I said I would never do it, but...........

[breeze]

THE reason I am NOT running a Carp.

had the $,had the time,just not the right representation for me so i dont have for just this once got to agree with you bull

 

[STRIPES]

THE reason I am NOT running a Carp.

The reason I initially went with Neville. Glad I did. Wonder if Bob knows how much he is losing due to his good buddy.

 

[Rocket HP]

Over the past few years I've read enough Darkside threads, pro's and con's to drive myself crazy. So I said to heck with it and I am just going to try it for myself, if it sucks I'll just take it off. Being in Canada tires are expensive and not always available, not to mention I am 200km from the nearest bike shop. I went with the Yokohama S-Drive 225/55r16 which cost me $180 with taxes and installation onto the rim. Right now the Cobra would cost me $400 with freight and taxes, installation would be extra. My last Cobra lasted 15,000km, without having any experience I am hoping to get 30,000km out of the Yoko. So the math is pretty easy, the Darkside is less than 25% the expense to run the same distance. Other than the obvious shape of the tire the 2 tires match up not too bad.

Cobra $400 Yoko $180
Speed V Speed W
Actual width 9.3" for both
Diameter 25.6" 25.7"
Load 500kg 690kg

Because of where I live, there aren't any curves in the road. When I leave town the first curve in the road isn't for 25km, and it's an easy one. My Cobra was worn bald in the center section and less than 1mm was gone from the edges. Even the logo looked like new on the outer edge. I hit the corners on vacation or trips but in the grand scheme of things I just don't wear the outer edges. So with the Darkside I can't see why my tire life shouldn't significantly increase. With that being said my time spent on the edge of a Darkside tire should be minimal, so I shouldn't really wear out the edge where there isn't any tread. Hopefully the handling quirks are minimal. We will see......

Good choice I was getting 9k out of Cobra and 5k out of Metsy, now 25000km on the dark side.
A mate is getting more out of his new one he is up 20000km and the way it looks he will get another.

 

[KildeRouge]

Hello every one
Sorry , I miss this post since a too long delay . Now I have 45 000 km with my darkside and it's far from worn out !
I will change it before the next winter and it will probably have more than 50 000 km .
I confirm that , with a good under pressure ( 1.9bar) , It never slip and principaly I stay just at the limit where
the foot-pegs begin to lick the pavement .
So I say hourrah for the Dark-side !

 

[1olbull]

The only thing to fear is fear it's self.....

GREAT tune!!!
GREAT sound track!
John Cafferty rules!!!

 

[IMFASTTOO]

So many people have confused the Bridgestone Exedra Max radial with either their same series tire in bias ply or the Bridgestone Exedra series (non-Max) that I wonder if this might be the contributing factor to the few negative comments I've read here about the BEM.

Every motorcycle tire that I have ever used, loses a significant amount of wet or cold weather traction after the treads are worn by about 50% or more. With the three Exedra Maxes I've used, that issue becomes noticeable at about 75% tread wear and actionable at 85+%.

I ride hard and mostly on twisty, hilly and mountain backroads often with very steep grades and very tight radius turns, so about 8000 miles is about the limit for me and my tires are often changed just before the cords become visible, requiring that the last 1000- 1500 miles of use is done with appropriate care and wider margins for safety.

WE ride on the same roads a combination of everything in this area even dirt roads so a greatplace to test tires with the group I ride with on everytype of bike you can think of a lot of expierenced riders and Racers so we get to ride with them all PHil likes to beat the snot out of his beast so hes a good tire tester and hes done the CT thing also So now Im running the MICH rear and BRIDGESTONE front so far a great combo almost 4000 miles and wearing very little

 

[TRIIICK]

The Darkside has come along way since it's introduction to the Rocket. I was paying almost $900.00 to have a new set of tires put on my bike in 2007. It was Tyrone Alexander Cantaire who first had the ba!!s to try DS out aka RocketRiderMan. I took his advice and went with the Yokohama AVS ES1.00 245/50 ZR16. It took me some doings to convince my dealer to install it, I had to sneak in after hours to get my friendly mechanic to put them on the bike. Except for a little counter steering it didn't take long to get used to the DS. Today there are some great deals on tires and getting them put on is a lot easier and less expensive than the 2005-2009 years..

 

[Rocket HP]

Once you cross over that's it Lol.
I have two rims with one with bike tyre and the other dark side .
It only takes 10 min with seizer jack.

 

[sonny]

The local Honda shop in Tulsa Oklahoma will install CT's. A lot of shops around my area will not do it. They claim insurance reasons do not allow it. $ull****. They just want to make some money selling you a high dollar tire which will wear out in 8,000 miles or less. I ride a lot. 2015 Rocket X with over 25,000 miles on it and yes we bought it new in Sept 2015. If you can top my milage I will shut up here. For me a car tire on the back is the best thing since sliced bread. My ride to and from work is over 115 miles a day. When the bike is up we ride. Weather and conditions do not matter. We have the gear to handle it even at the ripe age of 58 (almost 59) No we did not buy the Rocket X thinking we could outrun the sportbikes. We bought it so we could ride and not worry about much of anything. Average speed is on open Highway doing 75 to 80 miles per hour. The 2010 Harley fatboy I bought has cost me a small fortune riding back and forth to work. On the same note the Rocket X seems to do it without any problems. Do the math a regular bike tire will not last long but on the other hand a car tire not only will last a few miles it provides a very comfortable ride on the open road. Do I feel like I am taking a chance by running a car tire on the back ? Not at all. Nothing is better in 20 degree weather and knowing that the bike tire is stable even in the worse of conditions. Been there done that more than common sense says so. I believe we pretty much summed it up.

 

[Dennis B.]

Considering that a passenger tire is so much different than a m/c tire, do you still inflate at the normal p.s.i.? Or do you add or subtract a set amount? (example: I am currently using the Exedra Max 240/55 R16. inflating it between 36-42 p.s.i. ; I'm a big dude weighing in around 350lbs.)
Thanks