Moving to the Dark Side

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 with the performance but time will tell how well it wears.

I decided to give it a try. I did my research and picked a tire that I knew was being used by others. I chose the Falken Ziex ZE912. A 195/55R16 fits the Goldwing.

It is an all-weather tire with a AA traction rating.

I found that it was available locally through Tires Plus and, with tax, was only a little more than $1 more than the best price I found online. I bought it today. I like the way it looks. It appears to be ever-so-slightly rounded so, perhaps, pushing it into a turn will be effortless like it is with a motorcycle tire.

When it warms up a bit (it is now hovering around zero) I will mount it (on the wheel you pervert!!!) and install it on my motorcycle. When it warms up even more I’ll start riding on it.

I’m looking forward to that!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Colorado; Day 9; June 30, 2012

Image
The evening of June 29th we saw the play, “Is He Dead” at the Creede Repertory Theater ( http://www.creederep.org/ ).  It was very entertaining,  one of the better plays I’ve seen. When we drove away from Creede at 6:05 am it was 41 degrees.  A short distance south the temperature dropped to 39.  We tried soaking up the cold for what we knew would be a hot afternoon. We rode South Fork and then east to Alamosa.  From Alamosa we took a detour north up Hwy 17 to see the UFO Watchtower ( http://www.ufowatchtower.com/ ).  It is a place for UFO enthusiasts to go to watch for UFO’s.  The lady who runs the place said something about some sort of vortex existing on the property.  Weird stuff, even for an open-minded guy like me. If the UFO Watchtower wasn’t weird enough we saw a male driving a Jeep with eye lashes over the headlights at a gas station in Alamosa, CO.  Hopefully it was his wife’s Jeep and he was just gassing it up for her. We continued east to Walsenburg, LaJunta, and La
Read more

My Last Ride

On January 11th, 2017, I departed on a ride to Kelli's Korner (Paradise, MO - near Smithville, MO) for lunch with four friends (Carl, Gary, Bill and Larry). It was a beautiful day, which was all the excuse we needed for a ride. I was leading the group and we were taking a long way there. Riding north on county road N, about 6 miles north of Hwy 152 and I-435, the road turned and I didn't. I exited the road into a field. Fortunately there were no fences, trees, rocks, oncoming cars, etc. I have no explanation for this except that I was out of it for awhile. I remember crossing the center line but I was looking down at that time, which is weird. I have no memory of seeing anything after that until I was laying in the field separated from my motorcycle. I do remember a sensation of tumbling but that is all. My first thought was to drive my motorcycle out of the field and get it cleaned up so Chris would not know what I did. What a ridiculous idea that was. After I'd been up
Read more

Florida Trip; Day 11

Image
A beautiful, sunny and warm day! After our B&B breakfast we rode away on our golf cart at 9:45 AM. It was 51 degrees. We spent an hour or so exploring Cedar Key again and Chris did a little shopping on Dock Street. Morning is low tide. It was strange seeing boats sitting in the mud at the marina. This next picture is of the marina at high tide. At noon we had to return the golf cart and then we walked to lunch at Tony's. After lunch we walked the Railroad Trestle Nature Trail. We went to the Cedar Key Scrub State Park to walk but found it uninteresting so we didn't go far.  Back at the B&B we watched a movie and then watched the sun set. We drove a whopping 13 miles today (not counting miles in the golf cart) and our high temperature was 68. A very relaxing day! Tomorrow we start home. Click here to see all photos from today - Day 11 Photos  
Read more