Those OE Dunlops are one of the stiffest, & worse the older they get.
Yes they are, but....
For ***** and giggles after Cos started this thread, I went into my tire pile and found a Dunlop on a rim, and the date code on the tire was 2015, over 9 yrs old.
I wanted to see how difficult it would be to strip and remount that old tire. It wasn't bad at all. In fact, I did it twice. The sidewall was indeed stiff. The only bit of difficulty was pulling one side of the sidewall over the back end of the duck, but one tire clamp and me pressing down made it easily doable. On an old, stiff tire.
I'm familiar with my machine, as I'm sure Steve is. It's 100% knowing each step and not being in a hurry.
Okay, I took Ginger for the first ride today. Man it is absolutely gorgeous weather here in the Carolina's.
My first observation was in the shop on my concrete floor. Man these are sticky noisy. I can turn the front tire on the Dunlops and not much resistance. These things sound like dragging you finger nails down a chalk board.
The second observation was all the gravel they were picking up as I rode out the driveway. Like someone throwing gravel at me on the underside of the fenders. I was not expecting this at all looking at the tread pattern.
Just another example of a new tire vs a well worn tire.
I did a 15 mile test ride that started out on two lanes with 55 mph speeds. First impressions were excellent. They are so sticky that it is clearly accelerating faster.
I took it easy just making sure everything felt right, and everything was operating correctly.
I'm very happy to report that the balance it spot on. I'm very proud of that. I circled back and jumped on I-40 and ran her up.to 75 mph and was at the next exit too quickly. Traffic is very heavy out today so I did not get crazy.
Making the turn back on I-40 for a couple of more miles I was able to run up to 80 mph and still just as smooth as glass. Before returning home I hit a parking lot and made a couple of circles.
I look forward to reporting back when I get a few thousand miles on these. I'm not trashing Dunlop in any way. I have ran nothing but Dunlop on 6 touring bikes now over 16 year and 160k miles. I have never had any complaints. But the question is whether they are the best, is there something better? For me I am just ready to experiment and see first hand how other brands stack up. Time will tell.
I have ran a lot of those Commander 2 and 3's, have never had any bad things to say about them.
I replace my stocks with the C3's on my last bike. (17). I could tell the C3's rode much nicer immediately. I've heard they're not as good in wet conditions, but I dont get stupid when the roads are wet, so never experienced anything adverse running them, The only other thing I'll say about them is I dont think I would get the mileage out of them like I did the dunlops. Makes sense though, since I think the C3's are a touch softer.
I got 17k our of my 17's stock tires, when I traded it in, af 24k it looked like there was maybe another 3 or 4k miles left on them.
Now my 20 has 14k on the stock tires and just about due for another set. I'll most likely go with the C3's again.
Okay, I took Ginger for the first ride today. Man it is absolutely gorgeous weather here in the Carolina's.
My first observation was in the shop on my concrete floor. Man these are sticky noisy. I can turn the front tire on the Dunlops and not much resistance. These things sound like dragging you finger nails down a chalk board.
The second observation was all the gravel they were picking up as I rode out the driveway. Like someone throwing gravel at me on the underside of the fenders. I was not expecting this at all looking at the tread pattern.
Just another example of a new tire vs a well worn tire.
I did a 15 mile test ride that started out on two lanes with 55 mph speeds. First impressions were excellent. They are so sticky that it is clearly accelerating faster.
I took it easy just making sure everything felt right, and everything was operating correctly.
I'm very happy to report that the balance it spot on. I'm very proud of that. I circled back and jumped on I-40 and ran her up.to 75 mph and was at the next exit too quickly. Traffic is very heavy out today so I did not get crazy.
Making the turn back on I-40 for a couple of more miles I was able to run up to 80 mph and still just as smooth as glass. Before returning home I hit a parking lot and made a couple of circles.
I look forward to reporting back when I get a few thousand miles on these. I'm not trashing Dunlop in any way. I have ran nothing but Dunlop on 6 touring bikes now over 16 year and 160k miles. I have never had any complaints. But the question is whether they are the best, is there something better? For me I am just ready to experiment and see first hand how other brands stack up. Time will tell.
Someone on the internet has had issues with every brand tire available. Someone has had excellent results with every brand tire available.
I found that road construction materials differ from the many regions in the USA.
Good job on the balancing! I went with the Centramatics dynamic balancers on my 2019 FLHTP. Now I just R/R the old and new tires and no need to balance with weights or stuff inside the tires.
09-08-2024, 09:09 PM
