Dark side? I just dont get it.

[dshelly]

Originally Posted by Monkeyman

(Nothing against Nomads but Vision will outhandle a Nomad.)

Comments like this and you wonder why I don't cut you Vic guys any slack. I am really getting tired of hearing about how superior your Vision is to the Nomad. It may well be. This thread is about CT's . I have backed waaay off with my negative Victory comments since I was pissing a couple of you off. I would apreciate the same from you too. This is a Kawasaki forum as you well know.

[ctc6698]

Has anyone tried a ct on a Vaquero yet? If so, what brand/size?

[Cajunrider]

I had one on my '07 Nomad for 17,500 miles. My reason for going Darkside was a rear MC tire just doesn't hold up very long pulling a trailer. I got 6,000 miles on a rear Avon Cobra, a very good and expensive MC tire. That made me go darkside. It's not for everybody but it worked for me.

[Northern Dancer]

I have been using a Car Tire on the rear of all four of my Motorcycles for 5 years now. I can say for sure that I was saved from a wipe out on my 2008 Nomad when having to brake hard in heavy rain, my front tire broke traction but my rear Car tire did not and kept me from sliding sideways. I really miss the Nomad not having ABS in these situations.

This is the best validation that Car Tires work well in corners I can think of is: Yellow Wolf who is the best rider I know of in handling a Goldwing riding fast in the curves is now riding with a Car tire. He has said he is not ever switching back. Yellow Wolf runs the Dragon in 10 to 11 Minutes when it takes other good riders 15 to 20 minutes. The Dragon has 318 turns in 11 miles with many hair pin corners and he has run the Dragon 24 Hours nonstop doing over 1,000 Miles.

the 24 hrs of deals gap
1001.7 miles
23 hrs and 52 min
29,786 turns
avg. 19 mpg

Check out these Links:

Many of us Dark Riders have ridden with Yellow Wolf on Tips Rides using our Goldwings with Car Tires mounted and Yellow Wolf was so impressed that he had to try one after consulting with us as to what the best Tire to use.

There is a lot of collective knowledge built up by us as to which Car Tires work the best. In the following Link Yellow Wolf explains the Car Tire has so much traction in a Corner that his Front Tire a Bridgestone G09 (Best Front Tire for corning) will slide out where as when he used to power out of a corner with his Motorcycle type Rear tire, it used to always drift which he was able to control better then a Front Tire breaking traction.

http://gl1800riders.com/forums/showthread.php?420105-my-darkside-tire-evaluation





PS: The fellow who took this above Video of Yellow Wolf was also ridding a Goldwing and not near the skill level of Yellow Wolf as he was dragging pegs, something Yellow Wolf never does and he (Yellow Wolf) was actually slowing down a little so the following rider could keep him in sight. Yellow Wolf even had him edit the Video in places where the following rider crossed the center line trying to keep up.

[Monkeyman]

Originally Posted by dshelly

Comments like this and you wonder why I don't cut you Vic guys any slack. I am really getting tired of hearing about how superior your Vision is to the Nomad. It may well be. This thread is about CT's . I have backed waaay off with my negative Victory comments since I was pissing a couple of you off. I would apreciate the same from you too. This is a Kawasaki forum as you well know.

/sarcasm/It's a Kawasaki forum? Really? Are you sure?/sarcasm/

I don't care if you cut us "Vic guys" any slack or not. I ride what I want to ride. Nothing against either MY Nomad or anybody elses, but facts are facts. The Vision was designed to handle exceptionally well. The Nomad was designed to be a heavy weight cruiser (which it does well). If I rode a Hayabusa and mentioned that it cornered better than a Nomad, would you have had a problem with that, too?

I know the thread is about car tires. That's why I posted what I did....about car tires. Did you bother to read my entire thread or did you see the word "Victory" and automatically get your panties in a wad?

Let it go, guy. I'm glad you love your Nomad. Own it, ride it, enjoy it and brag about it. I'm behind you all the way. BTW, you weren't pissing me off with your negativity towards Victory. If you pissed someone else off, respond to them, not me. Like I've said before, I couldn't care less which bike you like nor which one you ride. You put more effort into hating Victory than anyone I know.

[muz]

Originally Posted by Yellow Jacket

No, not a tender spot and didn't mean it that way. I'm sorry if I came across that way.

You're question is legitimate.

Was just trying to make the point that a car tire actually has the same or larger contact patch as a motorcycle tire.

Cheers!

Nah........its all good.
The only thing I can figure is the ct sidewall must be flexible enough to allow the ct tread to lay flat on the road. But what bothers me is if say you take it to far over and role on to the edge or if the side wall type isnt flexible enough and the side wall decides its going to snap back, or you hit a bump and it snaps back........what then? Ya see i can't see that risk happening with a mc tyre.

And yes I know, I've seen the vids which I admit are impressively convincing it just seems to work.

[dgconstable]

I've seen guys with car tires on with no toes left in their boots and floor boards wore off so you can lean the suckers with them on and feel good about it.. :-)

[danimal2]

The first picture is the contact patch of a CT. The second is an MC at a similar speed and lean. I'll be the first to admit, there's a slight handling difference particularly around 35-40 mph. Above or below that, it's indiscernible. 22,000 miles on my CT right now. I would have had to put 3 MC's on to get the same mileage.

To me, it's worth it. Ride what you like.

[Vulcan Bill]

A while back I trailed behind a guy with C/T installed on the back. The route took us up a twisting mountain road so I was able to watch and see how his C/T performed. While cornering at no time did his tire ride up on the outer edge. The sidewalls flexed enough to allow at least 2/3rds of the tread to stay flat on the ground. Since the sidewall is engineered to flex to absorb the jolts of uneven road surfaces I didn't see where running a C/T would be such a dangerous thing to do. I was getting a little tired of replacing the rear every 10 months so I installed one on the next tire change. I tried it for about 5000 miles and found it seem to perform well. They do have a different feel to them when cornering though and I couldn't quite get used to it so when I heard about the longer wearing Commander II's I decided to replace the C/T with one of them.
There are C/T's that experienced darksiders do not recommend. If your going to install one, do your homework first and buy a brand/size that those who have already 'been there done that' recommend.

[Old Crow]

Originally Posted by muz

The only thing I can figure is the ct sidewall must be flexible enough to allow the ct tread to lay flat on the road.

The videos typically show a car tire partially lifted in hard cornering. The sidewall doesn't flex to keep the tread flat on the pavement. It appears pretty obvious that even partially lifted the contact patch for the car tire is larger than that of a round motorcycle tire. As lean angle increases the difference decreases.

That said, I've stayed with a standard MC tire. I'm not an expert so I've chosen to stay with what the guys who design and build the motorcycles recommend.

[danimal2]

Originally Posted by Old Crow

The videos typically show a car tire partially lifted in hard cornering. The sidewall doesn't flex to keep the tread flat on the pavement. It appears pretty obvious that even partially lifted the contact patch for the car tire is larger than that of a round motorcycle tire. As lean angle increases the difference decreases.

That said, I've stayed with a standard MC tire. I'm not an expert so I've chosen to stay with what the guys who design and build the motorcycles recommend.

That's why they don't run them on sport bikes. I know on my bike the pipes and or floorboards will rub way way before you get enough angle to lift the tread. I've seen a video of a guy running a Triumph with a CT. It was a poor example though. His cornering was way off (terrible lines) but I don't think it would've mattered what tire he was running (if ya know what I mean )

[Northern Dancer]

Originally Posted by Old Crow

The videos typically show a car tire partially lifted in hard cornering. The sidewall doesn't flex to keep the tread flat on the pavement. It appears pretty obvious that even partially lifted the contact patch for the car tire is larger than that of a round motorcycle tire. As lean angle increases the difference decreases.

That said, I've stayed with a standard MC tire. I'm not an expert so I've chosen to stay with what the guys who design and build the motorcycles recommend.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
One big item that most miss is not only has the Car Tires we use have a wider Contact Patch we use lower Tire Pressure making the Patch much longer front to back -- see attached Picture of my Goldwing side on.

There are fewer Car Tire Choices that work well for my ST1300 but we have found a couple that work really well and without saying my ST1300 leans really well in Corners. I have Titanium Peg Savers on (3) of my Motorcycles and the ST1300 have been touching the pavement when I am pushing it with no traction problems.

On a Tour Motorcycle that cannot lean as far as a Sport Motorcycle there is no possibility we can get a Car Tire on its Side wall. As dark Siders we always pick proven Tires that do have the rounded Edge used on Sports Cars and more and more on Family Cars.

[Yellow Jacket]

Here's a photo of a guy on a sport bike riding on the Tail of the Dragon. He has a car tire mounted.



Works for him.

[blowndodge]

Originally Posted by dshelly

Comments like this and you wonder why I don't cut you Vic guys any slack. I am really getting tired of hearing about how superior your Vision is to the Nomad. It may well be. This thread is about CT's . I have backed waaay off with my negative Victory comments since I was pissing a couple of you off. I would apreciate the same from you too. This is a Kawasaki forum as you well know.

Oh come on now Dave. The new BMW 1600 is faster, smoother, better handling, more sophisticated than my Victory and it doesn't hurt at all to admit that. Is it superior in those ways? ABSOLUTELY. But I'm not interested in German bikes and their idiosyncrasies. All chris was say which is very well known in cruiser land is that Vics are among the best handling. I had a CT on my Nomad. I wouldn't put one on my Vic at the moment because of the vastly superior handling might be compromised.

I would no more put a shaved DOT legal street racing tire on a Bently than putting a low resistant hybrid tire on a Vette.

[danimal2]

Originally Posted by Yellow Jacket

Here's a photo of a guy on a sport bike riding on the Tail of the Dragon. He has a car tire mounted.



Works for him.

I stand corrected..................again.

Have to say though, that's the first true sportsbike I've seen running a CT. I do lead a sheltered existance though. That looks kinda funny.