The Falken handles great. It grips the road like no ones business. I have so much more confidence in this tire over the stock Dunlop it's not even funny.

I'll never go back to a MT on this bike. I hope to get 30k miles out of it but even if I got half that it would still be worth it.

Rides like I'm on glass on the highway. Soaks up all the small road irregularities, the stopping power and take off traction are fantastic.

I've got a thread going about it here.

Zbones: It looks like you're in good shape. Looking forward to hearing what you think about it.

 

Quadancer: I don't think I've seen anyone try as hard as you to find a CT that worked for your bike.

I wish I had some good advice but you have two things working against you and that's the tire width limitation (obviously) and the spoke wheel which would mean running a tube unless your wheels have been sealed.

If I see anything that might work for you I'll definitely send you a PM about it.

 

I appreciate it man. I'm so jealous of you guys it ain't funny! Wanna know something nutz? I got the "Darkside" patch allready for my cutoffs. Now I can't find a dang tire!

 

Would love to run a CT on my FXDC. I swapped out the spoke wheels for a set of FXDL mags (I HATE polishing chrome and spokes), but they still are only 160/17s. I guess the MT makers don't think we put more than 8k on our bikes a year.

 

They think that we're made of money and will happily put tire after tire on our beloved machines, since we're so adamant about having the best for them, IMO. This, from the Darkside forum; and opinion that makes sense:


The reason why the softer car tire last longer is the soft rubber which is grip and wide contact patch holds the road. Now with that said....a tire that slips on the pavement is friction and friction is wear! Because of the small contact patch of the MT (motorycle tire), if the rubber was soft it would over heat and get too gummy and slip on you. So they make it harder to not get as hot and gummy, but because the contact patch is so small that they sacrifice gummy for less grip and it wears quicker. Feel you motorcycle tire next time you ride hard. It gets hot! But NOT the car tire, the contact patch is so large the it disperses the heat over a larger area and doesn't slip and slide so NO friction, NO wear!

Motorcycle community has lied to us about why they wear out so quickly on us. It's not because they are softer. It's how you make money!!! hehehehe We buy the lie over and over again every time we replace a motorcycle tire.

 

I don't think the community has lied so much as it's not really that important how long a tire lasts to most riders. I suspect most people on this forum (an any other forum) average about 3K - 5K a year. They get several years out of a back tire.

If you ride a great deal (distances, not frequent tootles down to the local bar) it becomes a real PITA. I live in a climate (nearly into Canada) where there's only about 5 fairly dependable months for riding...and there's been many years where I put 20K + on the bikes. Buying 3 rear tires a year is expensive even when you take the wheel off yourself and mount it....and if you had the dealer do it (especially on a bagger) it truly becomes ridiculously expensive (plus waiting to get the bike back). CT's met my durability needs, and when I found out, through many thousands of miles of mountain twisty riding that they handled superbly, I was sold on running the darkside on any bike I could find a CT size that would fit.

 

I just copied and pasted; I can't say wether or not they "lie" to us, but concealing truths and facts is a kissin' cousin of it, regardless.

Anybody seen a 165 out there with an aspect ratio higher than 50?
If I can't find one, at least I did find out that a Heritage can take probably a 170, and has a LOT of headroom for aspect height, although me and the wife couldn't get it to hit the bumpers when we were bouncin' on it. It usually bottoms out on the wide speed bumps and some RR tracks.

So the next tire may be the Marathon 880.

 

QD: This is closest I've seen. You'd have to measure or have someone measure the width to see if it will fit for you.

 

 

CM311: That was a complete waste of bandwidth. Don't knock it till ya tried it.