Yes! I have owned Harleys since the 70s, when they came on Goodyears. I've tried many brands, but always end up with them. I have a 130 Venom on the front and 140 on the rear of my 1990 Glide.

We have recently been on a tour from the UK to Slovakia, just over 2,500 miles return, with 17 BMWs! We had by far the oldest bike and gave a good account of Harleys. Bike handled a dream (it has a few modifications to help it) and kept pace with them all. Most of the route was on minor roads with plenty of tight bends and other handling challenges.

Venoms may not give the high mileages some riders seem to expect, but they give excellent grip in all weathers and superb handling. Check Avon's website, to get the right tyre pressures. They are often a little higher than H-D factory recommended.

On that trip, fully laden, I used 44 psi front, 50 rear.

 

If you want your tires to last longer then don't ride as much. Seriously, tires are meant to wear out, in order to make them last longer you need to inflate them to the right pressure and ensure your alignment is correct. Tire pressure and proper load range are critical to tire life, Avons run higher tire pressure than the stock dunlops that came on your Harley. Check out their site for reccomended tire sizes and pressures, if you want to go wider they can help you there too. A slight bit of misalignment will "scrub" rubber off of your tires. The only way that manufactures can make a tire last longer is to make them harder. That is dangerous. If you hold out your hand, palm up you have about the area of rubber that seperates your behind from the asphalt. I personnaly want the softest, grippyest (is that a word??) tires I can get so that I can stop or manuver if I have too. Even the most novice rider can feel the difference between a worn out set of tires and a new set.
Personally we use and reccomend Avon tires, mostly Venoms and our customers love them. They seem to balance out with less weight than the other brands too. Just my two cents worth, hope this helps.
P.S with a .060 rear sprocket spacer you can get a 150 on the rear of most '90's FLH's.

 

I was running Avon Venoms on my '96 FLHTC. Got about 11,500 out of them and had a blow out on US 441 comming out of Gatlinburg. I checked the tires before I left and thought they were still pretty decent. 1836 miles on this trip and just glad it didnt happen on the Dragon the day before. I cant figure out how to attach photos but If you saw this tire you would cringe. I know I thanked me spirits for watching me. Got a new set of Dunlops from the dealer in Pigeon Forge where we were towed in to.

 

That's somewhat typical of most brands of tyres. Not the blow-out but they seem to "hang in there" well toward the last 25% or their life and then all of a sudden they go away in a hurry. So did you get D402's or waht?

To do attachments, you click on the "advanced" icon at the bottom of the text box and scroll down to "manage attachments." Whatever photo(s) you upload at that time will be attached to the same post.

 

I've got Continental Milestones front and rear on an 89 Ultra. Got them last year, and now have a little over 9,000 on them and they are still going strong.

 

Do you know what the date stamp was on those tires??

 

Is there a date-related issue with them? I didn't ride to work this AM so won't be able to look at them until tonight. Where is there a date stamp on them?

 

Sorry the message was meant for Classic Eagle.

 

I had the D402F Wide Whites put on. I like the wides on my bagger. The Venoms wore through all 5 cords when it blew out. Now I know that its my fault for letting them get that bad. When I inspected my tires before the road trip, there was still plenty rubber and some rain groove left. So I thought we would make this trip. When I saw that tire when the mechanic called me, I darned near s#*t myself. I think somewhere during the 1800++ miles we rode, the asphalt ate them up. I would never have set out on any journy with a tire like that. And to think that we were on the Dragon just the day before. I didnt see a date stamp on the Venoms. I havnt checked the D402's yet. The Avons were put on a couple years ago and had somewhere in the high 11,000+ miles. Front one was good but showing some slight cracks between the tread so I had both replaced. I'll deffinetly be paying more attention now. Im on the wall of shame at Pigeon Forge Harley for that tire. And rightly so for that matter. They all took pics of it.

 

Dude!! I dont doubt you checked those tires before leaving, but that tire is whiped out, no tread at all in the center. I'd expect it to be 5k past its usable limit.. They do wear quickly after 50%, but I'll make sure to check mine much more often..