Power of the Darkside

It was too much for me to resist. I've joined the Darkside after much reading and research. My stock dunnie was on the verge of wearing out so I figured I would try the Darkside for my next tire. I've got an '05 VTX 1300C which now has a 165 Arizonian that I put on a couple of weeks ago. The bike is my daily commuter and I've been very happy with the performance of the new tire so far. It's handled flawlessly on the freeways and the patched up county roads out near my house. This weekend I decided to really put it through it's paces so it's off to south Texas and the 3 Sisters (335,336, and 337). After countless hairpins and sweepers, I'm am now a hopeless convert. I dragged pegs through quite a few turns with not so much as a shimmy or skip out of that tire. The final test was just this morning when some idiot started a left turn in front of me and I had to lock it up. She stayed upright and took a much bigger bite out of the pavement than the dunnie before it with no wiggle or fishtail.
Now my biggest problem is that I want to wear it out so that I can go with the wideside.

-tom

Siggy57 wrote:It was too much for me to resist. I've joined the Darkside after much reading and research. My stock dunnie was on the verge of wearing out so I figured I would try the Darkside for my next tire. I've got an '05 VTX 1300C which now has a 165 Arizonian that I put on a couple of weeks ago. The bike is my daily commuter and I've been very happy with the performance of the new tire so far. It's handled flawlessly on the freeways and the patched up county roads out near my house. This weekend I decided to really put it through it's paces so it's off to south Texas and the 3 Sisters (335,336, and 337). After countless hairpins and sweepers, I'm am now a hopeless convert. I dragged pegs through quite a few turns with not so much as a shimmy or skip out of that tire. The final test was just this morning when some idiot started a left turn in front of me and I had to lock it up. She stayed upright and took a much bigger bite out of the pavement than the dunnie before it with no wiggle or fishtail.
Now my biggest problem is that I want to wear it out so that I can go with the wideside.

-tom

Dang Tom,

Well tell us.....don't keep us in suspense like this. Tell us if you like it.........

Glad you like it sir!..........and Welcome to the wonderful world of the Darkside. Thanks for letting us how it has worked out. Just wait till you get caught in your first rain and then you will really be impressed.

My first tire was a 165 and I haven't looked back or will I ever go back to them shotty motorcycle tires on the rear!

..................bobby

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Cool...i road the 3 sisters last Sept....great roads. Loved Texas hill country and the folks.


Glad ya like the tire. Wearing it out may take a bit.

One of the guys that I was riding with unfortunately caught some glass or something in his rear tire on his Vulcan. Now he's interested in going darkside instead of another motorcycle tire. Anyone know of a Darkside forum for Vulcans?

-tom

Siggy57 wrote:One of the guys that I was riding with unfortunately caught some glass or something in his rear tire on his Vulcan. Now he's interested in going darkside instead of another motorcycle tire. Anyone know of a Darkside forum for Vulcans?

-tom

Siggy,

Find out what size his stock tire is and let us know and we can try to help him? Also find out what the space is between swingarm to swingarm?

You can check out our Suzuki Intruder section. Some guys are doing those too and love it!

..............bobby

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Siggy57 wrote:One of the guys that I was riding with unfortunately caught some glass or something in his rear tire on his Vulcan. Now he's interested in going darkside instead of another motorcycle tire. Anyone know of a Darkside forum for Vulcans?

-tom

SmokinJoe rides a Valk, might give him a holler if he dont check in.

Welcome to the site, enjoy yourself.

Jerry

jedishon wrote:

Siggy57 wrote:One of the guys that I was riding with unfortunately caught some glass or something in his rear tire on his Vulcan. Now he's interested in going darkside instead of another motorcycle tire. Anyone know of a Darkside forum for Vulcans?

-tom

SmokinJoe rides a Valk, might give him a holler if he dont check in.

Welcome to the site, enjoy yourself.

Jerry

What...... He said Vulcans...not Valk's. You know like Spock on Startrek.....a Vulcan!



...............bobby


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twin1300 wrote:

jedishon wrote:

Siggy57 wrote:One of the guys that I was riding with unfortunately caught some glass or something in his rear tire on his Vulcan. Now he's interested in going darkside instead of another motorcycle tire. Anyone know of a Darkside forum for Vulcans?

-tom

SmokinJoe rides a Valk, might give him a holler if he dont check in.

Welcome to the site, enjoy yourself.

Jerry

What...... He said Vulcans...not Valk's. You know like Spock on Startrek.....a Vulcan!



...............bobby


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I feel so..so... :cyclops: :cyclops: ......Is this what Muntz feels like all the time?.....Makes me want to go mail an empty box to someone.... now where did I leave that brain....

Jerry

I don't think there are many cruisers that will not accept a car tire. Invite your buddy over here and we'll help him out. Those vulcans are made to cruise. I'm sure he'll get tire of changing tires at some point.

Where is Leander TX? near the hill country I'm guessing. Glad you posted about twisties. Good to know she doesn't skip a beat.

Regarding your emergency stop. Did you lock up the back tire and did she begin to come around on you? I've practice these some at 30mph and have not gotten it to come around like my dunlop did. Makes me think that highsiding is less of a problem for us. I have not heard of any high siding incidents with car tires, but most folks here are seasoned and not sure they would high side with a stock tire either.

Once you get tired of the 165, donate it to a newcomer. Dark Shadow gave me his. I'm fixin to pass it on. We wanted to sign it and put our ending mileage on it to see just how many miles a VT1100 can put on a 165 Kumho. We're guessing 30k.

Welcome to the forum!

Steve-O wrote:I don't think there are many cruisers that will not accept a car tire. Invite your buddy over here and we'll help him out. Those vulcans are made to cruise. I'm sure he'll get tire of changing tires at some point.

Where is Leander TX? near the hill country I'm guessing. Glad you posted about twisties. Good to know she doesn't skip a beat.

Regarding your emergency stop. Did you lock up the back tire and did she begin to come around on you? I've practice these some at 30mph and have not gotten it to come around like my dunlop did. Makes me think that highsiding is less of a problem for us. I have not heard of any high siding incidents with car tires, but most folks here are seasoned and not sure they would high side with a stock tire either.

Once you get tired of the 165, donate it to a newcomer. Dark Shadow gave me his. I'm fixin to pass it on. We wanted to sign it and put our ending mileage on it to see just how many miles a VT1100 can put on a 165 Kumho. We're guessing 30k.

Welcome to the forum!

Steve-O, when my friend gets back from the Big Bend trip I'll bring him over to the Darkside. He was already interested before his flat but that helped him make up his mind that he wanted to seriously look into it. I did look at his tire size but it didn't make much sense to me, I think it was 150/80-16 or 17, not absolutely sure. But that tire looked wider than the stock dunnie that I used to have which was a 170.

Leander is one of those suburb towns that's about 20 miles NW of Austin. Close enough to the hill country and far enough from Austin so that I can be hitting the open road within five minutes. The twisties didn't give me any trouble at all, really no problems in transitioning left to right and back again.

This morning I locked her up but the rear tire stayed put. I was fortunate that it happened on a straight section of road but with all that meat on the road it grabbed a lot harder than the standard MC. I put 600 miles on it this weekend and I just finally wore off the rubber stubble, I think I have a long way to go towards wearing it out unless I start doing some serious burnouts. I'll be glad to pass it on if I just can't wait. I picked it up at Discount Tire for only 55 bucks so I'm not exactly married to it.

-siggy

Siggy.....you found a wife for 55 bucks???????? Send it back......got to be defective....or I am just paying way too much for mine

Glad to hear tyou like the darkside, dont be a stranger. As you can tell by Muntz and Jerrys posts you dant have to have anything to say to chime in.

See you out there
Smokey

smokey2255 wrote:Siggy.....you found a wife for 55 bucks???????? Send it back......got to be defective....or I am just paying way too much for mine

Glad to hear tyou like the darkside, dont be a stranger. As you can tell by Muntz and Jerrys posts you dant have to have anything to say to chime in.

See you out there
Smokey

You have to know someone then you can get into the special reserve where they keep the best ones...oh wait, I meant the tire.'

Siggy, you post over on Texas X as well? Welcome to this place, man. Good guys around here. Even Twin. But he pays us to say that.

smokey2255 wrote:Siggy.....you found a wife for 55 bucks???????? Send it back......got to be defective....or I am just paying way too much for mine

Glad to hear tyou like the darkside, dont be a stranger. As you can tell by Muntz and Jerrys posts you dant have to have anything to say to chime in.

See you out there
Smokey

I resemble that remark.....

Jerry

Morgan Buchanan wrote:Siggy, you post over on Texas X as well? Welcome to this place, man. Good guys around here. Even Twin. But he pays us to say that.

Morgan, I just read the post over on Texas X by Hobo. It's not me but but looks like the darkside was all over the sisters last weekend. It was a lot of fun riding those roads and like Hobo, the car tire performed well, especially on the 3 or 4 miles of gravel road on 337 outside of Leakey.

-siggy