I had calculated 14mm to the inside of the fender on the left side, a bit more on the belt. I expected it would fit tightly, but danged if I don't have 1/4" clear on the fender. And of course, they get narrower at speed.
I just went down and measured the inflated width - 6-3/16" - someone else had said theirs was 6-3/4" but he had a wider rim.
The 5" Heritage rim has a bead seat of 3".

 

Congrats, sounds like you are having fun.
I had a chance to hit some mountain roads today, and some interstate at 80MPH, and really enjoyed it. No way in hell I am going back to a MC tire, lol.
I am still experimenting with pressures and the more I ride, the more I like the way it handles. I have no problems in parking lots, and it stops on half a dime, lol.
The only regret I have about the whole deal is not doing the change to the CT soon enough, lol. I was sick and tired of the Dunlop D407.

Regards,

 

As you guys are mentioning playing with pressures, what are you finding at what pressures. I noticed Bob found 40 lbs and has had no other mentions of changes. I always have run 42 lbs in my MC 200/55/17 and got 8500-9500 miles out of each tire.
I am about 1000 miles from needing another tire so naturally I am going to seek a 205/55/17 CT. I am most interested to know about pressures and what you are feeling.
I read in an earlier thread about unidirectional tires, but sometimes when I am shopping for tires it makes no mention of it. And from what I can see, the tread pattern is no indicative of whether it is unidirectional or not.
Any and all help and advise is appreciated.

 

Nick-O,

Its looking like pressures are like seats, everybody is different according to weight and preferences as for a hard ride or a soft, comfortable one. But regardless or the pressure, the ride is improved anyway. The people that have been doing this for some time (on the Dark Side forum) seem to prefer lower pressures, generally around the lower 30's.

Regards,

 

Quadancer,

We might have to start our own DarkSide number roster. Bob (BoomerBob)number one, me number two you number three, Bob can start a thread on this, see where we get. Its looking like a flood out there, lol.

Regards,

 

Thanks for the kudo's on being number one but I'm far from being number one. HD's have been running on CT's going back to the early part of the last century. We are seeing a resurgence though thanks to the compatibility with the radial's. To my knowledge "Shockwave" is the first on this forum to do this within the last couple of years. He was a good 10 months ahead of me. I was just more vocal about it. I think he just didn't want to listen to all the naysayers say how it couldn't or shouldn't be done while we are happily doing it. Plus; the metric guys have been doing it in recent years as well as we all know.

In truth though; I think those who think outside the box and who are willing to try something new are all number one.

Btw; I did ask Terry, the Admin for the site, if we could have our own section and he said we already have a tire section right now and wanted to let it stand the way it is for now.

What can help others who want to try this is to include the tire/size/psi and where to get in your sig. You can see mine as an example. A lot of the guys on the Darksider forum do this and it makes good sense to me.

What do you think?

I'm really interested to see how the different tires hold up, perform, and the mileage they get. A lot of the Wingers like the Run Flat tires but they are twice as expensive as the non Run Flats. They usually run them at the lower pressures like in the low 30's.

 

You are getting much better than the average mileage out of your back tire.
Your FXSTC is basically the same bike as my Night Train so the tire I'm using will work just fine on your bike.

The Wingers say the Unidirectional tires are best because they are less prone to "walking" in the sweeps and sometimes on the straights like the omindirectional. You can look at the tire and see if both sides of the tire (looking at the tread) are equal. If they are it's a unidirectional tire. At least this is the way I understand it anyway. Also; there will be an arrow on the sidewall if it's a unidirectional tire.

Unidirectional tire


Omnidirectional tire

 

Bob, all the info you seek is in these links. I just sent these to some interested friends as the major base of study I did - the only one I didn't include was the GL1800 darkside forum, because that would just be redundant.
So here is my collection:


http://forums.delphiforums.com/DarkSiding/start


http://mcdarksiders.forumotion.com/

http://www.barretire.com/calculator.htm

http://darkside.nwff.info/database.php

From the above link, are these valuable sites:

http://darkside.nwff.info/Safety.htm ALL should read this info.

This one will totally amaze you - the mileages:

http://darkside.nwff.info/displaymileage.php


General tire info:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...e.jsp?techid=5

Tires that may blow at installation:

http://darkside.nwff.info/ListNOT.php

 

Great information Bob, that makes perfect sense. I notice you have retained the 40 psi on your info. I am confident the extra mileage I have been getting on my MC tires is checking the tire pressure bi-weekly if not more. Sounds ****, but anyway, I kept it at 42 all the time. Have you tried your CT at higher or lower pressures since you last made mention of it?

 

No, I haven't tried different pressures because I'm confident I found the sweet spot for this tire on this bike with me on it. One thing to note though; I check the pressure regularly too and it hasn't lost a single psi since I set it at 40 psi in early May. The stock tire would lose a little every month. I was careful cleaning the rim and tire when I mounted it though. Sometimes when I ride the bagger for a while with the E3's and then ride the Softail with the CT; the CT feels a little squishy for a couple miles until I get used to it again. The first time it happened I immediately checked the air pressure.

My guesstimate of 30k miles sounds about right for this tire when compared with someone else in one of the charts Quadancer posted. It's advertised as a high performance tire so that means a softer and stickier compound. For this bike, since it's my hot rod, that mileage is just fine. If I were buying a tire for the bagger I'd look for a more standard tire and hope for 40-50k miles out of it. Gotta remember any tire is done in 5-7 years depending on the climate due to cracks and weakening of the rubber.