Got a new to me 2004 Road King (yippee!). It's going to need a new rear tire come spring.

I hope to do lots of scenic riding, which will entail a fair bit of dirt and gravel roads, as well other places I probably shouldn't be getting a Road King into.

I'm looking for input on tires that will do this well. Drive on dirt roads, even fire roads, while behaving reasonably well on pavement. Interstate slogs are not what I expect to do much of.

I'm rather used to the stock type Dunlops, I've run them on other bikes, and they do overall work well. They are ok on dirt roads, but dance and slide and skitter a lot on gravel.

And if any of you have dark sided (car tired) one of these earlier narrow rimmed Road Kings, I'd be curious to hear about it, in detail. I can see the other thread, but that's the later wider rimmed model. Over on the dark side reference table, there's little on the earlier model, and I'm kinda dubious about what I do see there with regards to the narrow wheel.

 

I go down 3 miles of gravel every time I go in and out of my place. The stock dunnies have done just fine. Dance around a little but it's a street tire.

 

Interesting problem! Dual purpose tyres don't seem to be available in suitable sizes, which means you may be restricted to conventional road tyres. It comes down to a bit of experimenting, or sticking with what you know. The European brands like Avon and Continental may give better grip in all circumstances, but that is not certain. You may just have to learn to broadslide......

 

I can find some dual sport tires that will fit. But they are right light weight tires for a Road King, and would have me giving up more pavement ability than I'd like to give up. The Duro H904 seems like the best of the bunch, near as I can tell.

The classic old Dunlop types have a lot of tread lips, which do an ok job on dirt roads to keep me going. That's why when I look at the various others, I see hardly any tread to grip a dirt or gravel road. Plus rain channeling. I really don't like hydroplaning a bike.

The only other tire that fits that I've found so far and has a tread pattern that seems reasonably suited is the Conti Milestone. Rather reminscent of the Dunlop tread patterns. It might be able to dig into the dirt and gravel enough to be stable, while still handling pavement and rain with aplomb.

 

Aplomb!

I always get concerned when I read stuff like "Improved 2012 compound for even more mileage on the same grip level", on the Conti website. Suggests they are not designed to be used, but conserved! Tread pattern is interesting.

 

I would use caution when deciding on an "Off Road" tire for limited use on a big scooter ... What comes to mind is how much would you be giving up in the way of durability and handling when you were using this scooter on paved roads ( which would probably be most of the time ) ... Just my .02 cents worth Brother from an old dirt bike rider.

 

Three miles of dirt road to get to pavement every time I leave my house. My stock tires have always worked just fine.

 

Not looking for a dirt bike tire. Just looking for input/experience from others on what tires they've found to handle dirt and gravel roads reasonably well.

Not willing to lose pavement riding abilities at all. Just want to find out what you all have observed working well (or not well for that matter) when bombing down dirt and gravel roads.

 

Not that I'm planning anything like what he does, but it's a fun read about getting way off the beaten path on a Road King.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=603979

 

That's it then, we don't need 'dirt' tyres!