Anyone do their own dark side?

Just curious if any on here done it themselves?

Recently picked up some tire tools and while I've never done tires before I'm willing to give it a shot.

Tire I was going to probably use is General Altimax 205 / 70 / 15.

Seen something about narrower tire being better handling?

Bike is 1300 R.

Not in huge rush to get this done since I have a brand new Metzeler on now but I do want to try the darkside.
Hoping I can get my current tire off in one piece so I can go back to MC tire if I decide darkside is not for me.

Looks like the main problem with these is the insane pressure required to set the bead.

Seen post over on vtxcafe about heating tire up out in the sun on a very hot day and that helps make the bead seat easier.

I know some Wing guys that mount their tires with spoons.
A 205 works well on a VTX...

Yep, the sun will warm the rubber up and make it more pliable so it will mount and seat easier.

I mount my own on the Harley. My choice of slick-um is tire shine.

With the already much softer sidewalls of car tires, I found keeping them out of the Sun makes it easier to mount, and I do change all tires myself.

On my Concours, I found the 16" car tire was easier to mount than any of the bike tires I'd put on the bike. Can't recall how many tires, but the bike had about 70,000 on it when I went to a car tire.

However, on the 15" rim of my Kaw 900C, I could not get the tire to pop out over the safety beads on the rims, even with 100 PSI in the tire, setting in the Summer Sun for an entire afternoon. Measured inside diameter of car tire, it was 14 15/16" and found that to be the same on several different brands of 15" car tires. Measured several different bike tires and found the diameter to be 15 1/16" (all of them). That is a 1/8" difference and a very big difference. I simply could not get the tire to pop out over the safety beads. This is after polishing the rim to almost mirror smoothness, using silicon spray, regular tire mounting slicky stuff and everything else I could think of that wouldn't damage the rubber.

Finally, I ground off 1/16" all the way around the inside of the tire and it mounted just fine. It hasn't lost a pound of pressure with about 10,000 miles on it.

This may seem a drastic measure, but it was the only way I could mount the car tire on the rim. Your rim may be different and they may be different on other 900C bikes, but that was what I had to do to go darkside on the 900C.

Fly wrote:With the already much softer sidewalls of car tires, I found keeping them out of the Sun makes it easier to mount, and I do change all tires myself.

On my Concours, I found the 16" car tire was easier to mount than any of the bike tires I'd put on the bike. Can't recall how many tires, but the bike had about 70,000 on it when I went to a car tire.

However, on the 15" rim of my Kaw 900C, I could not get the tire to pop out over the safety beads on the rims, even with 100 PSI in the tire, setting in the Summer Sun for an entire afternoon. Measured inside diameter of car tire, it was 14 15/16" and found that to be the same on several different brands of 15" car tires. Measured several different bike tires and found the diameter to be 15 1/16" (all of them). That is a 1/8" difference and a very big difference. I simply could not get the tire to pop out over the safety beads. This is after polishing the rim to almost mirror smoothness, using silicon spray, regular tire mounting slicky stuff and everything else I could think of that wouldn't damage the rubber.

Finally, I ground off 1/16" all the way around the inside of the tire and it mounted just fine. It hasn't lost a pound of pressure with about 10,000 miles on it.

This may seem a drastic measure, but it was the only way I could mount the car tire on the rim. Your rim may be different and they may be different on other 900C bikes, but that was what I had to do to go darkside on the 900C.

VTX rims must be different, the last one I had mounted (HydroEdge) slipped on with no problem and seated at 60psi.

I mount all my tires, I have not given up on any of them, they all went on. Some were tougher than others and some took up to 115 lbs of air to pop, and if I recall, one had 120 in it. It seams, the larger the tire, the easer to bead.

Might do this before end of year.

Kinda concerned about insurance though.
Allstate is my company.

Thinking claim denial on accidents they call my fault.
Like say I hit some idiot that pulls out in front of me.
My insurance could deny claim or I get sued by other insurance for running none motorcycle tire.

Lot of the VTX guys I meet have darkside and love it.
Just don't want to get screwed by insurance...

vtx07r wrote:Might do this before end of year.

Kinda concerned about insurance though.
Allstate is my company.

Thinking claim denial on accidents they call my fault.
Like say I hit some idiot that pulls out in front of me.
My insurance could deny claim or I get sued by other insurance for running none motorcycle tire.

Lot of the VTX guys I meet have darkside and love it.
Just don't want to get screwed by insurance...

Unless there is specific language in your policy prohibiting the use of a car tire (and I really doubt there is) you have nothing to worry about.
The myth about insurance companies denying claims is one the nay-sayers love to trot out as a reason you shouldn't use a car tire. That and the inevitability you are going to burst into a ball of flames....

Don't know what language is in policy.
I guess I'll have to have them send me that.