About 1000 miles or so ago I ordered a set of Avon tires for my bagger and put on a new front (used my buddy's tire changer in his garage) - figured I'd wait until the rear was fully shagged before changing it, even tho it's a Dunlop. I've heard you're not supposed to mix tire brands, but it's not like I'm doing track days on my Road King, and they're both round and black, so what the heck, right?

First thing I noticed was how quickly the Red Sled turned compared to the old tire. Man, it was like it was on rails - just think about turning and away she goes. Was kinda weird at first, but I figured I'd get used to it. And after a few hundred miles I was getting used to it - kinda fun to throw around through the twisties.

So yesterday on our ride about a dozen of us were all parked for a break along the side of the road, and my buddy is looking at my bike and asks me why I've got a rear tire mounted up front. And I'm like - "**** off - you're just jealous because I've got cool new Avons and you're on the old stuff."

Well as it turns out he was right - he had the same tires and he recognized the tread pattern on my front - and it matched the pattern on his rear. We looked at the sidewall and sure enough - it said 'rear.' When I grabbed the tire from the shipment I think I just eyeballed them both and picked the one that looked taller/narrower figuring it was the MT90 front, not the 140 rear. Doh!

Anyway, it's been kind of an interesting, if unintended, experiment, riding with an Avon 140 Venom front and a pretty used up Dunlop D402 rear. Bike handles great - who knew?? I'll go back and swap things around and put on the new front this week. Will be interesting to see how she feels then.

Oh well - live and learn. But you know what? Don't get too worked up about runing different tire brands. They're round. They're black. As long as they're roughly the correct rim size/diameter you should be fine.

 

I have been running mine with the stock dunlop on the front and a Pirelli Night Dragon on the rear for over a year now. I had figured when the front needed to be replaced I would change it with a Pirelli also. No handling issues what so ever, live and learn
BTW there are people out there that will run a motorcycle tire on the front and a car tire on the rear,....how mixed up is that?

 

The way I understand it is the manufacturer doesn't matter as long as thay have the same speed rating.

 

In my experience, anything will handle better than Dunlops. Mixing? Well I wouldn't mix radial and bias, but brands, no big deal. Most brands use different tread patterns for their fronts and rears anyway. My $.02

 

Just don't put a front on the rear. They usually aren't made to handle the torque.

 

well, live and learn, it's always good to learn the easy way.

 

I have heard of guys running two rear tires on their bobbers before.

 

from what I've read...
Read tires are designed to handle the load of accelration, while the load design of a front tire is turning, and stopping.... seems to me, I read to put a (modern) rear tire on the bike's front... you are supposed to reverse the rotation.

 

I'll add some to the confusion... It's okay to run a radial on the rear and a bias ply on the front.
It's not okay to run a radial on the front with a bias ply on the rear.
You can run both radial and of course, you can run both bias ply.
Rear tires are engineered for the rear and should not be used for front application.
Front, well, they're engineered for use on the front, and shouldn't be used on the rear.
Fun... huh?

 

OK, who's gonna step in with the facts here, I kinda thought as long as the rotation was correct, no prob. Both tires are at an angle in the turns. Dressers use the same tires front and rear? or no? Like to learn more about this.