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A bit more about "Dark side"...

Afan

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If somebody interested in the subject, I think it's worth watching. By FortNine.

 
I know a guy who does this on his Yamaha ADV (I think its a yama.) He's also got upgraded suspension in the rear as well. All to carry 2 large aluminum pannier bags and a large aluminum dog crate on the back. And what's funny, he'll blast down the twisties as if hes on a sports bike. Whatever works for ya, ride your ride. I'll stick with my PR5's.

I havent watched this video yet, but it is top of my list when I get home.
 
Has anybody dark-sided an NC700X yet? I was considering doing it to my ST1300, I know of two folks who have done it, and have had great results, plus many more anecdotally on the ST forum. Since I do my own tire mounting, it'd be no big thing to install them.
 
No way in hell. I know. It works. Spent too much time in my life figuring out how this works with two proper wheels. Love working on bikes, i change my own tires, and this will never happen. But, I do like the awesome idea on breaking the bead to remove the old rubber.
 
Watched the video. Fortnine’s video and production quality is second to none.
There is a guy in the comments that said he darksided his NC700X. He didn’t give any details about it though.

JT
 
Fortnine's videos are great...If youtube gave out awards for best quality (something like the golden globes), he would be right up there....If I could go dark side on my C50 boulevard I would; however, I dont have the physical capabilities of mounting tires (bad shoulders, elbows) and my local mom/pop shop will not put a car tire on a motorcycle rim, period (and they are my good neighbors to boot).

I look at the simple math...going to round up the weight to make the math easier.. my c50 boulevard weighs 600 lbs (actually about 550). has 2 tires, so approx 300 lbs of weight on each tire (I know not exact but close enough for approximation).. each tire has 2 side walls, so 300lbs/2 equals about 150 lbs of weight on each side wall.....now my wife's elantra weighs 3,000 lbs, has 4 tires, so 750 lbs per tire and each side wall has 375lb lbs of weight; that is over 2Xs the weight on each side wall; so side walls is not the problem of going dark side...I know there are other factors, centrifugal force, friction, etc....but dark side naysayers stating the side walls on car tires are not built for the forces....I say, naw, the side walls on car tires are built to hold more weight so the forces should close to round themselves out compared to a motorcycle tire.....and my c50 boulevard is my commute bike of 76 miles round trip with 60 miles on the superslab...the other 16 miles are curves but I dont ride the c50 as a sport bike thru the curves, would have almost as much (if not more) rubber connected to the road with a car tire than a bike tire.

I have ridden with a guy on a darksided c50 on hwy 555 (the triple nickel) in Ohio, followed him on my bmw g650gs (at the time) and he was smoking me in the curves and his tire to asphalt contact patch was as much as mine.
 
Production, quality is great, but these videos present information in a way that seems scientific but really isn't. This certainly wasn't a scientific experiment. It's a great production version of one more guy on the internet with an opinion.
 
If I had a Goldwing with a trailer, I’d most likely darkside it.
My current bikes, interesting but no thanks. I don’t ride enough on one bike per year to seriously consider it.

JT
 
Boy, I watched that video and I thought, "no way." But, DavidC has some good points, including the fact that most of my commute is by freeway or very straight road. Considering that I'm already on my fourth rear tire after only 29k miles due to the first replacement was old and sold by a dealer and the 2nd replacement was taken out by a nail that a car tire could have been easily plugged. My original pickup tires got replaced after 5 years with rubber still on them and the 2nd was replaced at 10 years with around 75k miles on the clock again with a lot of rubber left. (It is very important in Arizona to watch the age of the tire, the heat will dry rot them quick.)

The only thing I see is that whole thing with mounting it with the zip ties looks a little much. Is that just because he was using a tire that was too wide? A quick look at Tire Rack reveals that we might need to go with a wider tire to avoid too tall of a sidewall. Or maybe going with a 145/70 would work because the tread is flat instead of rounded? A 155/70 would be just a little taller than the Shinko that I have.

Regardless, I might consider the rear but there is no way I would think about the front.
 
Boy, I watched that video and I thought, "no way." But, DavidC has some good points, including the fact that most of my commute is by freeway or very straight road. Considering that I'm already on my fourth rear tire after only 29k miles due to the first replacement was old and sold by a dealer and the 2nd replacement was taken out by a nail that a car tire could have been easily plugged. My original pickup tires got replaced after 5 years with rubber still on them and the 2nd was replaced at 10 years with around 75k miles on the clock again with a lot of rubber left. (It is very important in Arizona to watch the age of the tire, the heat will dry rot them quick.)

The only thing I see is that whole thing with mounting it with the zip ties looks a little much. Is that just because he was using a tire that was too wide? A quick look at Tire Rack reveals that we might need to go with a wider tire to avoid too tall of a sidewall. Or maybe going with a 145/70 would work because the tread is flat instead of rounded? A 155/70 would be just a little taller than the Shinko that I have.

Regardless, I might consider the rear but there is no way I would think about the front.
The zip ties method is a way to mount a tire without a tire machine. It is difficult to find a shop or garage that will mount a car tire on a motorcycle wheel due to liability. You either need to know a friend or do it yourself.
I used the zip tie method recently to mount my Shinko 705s on my NC700X (by hand using zip ties to hold the beads together and tire levers). It works much better than I thought it would.

JT
 
The zip ties method is a way to mount a tire without a tire machine. It is difficult to find a shop or garage that will mount a car tire on a motorcycle wheel due to liability. You either need to know a friend or do it yourself.
I used the zip tie method recently to mount my Shinko 705s on my NC700X (by hand using zip ties to hold the beads together and tire levers). It works much better than I thought it would.

JT
I'll have to try it next time. It was a bit of a struggle getting the tire on the rim last time. I guess that I can see where the zip ties would hold the one side in the middle while levering the other side.
 
I'll have to try it next time. It was a bit of a struggle getting the tire on the rim last time. I guess that I can see where the zip ties would hold the one side in the middle while levering the other side.
There are a lot of videos on YouTube.
The zip ties hold the beads together. I also used a zip tie to hold one side of the tire firmly into the center of the rim, then levered the bead down around the rim. That extra tie made all the difference.
I also use tire lube to help ease the bead over the rim.

JT
 
A tire you could actually darkside with on an NC weighs about 10 pounds more than a heavy MC "adventure" tire so any other issues aside, it's going to drag down speed and acceleration on the modestly-powered NC. And why throw away the smooth handling and lean feel?

Darkside seems to work well on a wider-rim rear wheel on a monster-heavy cruiser (like 800 pounds or more). If you pick the right tire and get the tire pressure right, then the handling and traction stability is fine and the lean transition is pretty much unnoticeable – and there really is a vast improvement in longevity.
 
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I have a Bridgestone Potenza car tire on my Suzuki Burgman 650 and it works fine. It only takes a little more counter steering effort to initiate turns. I got used to it after only a couple days. I now have 6000 miles on it and it still looks new. A friend who has the same is about to replace his with 18000+ miles on it. I searched for a car tire that would work on the NC but all the 17" tires I found were too wide for the wheel well. So I am still trying to find a rear tire that will last 8000 miles. I have burned up two Shinko 705s so far. My present one delaminated in five spots this weekend. Metzler tire on order now.
 
I searched for a car tire that would work on the NC but all the 17" tires I found were too wide for the wheel well.
Pretty sure I found one a year or two ago. But it weighed 10 pounds more than heavy-duty MC tires I was getting around 10,000 miles out of. True, the initial price was tempting and so was the cost per mile. But why would I want to drag down the mild NC engine like that just for more distance out of a tire? The acceleration and handling degradation on a bike not really heavy enough for this approach would bum me out bigtime. Fun would go right out the window.
 
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