3k on the “Darkside”
A spill over from my work life is that for most anything I try I formulate an actual test plan first and establish what the objective is, and what must happen or what indicates that the objective has been met. My testing a car tire on the back of my Honda VTX is no different. And it is a good thing as the initial impressions, the problems getting up and down my bad driveway in particular, were enough for me to want to back out and put the Cobra back on. But I’d promised myself I’d put some mileage on as by the accounts I’ve read car tires “loosen” after several hundred miles – so I stuck.
Now I have 3,000 miles on the tire and I’m certainly glad I stuck it out through the break in. Were I able to go from zero miles to 3k miles instantly the handling differences would be literally night and day. And I’m finding that much of what I have read about handling from long time darkside riders is certainly true – once past the break in.
If I had to choose a characteristic in handling that still mildly annoys me it would be the little bit of bounce in curving high speed lanes when there are seams or rough pavement. The bounce doesn’t cause tracking problems or anything, its just annoying. What it feels like is the preload on my shocks is set a notch too low.
Many ridicule those riding on a car tire who espouse their corning confidence is greatly improved with the car tire and I have to admit in the first 1k miles I questioned their sanity as well. Fast forward past the break in and I understand! I’m not exactly a “peg dragger” but I find myself cornering more confidently and feeling the occasional bump of the boards as I grind the bottom corners off of them against the pavement.
But where the tire really shines is 2-up riding on the interstate. That little bit of flex that cause the slight bounce in corners also softens those same road defects more effectively. The Missus really noticed how much better the ride was, too. We’d not made it out of the driveway for her first ride with the new tire before she’d commented on how much more smooth it feels.
I took the time up front to trip the inner fender rails so I’ve not had any clearance issues there. But as the tire broke in I do have a small rub ring where the sidewall rubs against the drive shaft cover. Clearance standing still or on the side stand is there so its likely rubbing in right-hand leans when pressure is exerted on the tire’s right shoulder and flexing the sidewalls ever so slightly to the left.
Initially it was just enough of a rub to keep the dust off the sidewall letters but now its dusting off the dust between the letters so likely the width has expanded just a bit. The standing still clearance is only about 1 credit card thickness anyway so it wouldn’t take much.
Fixing it is where I’m in a quandary. Some are putting a flat spot on the shaft cover for additional clearance but I want to research that a bit as the shaft cover is literally the left side of the swingarm. The other option is trying a different tire and even at that cost I’m still way ahead dollar wise as long as the rub goes away. But I’m not overly concerned as there isn’t any abnormal heat build up and the rub isn’t damaging the rubber, just “dusting” it off. Certainly something I must address though.