As I guess is normal, my rear tire is showing significant wear and the front is not. Therefore the rear needs to go first. I've read a lot about tire options and a buddy of mine just replaced both tires on his LowRider with Metzeler 880's and goes on and on about how good they ride and what a difference they've made over the stock Dunlops. He didn't need a front tire either but went ahead and replaced both anyway. Anyway, even before he bought Metzelers, I had pretty much made up my mind that they are what I want when I need new tires. Just curious, is it common to replace the rear tire with one brand while still running another up front? Any downside to doing this as long as I don't care that they don't say the same thing on the sidewall?

I've been told, on average, you should expect a rear tire to last about 10K miles. But, then I've read several posts on here where some don't even get 5K before it's worn out. I'm at 6200 and the bike just recently passed inspection but I can tell it's not going to make it to 10K (might have something to do with my fat ****). What is really driving me though is that I want to get my new chrome pulley cover installed and the rear wheel needs to be removed for that anyway. On top of that, the dealer is running a tire install special this month and I also have a $50 labor credit coupon good through the end of next month. However, I don't want to replace the front tire right away because it has so much wear left in it.

Any thoughts?

 

The stock front tire loves to track grooves in the road - probably because of the groove that runs right down the middle of the tire.

you will not have this problem with the Metzeler, IMHO it is a significantly better front tire than stock.

It is a difficult decision to take off a tire with plenty of meat left on it, in my case I was changing out the front wheel, so I replaced the tire at the same time - only 3500 on the stocker - but I'm still glad I did it.

 

Back goes @ 10k, front lasted til 15k. Did back tire/brakes @ same time. Hate to remove a tire twice for maintenance issue. Mix/match shouldn't be a problem.

 

I am on my 3rd or 4th rear dunlop with a front metz with no ill feelings.Reason went back to dunlop on rear. Metz rear tire went up bout 50 bux.Love the way metz handles but wasnt gettin any more miles out of a rear then a dunlop get anywheres from 5200 to 6500 out of a rear.Front metz currently has over 20k and no cupping where every dunlop front I have run regardless of bike cups terrible. When time for a new front Ill bite the bullit and buy a metz for front again money ahead for the front.

 

I assume the Screamin Eagle 180 tire is a Dunlop right? Who out there is running a 180 on a dyna without installing any extra hardware or brackets? I hear the180 SE "kit" they sell is BS and not necessary to run a 180 out back.

 

I'm not wealthy or wasteful enough to throw away a good tire. I always get at least 15K out of a rear tire. The reason a lot of guys get poor tire mileage is putting too much air in the tires, or never checking the pressure. Motorcycle tires run on just a thin area of rubber down the middle of the tire the vast majority of the time, so they are more sensitive to pressure. My book says to run 30 psi front and 36 rear. The best tires I ever ran were Dunlop 491s, which are no longer made.
As long as you don't mix bias ply with a radial you can mix tire brands.

 

I am a stickler on air pressure the tires that are offered in a 160 series are soft compound.Also you can run a radial rear and bias front but not vice versa

 

I keep the pressure checked and adjusted (rear) for 1-up vs. 2-up riding and there's no way my stock dunlop rear is going 10k, much less 15k.

I just checked under my fenders and can't figure out, for the life of me, why there is a "kit" to run a 180 tire on a stock dyna rim. If a 180 will fit my rim, the fender and under fender wiring seems to have plenty of clearance without adding any "kit". I've been told it's BS and what I'm seeing and feeling under there seems to back that up. Any thoughts?

 

The very thing that brought me to this forum in the first place fxdc.

First... the Screamin Eacle CVO Dyna uses a Dunlop 170 not a 180. Guess HD couldnt see their way through to mount a 180 on their top of the line Dyna.. so CVO owners would find something to upgrade to if they so chose and HD could make some more $$$ off of them.

Second... I have read many threads on here about people mounting the 180 tire w/ no problems without the kit. Personally I chose to order the tire separately from a Surdyke HD and saved a bunch,I also ordered the other part of the "kit" which is a set of inner "plates"that supposidlyallowfor the safe installation of the wide tire on the rear. Cheaper to do it this way as opposed to buying the kit believe it or not.

Lastly... I dont know how these fellas ran the 180 without the inner fender plates cause after I had it all put together,there was next to NO room between the inner fender and the wall of the tire WITH the new inner plate kit installed.

Good luck

I also posted a thread on this on here called "180 wide tire issue solved"

 

Frank, in your experience, what do those inner plates seem to do? Do they just seal everything off from possibly getting rubbed - like the wires, etc? What I was saying is that all my wiring and everything is tucked as close to the fender as it can get already and there doesn't seem to be anything else that would need to be moved are guarded in order to run a wider tire on my bike. A few months after I got my bike, the signal light wires on one side of my fender came out of the retaining clip and got rubbed in two. So, I spliced it and then, when I deinstalled my rigid sideplates and installed the detachable ones, I made sure to tuck everything safely away and secure so that it wouldn't happen again. So, I'm having a hard time understanding why I'd need something under there that actually takes up more room in order to run a bigger tire. I have also seen several people that say they put on a 180 without the "kit" and ran fine and one of those is someone who's opinion I trust greatly due to his experience and knowledge. However, I'm not comfortable installing a tubed tire on my own and I have a feeling if I go to the dealer and ask for the SE 180 tire, they are going to push the kit on me. I want to at least be able to argue against it unless I, in fact, really need it for some reason.