Dfragn - good evenhanded post. only 4 posts on the count? Is that a mistake?
As to MarkT's report well OK that's his take, as well as others. His report structure & verbage for his opinion is his and did seem to have an agenda. It's hard for either side to hide an agenda.
Yeah, I just cut & pasted most of that from several board responses I wrote. Didn't rewrite it or clean it up or otherwise edit to improve the continuity or eliminate redundancy. Probably should have. Those responses were all written in response to some posts raving about the DS. (What peeves me, is posts that rave and aren't balanced, unless somebody pipes up and adds balance.) If I'm in a hurry, or have other things to do, stuff gets missed. I did say, several times, a statement of position that the DS might fit your needs, but it's not for me.
Air pressure is the key. Car tires are designed to carry weight loads of 1.5 - 2 tons or more between 4 of them.
If you or anyone decides to experiment with a CT you've got to find your own operable pressure.
I couldn't find an air pressure, with which I could tolerate the handling, from 18 - 40 lbs.
And disagree with MarkT's 20lbs. of force to keep her healed over. I've dragged pegs at 90 mph and can say it doesn't feel much more than 8-10 lbs., a tad less at lower speeds. But we are all of different physiques.
As I said - I didn't measure it, that was a guess - though I still think that is pretty close. Keep in mind, such pressures probably vary with tire size, inflation pressure, and surely rider weight. No doubt it would be a lot less if I weighed 140#. I don't - I'm twice that. It would be a trick to measure - best done with some kind of recording scale in your hand - don't know if that exists. The countersteer pressure was unacceptable to me, whatever it was.
Although when riding in a group of MC tires I appear to be leaning a degree or two towards the high side.
I have noticed, when riding with DS riders, their bike's lean is always the lean of my bike, plus some additional lean to overcome the shoulder of the wide tire. So in the twisties, their lean movements are mine plus some exagerration. IOW they are throwing it back and forth more than I am, and dragging iron sooner and harder if we are going that fast.
I got hit by at least a 40 mph wind gust and that combined with the surface took me towards the curb lip and beyond that a 2' drop. Yeah, I 'bout stained my shorts, but I controlled it and didn't move me much more then a foot. MC tires would have been affect too. I estimate around 20% less under those circumstances.
My Valk, with a 200 Cobra, isn't affected much at all by high crosswinds. Less so than my Explorer. But that may be relative, as the Wing is positively pummeled by crosswinds - so I get on the Valk, it feels like nothing.
