Well my rear tire will be needing replacing soon.
I have a 2011 StreetGlide with the 180 rear tire.
My question is can I go up to a 200 or should I stick with a 180?
I'm sure if you can run a 200 then most likely a few are doing it so please reply with your thoughts.
Thanks, Bill

 

I picked up a used set of agitators 18'' rear, 19'' front, that already had rubber on them. the rear was a 200. looked badass. I rode it for a while, then when I traded the bike in, I put them on the wife's bike (mine came with new agitators ). from all the reading that I did, it was not recommended to put that width of a tire on that (relatively) skinny rim. I hadn't read or heard of any problems, but I didn't want to take the chance with my wife so I had the rear tire switched back out to the stock rubber.

one really important thing to note, the 200 was a softail tire, so the load rating was lower, and it was not the multi tread compound, so life would have been less. plus, it would have been a lot more expensive to replace with a like size tire.

 

If you're still running a 16" rear, then I don't recommend it until another company comes out with a 200 series tire other than Metzler. I ran the 200 series Metzler and had significant wobble on long slow curves and occasionally on straight aways between 80-85+. Mine frustrated me to the point that on the way back from Miami, I stopped at the Daytona HD and had them put a stock size back on; I've had no problems since then. The Metzler 880 has a lower load rating so the sidewall isn't as stiff and resulted in wobble. You can run a couple of pounds more pressure but that brings about different issues with wear. *Yes, everything had previously been checked to see if other issues caused the wobble...it was definitely that tire and its lower load rating.

 

Just my opinion but I prefer the skinnier tire. Wide tires look good but it's easier to lean the bike into corners with the thinner tire. As the wider tires wear, they get flat on the bottom and it makes it even harder to lean it into a turn. I can actually feel it roll over the edge on my 2013 with stock tires.

I laugh about wide tires after reading an article written by a very old school biker/mechanic that said "a wide tire does nothing to compensate for the size of your &$%*." Always makes me think of those custom choppers with the extremely wide tires. Almost looks like you could stop without putting a foot down.

It depends on what's important to you. I won't deny that wide tires look very cool but I personally prefer function over form.

 

Since wider isn't better, would more narrow be a problem? Like at 160/65/16 (Not sure if that size is even made).

 

I don't think narrower has any merit. Some Harley owners are keen to improve their street cred with a wider tyre, but if the rim isn't the correct match then the tyre won't be well supported on the rim, hence bigbluewolf's experience. Doing the opposite can also have consequences, if the bead of the tyre doesn't sit on the rim correctly. The MoCo works with it's tyre suppliers and also does extensive development testing to confirm such things, so we can reasonably expect that the stock size is up to the job!

 

you have as much room as there is between the belt and the tire that's on it now.