I was in to see my local Indy today regarding a new rear tire. My current tire has about 8K miles on it and next month I'm heading out on a 3500 mile ride. I've pretty much decided to start the trip out on a new skin so that I don't need to have it done on the road. My Indy says that with the Metz I can do just the rear and don't have to worry about changing out the front (its an OEM Dunlop). He says that with other tires (like Continentals, for example) you shouldn't do it, but that the Metz rear and Dunlop front are compatible. What say you?

 

not perfection but i've had avon on rear and dunlop up front. take your time to get used to the handling after tire installation.

 

no issues here with 2300miles on a metz me880 rear and lop front

 

I would change both. I don't like mixing brands unless it is a question of money. I put the metzers on my fatboy after having dunlops a while ago and the handling is so much better...

 

Thanks folks. I guess I'd spend the money for both if it were necessary, but I'm not into wasting a perfectly good front tire if I don't need to.

 

I'm in the same situation as you. I'm leaving on a 4000+ mile ride in 2 weeks and my rear tire won't make it but my front will. I'm taking my Gold Wing instead of the Street Glide, and Gold Wing tires are very large and expensive! I just put on a new Dunlop Elite 3 in the rear, and I kept my Metz ME880 in front since it has a lot of life still left. The bike handles just fine with the combo. The tread pattern and roll angle of the two tires is very similar. You should be just fine.

Doug

 

Thanks Doug. I'm thinking that I'll get the rear put on in the next week or two and see how it feels. If it feels weird, I'll have the front changed out too, but from what I'm hearing it won't be an issue.

 

I wanted to go with Metz but my front tire still has 50% tread depth, so I replaced the rear with a Dunlop. We don't mix tires on patrol cars due to handling issuesand I'm definately not mixing tires on my bike.

Just my .02 worth

 

I just chged out the rear on my EGC with ME880 and still have Dunlop on front....put 3,000 mi
on it so far and did not notice any problems. I think you'll do fine with that combination. Will
be doing a 6,000 mi trip this summer with that setup.

I've heard that the Metz are alittle softer tire...which provides better grip than the lop's. Not sure
if I'll get the mileage out of it that I got with the D402....but we'll see.

 

RanD.... replace front and back with the same type/brand for best handing... and for peace of mind replace tires in a set...