Quote Originally Posted by bob109 View Post
Contrary to what some folks think, Dark Side Riders are never on the sidewall when cornering. The magic of "radial sidewall flex" keeps the thread firmly planted to the road surface.
Bob, first...I am still very much interested in learning as much as I can about CT's on bikes. When it comes to CT's on bikes...I am not a know-it-all, like I am with everything else related to bikes.

However, just for clarification, I have never thought that Dark Side Riders are on the sidewalls of their tires when cornering. I fully understand the dynamics of tires, and their characteristics on the road. My concern...and my ONLY concern...about CT's is the flexion of the sidewalls during hard cornering, and how that stress on the sidewall affects the lifespan of the sidewalls structural stability.

For further clarification...we all know how a MT is designed and built to have very stiff sidewalls, and to roll the tire from one side to the other side in a corner, with little to no sidewalls flex, so that the MT tread stays in contact with the road surface, as much as possible. But with a CT, and the more flexible sidewalls, which are designed that way by the tire manufacturers to asssist in absorbing road surface imperfections, and to keep the parallel surface of the 4 tires of the car on the road surface as much as possible, the CT sidewalls are not designed to handle the stress loads that a MT tire is designed for.

Yes, I have seen the videos. They do not mean much to me. My concern is that a CT that has been stressed on the sidewalls over a period of 10,000 to 20,000 miles, and then is ridden hard through a long sweeper in Montana at 85 mph, is that sidewall going to blow out on me at those speeds ?

I am trying to find a CT that has the stiffest sidewalls, with a 3 ply or more construction in the sidewalls. Another reason to go with a 55 profile rating, versus a 60 profile rating.

Yes, I have heard of riders that ride their bikes with CT's very hard...BUT...are they riding those same bikes with those same CT's hard for all of the 20k+ miles ? Or are they takling a short video of a short mileage ride, just to show what the CT can do on a bike? Are there any riders with CT's on their bikes that have successfully ridden well over 20k+ miles...and ridden the bike hard and fast that entire time ?

I do not want to install a tire on my bike, if the result is that I have to be concerned about cornering speeds, and the possibility of a high speed blow-out of the sidewall, due to stressing the sidewall more than it was designed to be stressed.

I would really like to find a rider that I know...and know that this rider does in fact ...# 1...know HOW to ride...and # 2...has ridden the bike hard and fast for over 20k+ miles, so that I can have a better belief that a CT will in fact be safe on MY bike.

I can easily pull 20k+ miles out of a MT tire...if I make the concious decision to ride nice. But riding nice takes all the fun out of it for me. Riding the way I do, I can still pull 17k+ miles out of a set of 'lops, and not have a worry in the world about my tires.

So...I still have an open mind...but I need further evidence that a CT will really work on a bike of mine.