what is the difference between the 402 dunlops with the harley logo and the 404 without and half the price. all the honda and yamaha dealers sell the 404 for cruisers. is there any difference?
Tom

 

The 404 is made in Japan, supposedly to Dunlop standards. The 402 is made in the USA.

I put a 404 on the rear of the wife's Heritage because one of the guys at the dealership told me that there was no difference. She got about 5,000 miles out of that tire, and she is not hard on things at all. She had gotten about 10,500 out of the 402 that had previously been on the bike, and it still had some tread.

I would not get 404's again. You can get a real good deal on tires from American Motorcycle Tire. The are good people to deal with, they have good prices, and prompt shipment.

Hope this helps

Regards,

Bill

 

I was told today buy a bike shop owner that there was NO
difference between the 402 and 404 other than the Harley Davidson name and the price.

 

I was curious about that myself. Ready for some new tires and came across some deals on ebay but were 404's. Maybe better off to buy OE.

 

If you believe there is no difference, look at the side of the tire. The 404 says made in Japan, the 402 says made in the USA.

I was told by my HD Dealer that there was no difference, but personal experience has shown that there is about 6,000 miles difference in wear between the two..

Regards,

Bill

 

I have no doubt that you knowledge and experience with the difference on the tires is true. I was only repeating what someone told me.

 

Try the 491 type instead of the HD moniker tires. I get the same mileage from them as the 402, and usually pay less than $90 per tire. I don't need to support HD to the extent of $30-50 a tire so I can point to their name on it and say,"Wow, I gots a real HD tire!"

 

What size tires was that? I noticed a huge difference in tire wear between the 130s, 140s and 150s, all Dunlop 402s. I'm assuming different compounds. I got 11,300 out of the original 130 that came on the back of my bike. I bounced back and forth between 140s and 150s and got between 5k and 8k, depending on finances and how deep into the cord I wanted to go. I did try a 404 off eBay a couple of years ago, got maybe 6k out of it.
I got tired of shelling out the cash and started mounting them myself and using a liquid balancer (works much better than weights) and this last set is some cheap Chin Sengs or something like that. Could only get a 130 for the rear. $75 for both. So far they are surprisingly good tires. I'm very impressed with them. Much better handling, wet and dry, than the Dunlops. I put them on a couple of months ago and only have about 3k on them, but no noticeable tire wear. Still waiting to see how they hold up for the long haul. If I can get 6 or 8k out of them they'll be worth it. But I think they'll surpass that by a longshot.
But as far as 402s vs 404s, I got pretty low mileage out of both. but the only direct comparison I had was with 140s.
I've heard that since the stock sizes are getting fatter they're going with firmer compounds in the 140s and 150s now for better tread life. Don't know if that's just OEM tires or the 404s too.

 

Dunlops are great tires! They have a wide selection with great tread patterns for wet weather!

 

You will never know just how crummy the Dunlops are until you try Metzeler or Avon. They could give Dunlops away for free and I wouldn't use them.