You will get MANY opinions (based on individuals’ experience) regarding tires. Unless you really get poor tires (and there’s not many really cheap/poor brands out there), most will do the job reasonably well. If you’re not pushing the bike that hard, you’ll usually be fine with whatever brand you choose. Typical mileage out of a set will be 7-8000 miles (I normally replace mine when I see squaring at the rear tire and some scalloping wear at the front, and normally, that’s at the mileage above). As for dark side, some do it, some swear by it, and others stick with motorcycle tires (I don’t dark side). MC tires are designed specifically for motorcycle use and with some more ‘sticky’ compounds to make them, handling will in general be better at the expense of wear. Also (in general), make sure the date codes on the tires you use are no more than 5 years old, as tires dry out with time and the handling, especially in the rain, may be compromised.
