Curious

So, what's an R3 handle like in the twisties after going dark?

Seems like it'd be a little dicey with the more squared sidewall shape and smaller footprint patch rather than the continuous rounded shape up the sidewall of a motorcycle tire.

It actually grabs great, and urges you to give it MORE gas. I compared it to riding a jet ski. If you let off the gas on a ski it's harder to handle but the harder you drive it the easier it handles. That's what the dark side feels like. I went back to a M/C tire because my Rocket would wobble on the highway at 60-70 MPH. Not bad but I didn't like it. I rode darkside for a few 10k miles on my Valk though.

I left the dark side recently. I took the wheel and tire off and took it to the dealer. They called me the next day asking did I want to save the car tire and the reason they asked me was because they couldn't get the tire off the traditional way. They was going to have to cut it off. I didn't even want to see the cut up tire. When I went to pick up my wheel and tire I expected it to make sure they didn't warp or damage my wheel before paying them. The car tires are hard to go on and a real ***** to get off.

Test drove it last night and rode it to work today. Feels good to have my motorcycle back the way she supposed/used to be. I'm not all out knocking the dark side but I was having problems keeping air in it. I would lose air in the tire in about 4 or 5 days that required me to air the tire up. That gets old quick. For my body weight 25 psi was the sweet spot for the car tire to smush down in the corners. I assume that low of air pressure it wasn't sealing the beads to the wheel .... or something .... I'm not totally sure. Air pressure up in the 30 psi region I would fight with the bike going through the corners/twisties.

The guys at the dealership was under the impression that I put the car tire on because I was a cheap scape bastard. However I know them pretty well and they was joking at me. They do not understand the car tire thing at all. I actually ran over a nail with my motorcycle tire and decided to try the dark side instead of getting another MC tire just to see if I would like it.

Oh yeah I had the wobble like previously mentioned but it was at 110 mph... I'm talking tank slapper territory. I haven't tried the MC tire yet to see if it still does it.

oh geez...another darkside thread. You'll understand after you read the forum that is dedicated to the subject.

BigBlockRocket said:

So, what's an R3 handle like in the twisties after going dark?...

Click to expand...

To put it mildly, the harder you push it the more of a wrestling match the ride becomes. No car tire will handle the twisties as well as a properly sized motorcycle in the hands of the same rider on the same road. It is a physical impossibility (simple physics)! You can ride a bike on tires made of concrete, if they made such a thing, and they would ride like shyte, but last forever.

Delusions abound.

Twisties ,I found some out the back of cairns a couple of days ago ,there called the gillies .it had the perfect road surface .my mates kept telling me youve got to ride the gillies and they
Were right ,easily the most fun section of road I've ever ridden .if your ever up cairns way you've gotta check it out . I got home this morning but the bike didn't make it ,blew a tyre 100 km,s south of rockhampton , that was a different situation at 11pm , just threw the swag on the ground ,almost froze to death . Got a tilt truck to Gladstone ,there was no tyres in Gladstone , I'm flying back there on Saturday to ride the last 600km,s home .

We had a bike fall out with a blown tire in MV...fortunately it wasn't a Rocket so he couldn't have been going that fast

Nolton didn't have any problems in the twisties in MV and he has a car tire on. Then again we rode the mostly straight roads!!!!

Thanks tc ,I've already booked the flicht only $160 from Brisbane to Gladstone pretty cheap with virgin. I was trying to get home in under 24hours I'd been riding for sixteen hours when the tyre let go .i suppose I was fortunate the way things worked out as the rocket was doing a bit of low flying when the rear let go .im gratefull I didn't damage the rim or worse