My Story

  

I bought my first bike the day before Thanksgiving in 2005.  It had taken awhile to convince my wife, but eventually I prevailed.  It is a Yamaha V-Star Silverado.  I rode it 141 miles home leaving my car at the bike shop.  I needed the smallest excuse to get on it and go.  Talk about a kid with a new toy.  I rode to work in below freezing weather, bought a rain suit and rode in the rain.  I know it was insane, but what can I say, when you get the fever...

Right around 4800 miles I noticed that the tread in the center of the tire was gone.  Wow!  I went to the closest Yamaha dealer and got the tire replaced.  It was at this point that I started asking questions.  Was this normal?  Was I riding wrong?  Maybe it was just that OEM tire.  Yeah, the new one will last longer.  4500 miles later, back at the shop getting a new tire again.  Really getting to know the owner.  He seems to think we will be seeing a lot of each other.  Hmmm...  I started e-mailing tire mfg's trying to get some information about longevity of these tires.  Did not receive any information back.  Asked in my bike club, what kind of mileage are you guys getting?  Answer 7-8000 miles.  I would love to get that.  I started to hear about this Dark Side thing.  A car tire on the back of a bike.  No way!!  My curious mind would not let it go.  The internet yielded few answers.  No sites existed to provide any answers.  I did stumble on a couple of articles.  Mostly arguments against.  Then I found some exerpts from Daniel Meyer's "Life is a Road".  A guy who installed a car tire on the back of his Valk and went to Alaska.  This really changed my thinking.  It could be done.  You could actually install a car tire on the back of your bike and it would work.  Hurrah!!  All this time though, every 4300-4500 miles I am changing out that rear tire.  

Finally after 5 tires, much money, and a tremendous amount of research, I bought a car tire and put it on the back of my bike.  I carefully rode for around 500 miles, mostly to and from work.  The road has some twisties and since I knew the road and all of its quirks, I figured that it would be a good place to check it out.  I was cautious in the curves, attentive on the straight-a-ways, and mindful of the braking and acceleration.  

It had been one of those days at the mill, and honestly my mind was not on the tire.  I was just riding.  I do love it so.  It was about halfway home that I realized that I was diving into the corners, powering out, you know, riding.  It was then that I knew that Mr. Meyer was right.  It can be done and boy howdy does it work.  Therefore for me, Dark Siding is the way to go. 

I started posting on various forums and ran into the same arguments that I had.  Most of these come from a lack of knowledge on the subject.  I wanted to remedy that.

I have a friend out in California who I have known since High School.  He is heavy into Pod Casting and New Media.  He has been after me to build this website for months.  I didn't think to many would really care.  His response was I am not alone in this issue.  I am not the only guy out there replacing tires every 5k miles.  That I should share my experiences and knowledge with anyone who wanted to access it.  He was right, and CarTiresonMotorcycles.com is born.  He recommended making some movies and posting them.  Done.  The hits were a cause to continue.  So was the feedback I have received from those who, like me, wanted answers.  

There seems to be many of those Dark Siders out there.  They need a place to share their stories. 

I now have over 29,000 miles on my bike and over 5000 on this tire.  I have no complaints regrets about my decision to "Ride the Dark Side".

So now you know my story.  If you wish to join our little, but growing, group.  The water, as they say, is fine..  Welcome.  If you do not, no judgements or anything.  God Bless.

  

DarkRider