I've been following this thread & other sites with great interest. I'm tired of a new rear tire every 7k. I gathered enough data to have enough hope that the Dunlop Taxi 175R16 would fit & be my best option.
After it arrived from Universal, I took it & the lace rear wheel off my FLSTSCI to 3 local shops. Going rate was about $40 but they all refused to put a CT on a MC rim. Fine, I've changed a lot of tires, I went to Harbor Freight & picked up their mini tire changer for $39. Money well spent.
Holy Crap it's a tall tire! I wish I'd measured the circumference of the Metzler 160/80-16 before I deflated it.
Got the bike on a stand, pulled the shocks, popped the fender on & to my thrilled amazement, the only things it rubbed were the plastic box on the tail light & the one for the ECM. Those are easy to modify & I'm considering swapping to an FLSTN fender.
Funny thing though, there is 1/8" space between the tire & the left fender nuts but 7/16" space on the right. I did a bit more measuring & sure enough, the rim is not centered in the frame. Why the rim is not centered in the frame puzzles me. I'll be replacing the wheel bearings tomorrow, I may find my answer then.

 

The newbees are brainwashed and smarter than us old timers don't you know.Still remember going to junk yards (auto recyclers for the newbees) gathering the old bias VW tires to run on our bikes.Most of us rode like madmen and NoBody ever had tire issues other than wearing them out or flats.We used to drag metal all the time street racing most of us considered anything that touched the ground was a wear item.We never slid off the turns like so many say when you run car tires, that one makes me laugh!
There were no Goldwings back in those days.

 

Not only did we get old VW tires but rims also. I still have a 15" VW rim in my garage that has been dimpled for spokes. I keep considering mounting it to my Dyna hub and going back to a CT like I ran on my Rigid Shovel.

 

My Heritage was the same way - tight side on the left; don't worry about it.
The taller tire should closely correct your speedo stock 5mph fast reading; probably will read +2mph now, if it's the same as the Austone. Your 5th gear will now be about 5-1/2! Might wanna consider torque cams - you can rumble along past the cops and they don't even look at you zipping by; the motor just bubbling.

 

Many of those Goldwingers also know the bad side of car tires and go back to M/T's. I know cause I'm one of them that's tried a c/t on a Goldwing. They do OK on freeway but lousy during low speeds on uneven ground.

 

Really? Because from what I've been reading on the GW forums, they are as much or more passionate about them than the rest of us. Seems to be about 1% of riders overall who go back, and not always for handling reasons. Just my observation from a lot of reading.
http://gl1800riders.com/forums/forum...arkside-Riders
I also work in the cones with mine, and I have a 2"over front end on her - I make the 17-18' circles right with the cops. Can't tell I'm on anything different, but I can't say for the Wings.

 

Something to consider about MTs. The photo below is a 200mm Avon tire I had on my Road Glide for about 8K miles. Notice were the wear is. Right down the center. The edges are pretty much still, almost like new. Now if the concern is about having tread contact when leaning, why aren't the edges worn like the middle is? Second, if I were even to lean the bike over far enough to get wear on the edges, I would have to grind off an awful lot of pegs, crash bar, pipes and bags to do so. Now, if this tire came off a crotch rocket, maybe you would see wear up on the edges.
To go a bit further, notice the wear on the tire makes it pretty much flat across, kinda like a car tire. Finally, notice the little white line in the center of the tire. Yeah, that's the cord, after only 8K miles. Think that would be showing on a car tire that soon?
I'm running Perilli Night Dragon right now, but I doubt I'll make it to June at the rate it's wearing down, and I don't really ride hard. Next tire will be a high end CT 205/55/17. I have a set of RC wheels on the bike.



This is an old rigid frame chopper I had built back in the late 70s with a CT on a 15" rear rim. Notice how the tire will flex enough to keep tread on the ground when the bike is leaning. Remember now, this is a chopper and the amount of lean in curves isn't going to be much more than this. The CT will always have more tread on the ground than the MT.

 

When it comes to the dark side some of those guys at the GW forum are full of poop. I spent a long time over there (6000 posts). I should know I also did a lot of reading over there before I tried the C/T. Many of them will run a C/T and never go back to a M/C just so others won't call them a sissy, or they sell it and don't say anything. Even had one guy who couldn't figure it out, Rocky thought wearing a C/T out in 5000 miles was something to brag about. Poor boy never did catch on about it being about how long you could make a tire last. Any little bump in the road at low speed is your enemy with the C/T.

I'm sure you do on flat even ground, but out in the real world there are on the ground obstacles you won't find on your closed course. Now get out there at low speed on uneven ground and lets see how many times you can dump your ride. You will.

 

I am three years and third CT on my 2009 R3 Rocket, after 2 MCT.
About 1-10% don't like the CT, and go back.
It feels different, no doubt about that.
I ride the twisties of the Appalachans, and push it through the curves. 10,000 miles a year, and not 1000 on interstates. I could ride the interstate to work, not much fun when there is a nice twistie secondary going the same direction.

 

After much testing, measuring, tinkering, adjusting, grinding, soldering etc. I took my Springer out for a test run last night with the new Dunlop Taxi tire on it.
Wow! So far I love it! Smooth & quiet. I ran 80 in the freeway, hard through curvy hills & tossed it around tight in an empty parking lot. I used to drag floorboards a lot, as a challenge even. I could not drag them at all last night. I admit, I'm aware of the mfg mold-compound that takes some miles to wear off so I was not pushing it as hard as I usually do.
As I posted on Riding the Darkside forum, putting this tire on my Softail was not a 'bolt-on' upgrade, it was more of a conversion. I had to remove the plastic box & ridiculous huge connectors from the back of the tombstone taillight & the box under the ECM so that they would not be contacted at full suspension compression. I do a lot of sheet metal fabrication, I used to be an aircraft mechanic; I made a new little pan for the ecm, I can get away with that because my Crossbones Sprung Seat gives me more room. All the bolts for the seat, fender, luggage rack, passenger backrest & saddle bag supports are ground as flush to the inside of the fender as possible. It was a fun project & as I said, I love how it rides. I wish it wasn't storming today!