205 on a Road Glide Custom

After months of reading on the forums and constant debate with myself I finally decided to try the “Dark Side”…….. then after searching the forums and Tire Rack over and over and changing my mind over and over on which tire I wanted to try…….. I decided on a General G Max 205/55-16 and got some generic Dyna Beads off of Ebay.
It sat in my living room for about a week until I got a chance to put it on…. The whole time, I’m looking at this thing saying…… there is NO way that huge ass tire is going up under there…. (even though I knew it would from other people’s posts).  So, Friday evening, I get home from work, a buddy and I  jump on the project.

Mounting it was actually not bad at all. I used WAY too much Dawn dish soap and used my tire spoons. Thing went on pretty easy…. Then took one side back off because I had forgotten to add the friggin beads……. I put 3 oz of beads in (which worked perfectly, I ran up to 110 and it was smooth) and decided to bite the bullet and start at 33psi….. since just about everybody always slowly eases down to somewhere around 32-35psi……… I might as well try it there and get used to it.

Went down the road and back for a quick 5 mile test ride, it was pretty much as I expected, took some more handlebar input …..  a little weird but not off putting. The next day I did 250 miles on it….. back roads are great, I can hold a much smoother line in curves…  I did figure out that if you push it REALLY hard, like 85 mph on a curvy back road, you might get some pretty good bagger wobble. (Eventually I’ll be getting a bagger brace). On Sunday I did nearly 250 miles again…. But decided I would go to the closest thing I have found to a local Tail of the Dragon around here…. A road leading up the back side of Mt. Cheaha State Park.  It’s an old, worn tar and gravel  road that is almost not a full two lanes wide..and has so many imperfections and high spots and low spots and… well you get the idea…… I have to say, it was a little bit of a hand full going up that rough ass road…. But coming down the front side (the main road in and out) that is nice and smooth with sweeping curves… it rocked! The one thing that is kind of weird about the whole thing is on the interstate… the back tire feels planted, it’s not going to wander around much at all, but the front now wanders around slightly…. And when I got caught up in some turbulence from a truck it rocked me around pretty good in the front end… back stayed tracking straight. I’m hoping once I get that 160/60-18 Pirelli Angel Sport back tire on the front that it will stop the wandering.  I still haven’t tried it with the wife on there yet…  guess we will see how that works next go around.

Gawd man, I just did Cheaha last Saturday - or RC was on a 600cc Yama crotch rocket and could ride pretty well - I kept up with him until that section of blind curves on the
3-part "pavement" (just whathahell is all THAT about, anyway?) and he said he was slipping off the tar snakes and irregularities of the changing surface, and I'd not felt the
first thing. I was more worried at speed of the unknowns of unfamiliar territory, but still kept up until we hit the bluffs (blind corners) and I let him run up ahead a bit.
I just charge on by the Spirit and back off by the same.

hmmm....... maybe I need to play with my pressure a little.......... that road on the back side of the mountain with all the different heights and goofy irregularities is the only place that I had any pulling me around.. Of course some of that may just have been me still being a little sensitive to the new characteristics of a CT. The front side, where the pavement goes from new really smooth to the screwy tar and gravel stuff a few times, I never knew it was there...I still have to get the wife on there this coming weekend and see how it does, then I will go from there.

you're probably EXACTLY right: when I first put the Vredestein on, part of my azz was clinching the seat and the rest was sort of, "Wow, I can do THIS???"
Once acclimated to it (like a new bike), you get the reassurance that it not only will outperform the MT's, but will let you push harder than you ever did.
It just FEELS different, and that about all, unless, of course, your pressures aren't worked out yet.
After 3 CT's, I find that pressure is everything with these bad boyeezz.