Darkside on a touring? What size!

[Rocket Pilot]

After reading Hellfire's glowing review , gonna try dakside on my '11 touring , What is the Best size / type of tire, I drive 80% highway 20% in town . Thanks John B

 

[TheKid]

John, I went with with Dunlops, D251. $338.00 to the door for both front and rear from jakewilson.com. This bike handles twice as good as it did with the stock Metz's.
I know it's not darkside, and someday I will try. But for now, thats JMTCW.
Welcome to the site.
Ken Smith aka Kid

 

[CWCobra]

I went dark side on a Honda VTX, and loved it. Put a dark side on my R3T, and hate it. Violent head shakes at 88mph. Gonna go Avon.

 

[HellFire]

I went dark side on a Honda VTX, and loved it. Put a dark side on my R3T, and hate it. Violent head shakes at 88mph. Gonna go Avon.

You can't blame that on the darkside.

RP you can wait here a bit and someone will tell you what size they went with on their touring or you can use the search feature up top to look a past posts on tire sizes.
Mines a Standard with a different size so I don't have any recommendations for you on size. I've only tried one model of car tire so far, the BFG G-Force and like it a bunch. There may be a better choice for touring, I don't know but someone here will.

 

[kmrmike]

I have an 08 R3T and use a 195/60/16 Achilles Platinum. Have 8000 miles on it and am very happy with the results.

 

[rainman]

me and stb which is sweetennbabe runs a 205/60/16 on our 08 r3t it changes the speedo by 1 mile u r doing 55 by the speedo and u r actually doing 56 i have over 20000 on mine i run a yokohama tire i believe i have a couple pix on the darkside forum and i love it i live near the mt in tenn bout 45 minutes from the dragon and bot the same from the skyway run 34psi and cant really tell the difference from the ct /mt

 

[vader]

I just went darkside about a week ago, General Altimax 205/60/16. For the most part I can't tell a differance. There is a very small differance when taking off say from a stop sign, you are turning left or right at a slow speed, during the last few feet of the turn the bike wants to stand straight up. if ya had never ridden the bike you wouldn't notice, you'd think it's just the way the bike rides. It wants to stand up straight more than before, (the counter steer) after half a tank of fuel you'll be accustomed to the new ride. I currently have 30psi rear and 40psi front, D404. These two tires are a perfect combination, thanks to advice from this site. It feels like it ain't goin nowhere but forward, very surefooted now. I'll post pic's.

 

[rainman]

the more u ride the more u will like it

 

[Jjluv]

Insurance

I went dark side on a Honda VTX, and loved it. Put a dark side on my R3T, and hate it. Violent head shakes at 88mph. Gonna go Avon.

I casually mentioned to my insurance agent that I was planning to go to the dark side since he too rides an R3, he told me that in the case of any mishap I were to have. Upon the investigation I would more than likely be found at fault for using a tire NOT designed for a m/c. Any one else heard of this?

Thanks JJ

 

[HellFire]

The guys in England and Australia have voiced their concerns but I've never heard of something like that here in the states. I know my insurance company (Progressive) doesn't give a tinkers ****. That would be the same as denying coverage on your car because it had bike parts in it .... they can't do that.