Don't they use computers and spend 100's of hours designing a tire, tread and compound. I would think that the original tread was created for a specific reason especially for moving water away from the tread to prevent hydroplaning. I would also think that the current tread design was designed to run in one direction. Seems to me just flipping the tread would not be the best solution for designing a safe good handling tire especially in the wet?

Personaly I hope Metzler comes out with a tire for the 09 FLH's. I got 12,000 -14,000 miles on my rear Metzlers and I had 25,000 miles on my front Metzler (and still had tread left) when I traded my Dyna. I could live with that kind of mileage on my FLHX as long as I had a safe dependable tire.

 

I will add that since I put the 408F on mine over 6000 miles ago (About 4000 is interstate), I have had no problesm with it. I have ridden it in some heavy downpours, and though I was not hitting the twisties, it seemed to handle no different. I has not developped any cupping either.