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......