerous it was to put a car tire on a bike and that I was crazy and was going to get killed running a tire designed for a car on a bike. Well here is what I learned on the first tire which was a centred 165r15 made in brazil. I put 10100 miles on the tire and didn't find anything I didn't like about the tire. Well a few weeks back the wife and I were going out for supper and we were meeting friends and family at the resturant. It was a place 45 miles from home and the weather was nice and we hadn't ridden the bike for a while so I go out and check the tires before the ride and both were a few lbs. low so I aired them up to the pressure I run. Then come in and get ready to go well we ended up leaving a few minutes late. So we start out and get about 7 miles from home and go into a curve and the bike feels loose feeling I didn't pay that much attention just figured maybe wind. Well we keep going and the bike starts feeling funny and I figured it will be ok so I continue on now this is in the delta and there are no service stations on this stretch of hwy 61 from Rolling Fork to Vicksburg. WE are riding 2 up and we are both big people so we get to the resturant and I go across the street to a service station with a pair of air pump/vaccum cleaners. I put the money in both and neither works. So I leave the bike there and go to the resturant and have supper. My daughter was there in her car so I send them to Walmart and buy a small compressor and use her cig lighter to air up my tire. The little compressor airs up the tire in about 10 minutes and I cant see anything in the tire so I figured the valve core may have stuck when I added air and sealed off when I reaired the tire. So we start home and at around 20 miles the tire is flat again well now its 10:00 at night on a sunday night. I'm 30 or so miles from home 2 up with a flat a air pump and no way to plug it up. I call my dad and have him come out and pickup up the wife and use his lighter plug to air back up and make it about 15 or so miles farther twords home and its back down but he stops and we air it again and this time I make it home. Now I have ran this tire low or flat for around 70 miles so I figure its toast and go get another tire to replace the original darkside with and a new stem which was the trouble all along. When I removed the tire the insides looked fine not destroyed like I figured they would be. But I had already bought the new tire so I replaced it and put the tire I ran flat on a trailer my dad had. So now I will tell the people who tell me how dangerous it is to run a car tire on a bike to show me a bike tire that will run 70 miles low or flat and not fail. And yes I went back with a car tire. The dealer I called couldn't get a 165r15 so I got a 165/80/15 and will see how many miles I can get out of this one.

Tommy Kelly,

Awesome testimony to how a car tire holds up with a flat. I don't think a motorcycle tire would be able to do that. That's good data to know since I have never had a flat on my darkside yet. I have been told that the beads come off easy on car tires. I know that's a crock, because it takes a machine to break my darksides down and sometimes they have to go around the tire before it breaks loose. And now you give this report and it didn't come off the bead..that's pretty good.

Thanks again for posting that over here.


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Thanks for the post....Nothing better than a good old fashioned no crashing and no burning story.
Glad to hear the tire held up and you and the Mrs. got home okay.

Welcome to the site, glad to have you here.

Jerry