Well, my experiment is over - Darkside loses. I put on 1000km over the last couple of weeks riding 2 up and single as well as a lot of slow speed maneuvers. I spent 2 hours in a parking lot going through the drills I learned in the Advanced Rider course I took. Drills like slow speed turns in concentric circles getting smaller and smaller until you can't do it anymore. Figure 8's, weaving cones, veering, panic stops etc. All I can say is a dark side tire on this bike is like taking the power steering out of your car. When you read this thread or others on darksiding the arguments always seem to mention whether you can drag the pegs or take the tight corners. I took those corners without issue, the problems were the light easy corners. When the bike is fighting to remain upright. I can say that in all my days of riding I have never ridden tipped to one side driving in a straight line without wind being involved. Its like you had to lean bike over to a greater degree just to get it to move. A slight lean did absolutely nothing for turning ability. I have since removed my Yokohama and put a brand new Avon Cobra in it's place. My bike feels like it's lost 500lbs, that heavy slow feeling is gone. Could I have gotten used to it? Yes without a doubt, but why? I pretty much disabled my bike to try and save money, never going to happen again. It looked good on paper but it's not for me.I plan on hitting the twisties at Sturgis this year and I don't want to do it riding a bike that feels like a dump truck.
