Some of you may remember from my previous post about swapping out to 18" rims front and back and only getting about 2500-3000 Miles of use off the Avon AV-23 that came with the rims. I purchased these from Fat Baggers at Myrtle beach bike week. I got in touch with Fat Baggers and they said they couldn't do anything about the tire but the tire wear sounded unusual but I felt like they thought I was doing burn outs which I have never done on the Street glide. They got in touch with Avon and Avon wanted to see the tire before they could do any kind of warranty on it. The outside of the tire tread was almost a purple color which looked unusual and Fat Baggers said the tire just didn't look right. All they offered was to sell me another tire(full retail) but I opted to buy on local a lot cheaper. I went with a Avon Venom so it matched the front. Well, after 6 weeks I found out Avon pretty much said it was normal which is fine by me but I am not 2k miles later and the venom is pretty much shot, its not in the cord yet but it won't be long. The bike is properly aligned checked by both the dealer and a independent shop. I now have a set of Metzler ME880's on order and will never buy another set of Avons for any bike I own.

I am pretty disappointed with the performance of the avon tires, I have heard a lot of people say they are good but wearing out around 2500 miles and Avon saying that is normal tire wear is unacceptable by me. I have run Metzlers in the past and really liked the performance and tire wear was as good as stock dunnies if not better. So if you are looking at Avons I wouldn't recommend them at. Just thought I would share my experience. Ride safe.

 

The spelling police are on the prowl so tread (no pun intended) lightly. This is the info that i look for in this forum. I will make a note when its tire time. Thank you for sharing that. Nice to hear about companies who don't stand behind their product. A little customer service goes a long way and a little customer porkin goes on forever.

 

BadX
Looks like the tread on your front tire would tend totake water from the out side of the tread and push it to the center of the tread. How des the ire handle in the rain?

 

Had a VTX 1800c before my SG .Had great luck with Avons two different sets 14000 miles plus. Ran the VenomR models .Go figure. Jrsess

 

I have Avons on my Ultra and have over 7500 them and have no problems or excessive wear.I did3000 of those mileson a trip riding 2-up with full luggage and pulling a trailer. But mine are stock 16" rims. Another thing to think about is tire pressure.

 

Got vemons on my Lowrider Good Tire no wear issues what so ever...They do require more pressure than other tires though.

 

On myother bike, a Honda Valkyrie, Avons get either great reviews, or "they suck" reviews.

I never was able to get a pair on where one didn't wobble at low speeds or have a hop-hop-hop to it from being out of round. I finally landed on Metzler 880s and have never looked back. I'm hoping that my rear 2nd rear Dunlop is ready for replacement when my front 1st Dunlop is, and I'll swap both out to a set of the Metz 880s.

The Metz look very similar to the Avon from a tread and profile perspective and get better mileage that the Dunlops.

 

Like I said, I had always heard that the Avons were better than stock dunnies but my experiance with them is less than favorable. I am not sure why they wore out so quickly. I have talked with other guys with 18" rims that are running Metzlers and aren't having any tire wear issues. Only thing I can figure is they are using to soft of a compond on the rear tires. The front tire has about 5k miles on it and its about half worn. I don't ride two up often so I know its not a weight issue on the rear wearing the tire out. This second tire wearing out this quick really has me discouraged.

 

on a trip down to fla. via deal's gap i stopped at a dealer in n.c. and i asked about the difference between tires and if they would improve my handling on my 07 street glide ..

the response was that given the chassis and the dynamics of the bike the tires that come stock ,ie dunlops will be just as good as the others and that the others have a faster wear factor and for this you do not really gain anything.ie metzelers,avons etc...

now , if we are talking about ducatis or other sports bikes,yes ,the lean angle and handling will be improved from one tire to the other .
i have done this many times on my sport bikes and of course you can tell the difference between the pilots, diablos or whatever ...but the actual difference that you feel between top rated tires with soft rubber compounds in a sports bike can only be felt at 9/10 ths.or so

therefore ,shopping around for better tires for a touring bike from harley is an exercise in futility given the handling dynamics of the bike.
yes there may be a difference in the rain or following groves on the road ,ect....but marginal if any on a performance basis

thus, even if you buy and install a very soft rubber compound tire on a touring bike from hd all you are really doing is wasting money.
the bike will not handle any better nor lean into the curve any better , it is limited by the chassis and suspension.

if it were say an rt from bmw ,then you will notice the difference . but then this is a sports touring bike and harley does not make any of thiese with the possible exception of a buell and here ,yes you will notice the difference.

so, for regular street riding and even doing deal's gap which i have done as flat out as icould on my street glide to the point of wearing out the floorboards to the extreme the oe dunlops are fine otherwise i would not be here now.
,