Suggestions for rear darkside

[Planecrazyjim]

Seems no one can answer the question. I wasn't asking about your opinions on darkside riding. I was asking those in the know what tires they found best. If you know nothing about riding darkside you may be well advised to learn a bit then speak. I have had my Rocket for 17 years. and 15 other bikes currently and been riding 60 years. I have done countless miles on darkside on the Rocket. It works and on the Avon's I ran before she let go out of hard corners on hard accel. The car tire never has. I got 3000 k's out of Avons and 29,000ks from CT's.

What size do you run or prefer?
225? Or 245? My R3 is 2008 stock with sidecar.

 

[R3D]

Although I understand people's doubting of using a CT on the Rocket and each to his own..... I've run a CT for over 150,000 miles on two different Rockets (05 and 08) and have never had a wobble or any other issue other than more input required. I find a CT with good grip more stable in turns especially when accelerating hard out of the exit. Metzlers seemed squirmy. BTW I run 240's of various brands.

 

[cootertwo]

I may have already commented on this thread, but one thing I've learned the hard way, Tire sizes will vary depending on the manufacturer. Not all 240's are the same width. Just sayin. And there is the different shape of the bead, that is troubling to some. I tried it, and went back to the old faithful Bridgstone.

 

[tdragger]

For the over 76k miles that I put on my Rocket, all but the first 4k were running darkside. By far the best solution was the Riken Raptor ZR in a 225/55/16. It is only 1% larger in circumference from stock and handled great. I averaged 29.5k miles out of each one that I used. Some particular good features about the Riken include: 1) it has a symmetrical tread pattern, 2) the center rib has a wavy edge to it that helps immensely with handling grooved roadways, 3) and its price point. You might have to do some searching for it but I was generally able to find it on TireRack.com.

 

[Planecrazyjim]

For the over 76k miles that I put on my Rocket, all but the first 4k were running darkside. By far the best solution was the Riken Raptor ZR in a 225/55/16. It is only 1% larger in circumference from stock and handled great. I averaged 29.5k miles out of each one that I used. Some particular good features about the Riken include: 1) it has a symmetrical tread pattern, 2) the center rib has a wavy edge to it that helps immensely with handling grooved roadways, 3) and its price point. You might have to do some searching for it but I was generally able to find it on TireRack.com.

Thank you. Just ordered it. Tirerack had it in stock.

 

[Planecrazyjim]

Car tire handles awesome. Feel more stable and breaking is better with the added surface on the ground. Extra plus with running with sidecar. Thank you to you all for the info from this thread. It really helped a lot!