Thinking of going dark

Is it harder to ride at slow speeds and is there any rear wheel wobble I am on a 05 royal star

Bates96733 wrote:Is it harder to ride at slow speeds and is there any rear wheel wobble I am on a 05 royal star

Short answer... Nope.

Looking for the pros and cons of doing this

Pros:
Save money on tires.
Save time on changing tires.
Increased traction.
Increased braking power on the rear wheel AND less chance of accidental high siding.
Less chance of a flat AND you can install run flats.
Better looking tire patterns and you can go wider with the rear tire without new rims.

Cons:
The ride is different and some folks don't like it.
Dealerships won't install them
If you blow one out while installing them, you lose the money.
There is some danger if you install them yourself, since you have to air them up to 100psi sometimes.

If you ride a lot, it's a no brainer. My fiance has the same bike I do. She doesn't like the ride of the CT. And it IS different. But she doesn't ride as many highway/commuting miles as I do AND she's never had the rear end come around on her after locking up the back. I don't have a CT on my Rocker and probably never will. It's a show bike and I don't put enough miles on it annually, nor does it get a lot of highway miles.

Bates96733 wrote:Is it harder to ride at slow speeds and is there any rear wheel wobble I am on a 05 royal star

I just switched and have about 100 miles on the tire at 32 psi. I have noticed there is a difference at slow speeds, but not difficult. Just different. I went to the school parking lot last night to experiment with under 20 speeds, and I really tried to get it down as far as I could. No problems with that. At higher speed curves (50 mph+), I couldn't really tell a difference. Again, different, but not difficult. The front end felt a little odd, but controllable. 20-50 mph curves are kinda fun because as you exit the curve, the bike feels like it wants to up-right itself, and shoot out of the curve a little bit. Not drastic, and quite controllable, but fun.

The small bumbs are much smoother, but the big jolts will still hurt a bit.

Having said all that, it still feels a bit squishy at times, so I raised the pressure to 38 psi and will try that for a while.

I will do a more in depth report later.

I always tell everyone I don't have to use a kickstand any more! Some of them believe me!

No, it's a different tire and feels different until you get used to it. Same as if you switched from dunlop to metzler. Maybe a bit MORE different, but still. NOW, if you go wider, it's like going wider with any tire.

Steve-O wrote:Pros:
Save money on tires.
Save time on changing tires.
Increased traction.
Increased braking power on the rear wheel AND less chance of accidental high siding.
Less chance of a flat AND you can install run flats.
Better looking tire patterns and you can go wider with the rear tire without new rims.

Cons:
The ride is different and some folks don't like it.
Dealerships won't install them
If you blow one out while installing them, you lose the money.
There is some danger if you install them yourself, since you have to air them up to 100psi sometimes.

If you ride a lot, it's a no brainer. My fiance has the same bike I do. She doesn't like the ride of the CT. And it IS different. But she doesn't ride as many highway/commuting miles as I do AND she's never had the rear end come around on her after locking up the back. I don't have a CT on my Rocker and probably never will. It's a show bike and I don't put enough miles on it annually, nor does it get a lot of highway miles.

A link to my write up on seating the bead. To help avoid the dreaded "blow out". https://mcdarksiders.forumotion.com/t6724-trouble-seating-your-tire-here-s-what-i-did