Dark siding.

[sissymary]

Has anyone heard anything from the guy that put a federal formosa car tire on the rear wheel of his X500? How well did it work? Any handling issues? I never heard anything about it after his first post. Has any one else done so? 

[Doc Wheezer]

The poster was htcneil2 he darksided his xciting 500 in 2014 and his last post was in 2016


The tire was a federal formoza 165/60r14 75H. Same one I had on my 09 exciting 500ri abs when I bought it.
The bike had 6000 miles on it when I bought it and I put another 5000 miles on it. The tire is still good for another 15,000 miles or so.  I've never had a handling problem, although this wasn't the first bike I had darksided. So, I never even thought about it when buying the xciting 500Ri.  Darksided my burgman 650 when the rear shinko needed to be replaced after 4500 miles.

As a matter fact here is one of the burgmanusa members profile. Dave_J

"Never mount a passenger car tire on a motorcycle rim; the flat profile of a car tire is incompatible ....HOGWASH
160,000 miles on a CAR TIRE/DARKSIDE.
On a Achilles ATR-K Economist 155/65 HR 14,
Prior GT Radial Champiro VP1 185/60 HR 14, Potenza RE92 165/65 SR 14 and 155/65 HR 14 Formosa D2
 

[Tromper]

Heck ya beat me to it Doc.

I was gonna steer him at Dave.  I will say I've seen Dave's setup side by side with my current Shinko, & there's a lot less difference in profile than ya think.

I have no doubt it feels a bit different in the back, but Dave is not shy in corners and rides everywhere including up & down a pleasantly twisty stretch to get to his place probably most days.  I suspect it's actually better in the straights, & probably better if fully loaded (Dave has a LOT of storage on his bike).

Your results may vary.  If ya feel unsafe on it or don't like it,  swap back to a full on bike tire.  Some try darkside and go back to a bike tire.  Personally I haven't gone there, but have debated it for the same reason others do. 

Either way, please do post your results.

[ClayMation]

Interesting subject.

What are the apparent dangers of this "Dark siding" thing?

And do you use the same stock rim to fit the tire on?

[Mr. Paul]

Interesting subject.

What are the apparent dangers of this "Dark siding" thing?

And do you use the same stock rim to fit the tire on?

Now you've opened up a can of worms Clay! Almost as bad as a motor oil debate. I am interested in the replies though.

[Tromper]

Honestly there are a lot of threads on this in other forums. 
I have not gone darkside on my burger, & of course can't really on the HD200 so I only know this stuff peripherally.

I'd suggest you check the Burgman USA forum where Dave lurks, there are a bunch of threads there on a similar, if not identical scoot.
Also if you just google it you'll find a lot of different posts for a lot of different bikes.

All that noted here's what I've observed.

Handling changes no two ways about it.  Not death but you'll feel it.
The naysayers don't believe the tires sidewalls will hold up properly & have all heard of someone who wiped out because of it, but I haven't seen anybody actually produce that someone.  Would be tough to say of course even then since issues could be rider error.

Other than the anecdotal reports of folks having serious handling issues, the only complaints I've heard were that they didn't like the modified handling, not that the rider was unable to corner or had other issues that caused injury.  Could happen of course we've all been in those tight spots where every iota of traction counts, but might just be they didn't like the feel so didn't give it much of a chance...personally I dunno first hand.

There are a couple cautions I give ya other than a real huge "do it at your own risk"
- Make sure the tire you use clears the frame when the suspension is fully compressed.
- If you go darkside you're pretty much on your own.  This likely includes installing it.
- On top of that you're doing it on a bike that doesn't have reams of other examples so you can figure it out but it might be a bit tougher than doing it on a B650 where I can hit up any number of people who've done it and done a few variations.

If you have any doubts or worries you can't allay then don't.   What you've been doing works, it's just more expensive.
Faces are lots more expensive then even the priciest tire.

Cheers.

Tromper

Interesting subject.

What are the apparent dangers of this "Dark siding" thing?

And do you use the same stock rim to fit the tire on?

[MJR]

There are some handling differences that can surprise you if your not aware of them related to the profile differences between the tires. Because a car tire thread is more squarish it requires more effort to lean the bike as it wants to stay most upright. Another difference is with the squarish thread on slopes the bike is going to want to stay at 90* to the road surface which requires more effort to keep the bike upright. This also means you have to be aware of it and prepared in sudden transitions between flat/sloped road surface, most dramatic would be riding over a speed bump at an angle as the bike will want to pitch side to side. As with anything different you can either avoid those situations or train yourself to deal with them. Mounting a car tire can be a dangerous procedure because of the differences in the bead seating areas mean excessive pressure to seat the car tire beads on a motorcycle rim and this is one reason many shops will simply refuse to work on them.