Well I am on my way to the Darkside

[sennister]

I was looking at ordering a Hankook from Tirerack for $88+shipping. Then I saw that Discount Tire has them for $95. I figured I would just get them from DT as it is basically the same price. Well I have tax but $6 isn't much.

The tire should be here Tuesday or Wednesday.

The guy asked what kind of car it was for and I said a Motorcycle. He starts to say something about trikes. I explain it isn't a trike it is that bike and point to the ST in the parking lot. He gets a funny look on his face and starts to say something about trikes again. I again stop him and explain that there are only two wheels and this is going on the back. That he shouldn't worry as I just want a tire. I will mount and balance the tire. I am not asking them to do that. He kind of shakes his head and laughs a bit. Then asked if I knew they were not liable. Yep I said. I just want the tire. Sure enough he said. He might have it Tuesday or Wednesday depending on how far away it is.

:ds1:

I don't like changing tires this late in the season but I need some and we have some warmer weather on the way so it should be fine.

 

[Mark]

1100 or 1300?
Both?

 

[sennister]

1100 or 1300?
Both?

Just the 1300 for now. So I guess since the 1100 will still have MC tires I will be more on the grey side.

 

[Papa]

Interesting,, anyone on the darkside ever put the bike into a lean taking off in first gear and test acceleration? Just wondering if it breaks loose or lifts the front wheel.

 

[LeeWonnacott]

Good luck with it ... so far I've been more than happy with my Hankook.

 

[Gene]

Once I did a gravel flying takeoff from a shoulder !! NEVER will I do that again , but the sky sure was a beatiful shade of blue when the Hankook got a bite of pavement !

 

[Stew1300]

I'm thinking of venturing into the Darkside too, what I'm not sure about is any negative effect it will have on my Honda extended warranty. It could be the perfect excuse for Mr. Honda to blame any failures on. Any comments or thoughts from Darksiders would be appreciated..

 

[sennister]

I'm thinking of venturing into the Darkside too, what I'm not sure about is any negative effect it will have on my Honda extended warranty. It could be the perfect excuse for Mr. Honda to blame any failures on. Any comments or thoughts from Darksiders would be appreciated..

I see this an no more of a concern than any other Farkle. Here is what the deal is. This area falls under the Moss Warranty Act. Basically without diving too far into it, here is the deal. A dealer cannot legally deny a warranty claim simply on the grounds that the product has been modified. However if the modification caused the failure, then it is up to them to prove it. So lets pretend there was some big bore kit available for the ST that would greatly increase the HP rating of the engine. Now if you were to have a transmission go out on the bike, it may be pretty easy to determine that a contributing factor to the failure was in fact due to the HP output of the engine no longer being stock. In a case like this they could deny the claim. You could fight it but to win your case you would have to be able to defend the case that it didn't cause the failure. That may be a little hard to do. However look at a slightly different situation. You have a ST with a modified engine but this time rather than a transmission failure, your power windscreen mechanism fails. Well in this case it is going to be pretty darn hard for them to prove that the additional HP output is going to be the cause of the power windscreen mechanism failing. If they tried to fight it and say that you had all this power and were going much too fast and the stresses were more than it could take. Well there are plenty of us with documented failures that don't have a modified engine that could be used to support your defense.

So what does this mean? In summary they can't simply blanket deny your warranty in effect voiding it for all aspects of the bike simply because it has a modification. If you had a windscreen failure for instance and had a huge aftermarket windscreen, I would recommend putting the stock one back on before taking it in. There are some cases that a dealer may say that you have to return a bike to stock configuration before attempting to further diagnose the issue. This is another reason to use a fuseblock. If you had an electrical claim of some sort, you would only have one area to return to stock rather than stuff all over. This potential requirement is understandable. If you brought a highly modified bike into them they may have a much more difficult time in troubleshooting the issue as they are working around things that are not in their shop manuals.

Worst case for me would be that I pull the CT and put one of my take offs MC tires back on. I change tires for people all the time so I always have a few and I am set up for changing tires. For me this isn't an issue though as my bike is no longer under warranty. So there is no way it will ever be back to a dealer as long as I own it.

Hope this helps. I originally learned about all of this from my time in modified Audis. Some dealers in our area were more friendly. The odd thing is that there were only two dealers in our area and they were both owned by the same person. So why one was easier to deal with than the other seemed strange. Anyhow the bad one would try and deny a claim for everything if they found out you had a modified ECU. They were also known to put a note in the car's file that it had a modified ECU if it came in for unrelated service such as an oil change and later came back with another issue that the owner of the car thought they might question so he installed the stock ECU before bringing the car in.

So long story short. A CT on a bike would be something that is pretty darn hard for anyone to deny a claim for. Mainly because we don't have much for common failures that they would be able to attribute to what you have for tires. The ST isn't known for it but if you had a final drive failure or transmission issue. It would be a bit of a stretch but if you had the means to put a MC tire back on before taking it in, that might eliminate the questions at a minimum.

 

[nhdiesel]

Interesting,, anyone on the darkside ever put the bike into a lean taking off in first gear and test acceleration? Just wondering if it breaks loose or lifts the front wheel.

It will indeed pull the front tire up while in a lean in 1st gear...BT,DT. I'd rather pull the tire up while going straight...lol...but it didn't feel any different than pulling it up with a MC tire. And for that matter, I've had the front tire off the ground lots of times with the CT on the back, and its very stable and predictable. I even surprised myself once when I got a bit excited on a damp (well packed) dirt road. Instead of the tire spinning, the front tire actually came up! Try THAT with a MC tire! And that was when it was 3/4 worn!

Jim

 

[Papa]

I even surprised myself once when I got a bit excited on a damp (well packed) dirt road. Instead of the tire spinning, the front tire actually came up! Try THAT with a MC tire! And that was when it was 3/4 worn!

Jim

Well alrighty then. That's broaden horizons for George! Even I can see the carrot now.

 

[sennister]

Well they said the tire would be in Tuesday or Wednesday. I called Tuesday but no tire. I was busy Wednesday so I didn't have a chance to stop. So I went there over lunch today. No tire. Luckily it was the Manager helping me and he investigated further. Still in Indianapolis (I think that is where he said). I asked how it could be there still when I ordered it on Sat? He didn't know but said they show that it will be delivered on the 27th or so. I told him to cancel the order as I can most likely get one from the Tire Rack by the weekend if I order it now. That this is crazy. I order tires all the time and get them delivered to my house in 2-3 days. He asked that I give him a minute and he made a couple phone calls. He ended up buying one from another tire shop (not Dsicount Tire) and will have it in the morning. Well I will swing by tomorrow morning to see if it is there or not.

 

[Tom B.]

Unbelievable!

Just make sure it isnt for a JD!

MMMWWAAAAHHAAAAHAAAAHAAA