Retired and Trippin

At noon today, as I was headed out to have lunch with Carl and our dad, I checked the outside thermometer and saw it was already a little over 40 degrees. I thought this would be a good day to give the new Falken car tire on the rear of my GW a test spin. After lunch I had some other commitments (us retired people can get awful busy) so I didn't get a chance to go riding until nearly 5:00. By then the temperature had dropped to 39, according to the temperature indicator on the motorcycle. I took a short ride out to I-435, north to K-32, west to K-7, south to K-10, east to I-435, north to Johnson Drive, east to Quik Trip for gas, and then home. I only rode 37 miles but I gave the tire a pretty good evaluation. I hit 90 mph with no ill effects. I drug the highway pegs on the ramp from I-435 to K-32 and again from I-435 to Johnson Dr. There was no sliding at all. I had no problem with handling at slow speeds around my neighborhood. It did require that wee bit of a nudge to

Today I put the wheel with the Falken tire on my motorcycle. It (we) are ready to ride! Bring on the warmer weather.

I mounted the Falken Ziex ZE912 on the rear wheel of my Goldwing yesterday. It looks good. I am anxious to get out on the road and test it out.

No, I’m not turning to devil worshipping nor am I turning into a werewolf. Two web sites that I know of refer to a motorcycle rider who rides with a car tire on his motorcycle as a dark sider or darksider (one or two words, depends on the web site). http://lifeisaroad.com/stories/2004/10/27/theDarkSide.html http://gl1800riders.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=31 There are several reasons provided for going to the dark side but the one that drew me in was the possibility of getting more miles out of the tire. Motorcycle tires on the rear of my Goldwing have been lasting 10,000 miles at best, my last one only 4,000. It seems that motorcycle tires are engineered to wear out quickly. And they are not cheap. A very good car tire costs less than a motorcycle tire. A friend of mine recently crossed over to the dark side. He purchased a car tire, a Pirelli Eufori, installed it on his Goldwing, and rode it for one or two thousand miles before the cold weather grounded him. He is pleased w