Darkside here I come

[bcrider]

Well tomorrow is the day I go to the darkside . Going with the Goodyear triple tread 205-60-16. Was planning on doing it over the winter , But after I picked up a 2" screw in the rear tire on Saturday . It pushed up the timeline abit . Talked my mechanic into installing the GYTT , all he said was you want to put what on your bike . I tell ya some people aren't forward thinkers .

[Loafer]

Good luck with your new tire.

[usranger74]

Originally Posted by bcrider

Well tomorrow is the day I go to the darkside . Going with the Goodyear triple tread 205-60-16. Was planning on doing it over the winter , But after I picked up a 2" screw in the rear tire on Saturday . It pushed up the timeline abit . Talked my mechanic into installing the GYTT , all he said was you want to put what on your bike . I tell ya some people aren't forward thinkers .

I am a couple of thousand miles from going to the darkside. I like the tire you have selected. Let us know if you have any trouble getting it mounted.

[bcrider]

Well skipped out of work early to get the tire installed (That's the Benefit of being the boss sometimes ) . Was like a kid at Christmas on the way to the shop to have it installed just couldn't get there fast enough .

The install went without any real problems , was alittle tight getting the tire passed the drive shaft gear and the bracket on the right . But if you deflate the tire and with a couple of flat head screw driver and you spray the tire with soapy water it goes in like butter .

Once the bike was back together couldn't wait to go for a ride . All I can say is why did I wait till now to do this , and knowing by all the threads that I've read that it will only get better . The extra effort in the countersteering is noticable right away , but as stated in one of the threads that it just becomes natural in a short period of time ( about 10 mins for me ) . Now I just have to put on about 300 miles to start to find my sweet spot , should be around this Saturday when I hit the magical number .

[recumbentbob]

enjoy it, I went dark 13,000 miles ago and won't go back.

[mobandy78]

Like you said, it only gets better! I went darkside this past winter and have loved every minute of it. I'm sitting around 4k miles and the tire still looks new.

I asked myself the same question... "Why did I wait so long?", then I thought, "Why do the nay-sayers talk so bad about it? This is awesome!"

When I went to my bike shop and had the tire put on, there was another customer there getting tires put on... he overheard me talking about getting the work done and commented to his friend loudly enough for me to hear, which ensued a conversation as follows:

Him to friend - "I'd never put a car tire on my bike, that's just f-ing ridiculous and stupid. I don't know why anyone would do that."

Me - "Have you ever tried it?"

Him - "No. And I never will."

Me - "Then how do you know it's f-ing ridiculous and stupid? If you're calling me that, then we might have a problem, don't you think?"

Him - "No, we don't have a problem. It's made for a car, why you putting it on a bike?"

Me - "Because it works and saves me money over the long run and it's a better ride. Go ahead and spend your money. I got this tire for $75 and getting it installed for another $75. You just spent $300 plus $75 for yours and will have to replace it before the year is up. I'll get 20K miles out of mine before I have to change it."

Him - silence and he walked to the other side of the shop.

[recumbentbob]

Hey Mo,
Some people have a very low comprehension.

My wife rides a 950 Yamaha and on a yamaha forum people were discussing the dark side and a Moderator quit the forum he was so against it he couldn't even stand people discussing it. And yes he had never tried it or even knew anyone who had...

Now that is being narrow minded to the MAX!!!!

Bob

[mikeyger]

I put a 195-60-16 on the nomad and a 195-55-16 on the roadstar.In my opinion this is the best mod I have done!

[ringadingh]

Some people refuse to listen or even think that their is another way to acheive the same result.

[watchdog54]

I'm very curious as to how these tires perform on a bike. Since the tires were never meant to lean on a car how do they handle this change in useage? I'm sure the mileage increase is substantial over a bike tire but how about performance.
Do wet roads cause problems when cornering?
Emergency avoidance situations, any problems?
Constant curving road riding, do the tires heat up beyond their design limits?
Got an open mind about it, just always wondered if it was just money savings driven or if they actually perform well.

Watchdog54

[mikeyger]

See if someone will let you ride their bike that has a ct on it and you will see for you're self.

[VulcanE]

Originally Posted by watchdog54

I'm very curious as to how these tires perform on a bike. Since the tires were never meant to lean on a car how do they handle this change in useage? I'm sure the mileage increase is substantial over a bike tire but how about performance.
Do wet roads cause problems when cornering?
Emergency avoidance situations, any problems?
Constant curving road riding, do the tires heat up beyond their design limits?
Got an open mind about it, just always wondered if it was just money savings driven or if they actually perform well.

Watchdog54

Watchdog, I can tell you only my personal finds on the car tire (I run a Goodyear TripleTred 205/60-16)
Do wet roads cause problems when cornering?
It handles a wet road, and heavy rain MUCH BETTER than any of the 5 MC tires I've had on my Nomad
Emergency avoidance situations, any problems?
Emergency avoidance situations feel much more positive, especially emergency braking.
Constant curving road riding, do the tires heat up beyond their design limits
I run tire pressure monitors that also displays tire temperatures, and the pressure and temperature changes are less than when I was riding on a MC tire,
Over-all the ride is substantially smoother, the handling is much improved, and it feels more stable in hard cornering. You don't even notice things like "tar snakes", places in the road that has been milled (where they grind the top layers of asphalt off to repave the road), or bridges that have the steel grate decking. Me personally, I don't see any negative to it, except for the initial "getting used to it", but that only takes a couple of days.

[sharps45100]

Watchdog I have a 175/75/16 light duty truck tire on my nomad. The side wall treads still have their rubber nipples from the mfg. process and I have scaped my floorboards! So tire is under less stress than if on a vehicle.

[watchdog54]

Well, you've certainly given me something new to think about! I do need to take one for a ride and see how it feels. My Nomad is new to me so not enough miles on it yet to really feel like I know it, so I'll wear this tire out and then, maybe try one. Anyone in the Albuquerque NM area feel like swapping bikes for a ride? Thanks for the info guys,
Watchdog54

I'll get a pick up soon.

[bcrider]

Got in about anhour ago from a 730km ( 475 mile) ride today with 2 other bikes . First good ride with my freshly installed GYTT , I did preatty much the same route back in june with a m/c tire . It was a day and night differance with the GYTT , parts of the road are riddled with heaving , and lots of tar snakes in other parts . There are some really nice parts where you just grin from ear to ear cuz your in your groove :) .

Started the ride with 40 psi in the tire rode about 250 kms then dropped the psi to 37 , low and behold the cornering improved ,even smoother ride , and have not felt a tar snake since I installed the tire . The 2 guys I was riding with are just amazed how well I appear to just float through the corners and how low I'm leaning with the c/t .

Plan on going another 200-300 km ride tomorrow , I'll drop another couple psi to around 34-35 . Expect a short period of adjustment in the feel going to the lower psi I'll see how that feels .

There 3 reasons I chose to go with a c/t .

Everything that Watchdog said .And from reading all the great advice about doing the jump to a c/t . It's all true and some .

Over all tread life and the money saved . After all there's so many great things I can get for my nomad other than rear tire .

And finally it looks really cool :)