Pirelli Night Dragons should be one of the options as well.

Running Metzler ME880 for while now, but will be making the switch soon over to Pirelli. Tire still breaks loose pretty good w/ my Metlerz's. I've heard the mileage suffers on the Night Dragons, but grip is unbelievable.

 

Avon Cobras here too. Very grippy. Feels confident in the rain or loose stuff. I have had dunlops and metzler as well. Wasn't a huge fan of the dunlops, they had a cupping issue. The Metz were very good but burn up pretty quick.

 

I tried Avon Cobra after I wore out the factory Dunlop. I'm completely sold on the Cobra's. Excellent grip wet or dry, predictable on tar snakes, and acceptable wear. Very important to follow tire pressure Avon recommends. Which is higher than HD recommends, and varies with application. I typically run 41/46 psi, which is their 2-up light recommendation with good results in wear / performance.

http://www.avonmoto.com/tech/tire-pressure-guidelines

 

Surprised no one has mentioned the Commander II's? I read alot of positive reviews so I went with a set. Not enough miles to offer my opinion yet.

 

My complaint with the cobras is that I can't seem to find radials. I have friends that have them on their metric cruisers and they say the radials are really nice.
Still very good tires in my opinion.

 

They worked well for me on the race track, even in the rain.

But, the OP wanted the stickiest possible tires, regardless of all other considerations. The Commander II's are not that.

 

+1 on what CoolHawg said!! The factory ones are over-priced and I'm on my second front tire in 10K.. Both to cupping. Moving to a Metzler today; it's on the UPS truck!! It was 1/2 the price and I've heard amazing things.. I'll update in a week or two after having rode it a bit.

Oh, and as far as the back tire goes, they don't last! I have 1K on my new rear, and it looks 1/2 bald!

Now as far as someone else stated. They feel fine for me in the sticksion arena, however I've felt much better grip with prior tires.


-G

 

I went through two 200mm Night Dragons on my 06RG, about 4,500 miles each. Outstanding wet weather traction but the cost was over $250 each. Went darkside and found the same performance for 4 times the tire life and less than half the cost. Use Ride On to balance them.

 

I went with radial Metzler prior to riding to Sturgis. 3000 miles later - the rear was toasted. Talking to the Metzler rep he said out heavy motorcycles need bias ply and not radial. It was a good conversation. He stated everyone has radials on their car - but the dynamics of the heavier motorcycles the bias ply is the superior construction.

Since the tire instal place never called after two attempts - I switched to dunlops. The reality is they're fine and every Harley Davidson dealer has em. My issue is the agitator wheels -18" front. I went 18" for the rubber increase. Now I see you can't get em. 19" appears the standard.

I'm curious about Avon now.

 

I have no issues with the newer dual compound Dunlop tires. I just refuse to pay the Harley price and go with the Dunlop Elites.