Darkside Review ride

TD I could not have said it better myself Stuart only rode the bike short distance and even though he is a talented rider it takes more than a 10 min ride on some very open bends to get the feel for it next ime CanberraR3 is down I will let him have go and he will see for himself how easy it really is he was probaly watching Rochard who is still very new to The Darkside, if you had been up front with Stuart and myself you would have seen for yourself how easy it is to change direction. I was uncomfortable on the hardly because A/ it was one of here in Australia under evaluation by a couple of journos as to whether it will be released here, I was only the third person in Australia the other two being Stuart and the other Ken Wooten one of Australia's most respected and former editor of AMCN this bike felt like a bike soggy sponge while very comfortable
B/ it felt vague maybe with a few more miles I might have liked it but I know I prefer The Rocket and I remember before the ride that your hero knobs were hardly worn well we fixed that eh, on a serious note if you intend to come down regularly I could meet you up at Braidwood and show the good lines he he but take those bloody knobs of before you snap a peg as I did also Ruzzle put little spacer under his pegs to lift them, my Kurykan Duallie pegs already sit up at bit of an angle, this is where I think Russel got the idea
He removed his hero pegs as soon as he saw how easy mine broke those little hero knobs really dig in very easy.
Yeah it was a bit overcast but as hard as it is I have to live ther just over the other side of the river and I have to put up with all crashing wave noises the beach is a whole 5 min walk from my door. It terrible living so close to the water and only 10 min the other way from that horribly winding moutain rd but somebody has to do it I suppose he he
Sorry I am writing this on my I phone and can't get smileys

Spot on mate. The fact that we all pretty much covered "that" road the same indicates to me that DS doesn't slow you down and in some cases speeds you up. I'm certainly not put off DS by any perceived handling deficiencies and think you might be waiting for me at the bottom of the mountain. Could be a closer call going up though.

TDragger and others, I haven't put here (and won't) some of the very frank comments Hanso and the others made to me about DS, some good, some not so good. But they were honest refelctions of their experience with DS. Jeez, we have to be able to weigh things up. I'll happily tell you things I don't like about stuff I've done to my bike but that doesn't mean I'm unhappy in general.

Tyre choice is so important and I don't quite get the reluctance to have observations, concerns or facts discussed openly and constructively. We all run the risk with ANY changes to our bikes of creating insurance, legal, warranty and safety issues so surely it's best to get the conversation out in the open so we all know what the pros and cons are.

'Nuff from me and sorry to have gone on.

Shame on you guys! Not a one of you run the Aussie made exhaust and, IMHO, one of the better looking and sounding ones available... the Mad Dogs. I love mine.

Good on you and thanks for taking this topic on. I'm looking forward to seeing the write-up. There are no winners or losers in this controversy... Simply two distinct choices.

TriumPhil said:

Shame on you guys! Not a one of you run the Aussie made exhaust and, IMHO, one of the better looking and sounding ones available... the Mad Dogs. I love mine.

Good on you and thanks for taking this topic on. I'm looking forward to seeing the write-up. There are no winners or losers in this controversy... Simply two distinct choices.

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"StainTunes are Australian Made" and the factory is only a couple of hundred Km's away and Mad Dogs are no longer made I made enquires when looking

Ooops, my bad.

Why do you think Mad Dog went under?

TriumPhil said:

Ooops, my bad.

Why do you think Mad Dog went under?

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Don't know but NewR3 were advertising them when I made an enquirie they got back to me and said no longer in production. Kinda glad that happened because I ended up picking up the second hand Staintunes for $500 ($2,500) new and sound smooth deep and when you open it up wooow. just a note Blastedbones an Ozie who is in the process of putting a carpenter kit had his Maddogs gutted and now has a 1 1/2 baffle(std maddog 1 1/4 same as TORs) the staintune are already 1 1/2 baffle and never need repacking, which is why they are normally so expensive, stainless Inside and Out. I sent CanberraR3 a video/sound file from my i phone yesterday he might be able to post it as I don't seem to be able to post a picture here let alone a sound video/file, call me dumb but I have no trouble on the other site with a simple picture yet here it asks for URL?

CanberraR3 said:

I'm sure you're right. I was just looking and what I wrote is what I saw. The journo has been researching darkside for a while and, as both Hanso and I have said, is an unbelievable rider. He didn't look like a newbie at all when he rode Hanso's bike and I'm sure isn't going to base this long researched article on whether he enjoyed the short ride he had; that's not what he's about.

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Thanks for the comprehensive update guys. Wish I could have been there.......

Actually, it's just as well I wasn't there to show you how a "real" Rocket can handle. You wouldn't have seen me for dust........(the dust that would have shot up when I overcooked the first corner and went bush ).

I look forward to the release of the article......

Pete

hanso said:

I sent CanberraR3 a video/sound file from my i phone yesterday he might be able to post it as I don't seem to be able to post a picture here let alone a sound video/file, call me dumb but I have no trouble on the other site with a simple picture yet here it asks for URL?

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Can't do it; comes up as invalid file type. Will try again later.

You shouldn't be clicking on the URL button. Use the line above. Just browse for the file, click open and upload. You have to wait for it to load.

CanberraR3 said:

Spot on mate. The fact that we all pretty much covered "that" road the same indicates to me that DS doesn't slow you down and in some cases speeds you up. I'm certainly not put off DS by any perceived handling deficiencies and think you might be waiting for me at the bottom of the mountain. Could be a closer call going up though.

TDragger and others, I haven't put here (and won't) some of the very frank comments Hanso and the others made to me about DS, some good, some not so good. But they were honest refelctions of their experience with DS. Jeez, we have to be able to weigh things up. I'll happily tell you things I don't like about stuff I've done to my bike but that doesn't mean I'm unhappy in general.

Tyre choice is so important and I don't quite get the reluctance to have observations, concerns or facts discussed openly and constructively. We all run the risk with ANY changes to our bikes of creating insurance, legal, warranty and safety issues so surely it's best to get the conversation out in the open so we all know what the pros and cons are.

'Nuff from me and sorry to have gone on.

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Just courious. What was the ambient temp. the day of your ride?

At the time of the ride, low 30sC ie high 80s-90F - sorry guys .