I just completed some extensive research on all of the "wider than 160" tire options available for my '06 Dyna Street Bob. I too was going to go with the Perelli Dragons untill I found out that they are basically the same compound as the Dunlop's H-D Screamin Eagle 180 that I was running. I went to the Harley 180 wide tire kit last year....that's right I said last year!!! I don't do burn outs and that tire didn't last long AT ALL and I rode it down to the cords!!! (Yes, always proper inflation.)

Unless you plan on draging your pegs everywhere you go...these tires are WAY too expensive to not last any longer than it did. I know,..softer compound...shorter life...but still!

Pirelli and Metzler are the same company. I talked with the Tec guy last week and he told me that the compound for the Dragons 180 and the Dunlop 180 SE are very similar and that if I wanted longer tread life, to go with the Metz 880.

KNOW THIS THOUGH.... Metzler does not make a 180 for the stock Dyna rim, (which is where I wanted to stay), but they do make a 170......HOWEVER....once I had the Metz 170mm mounted, it looks as wide as the stock Dunlop 160!

If you want to stay with the stock rims and matching brands and tread design.. and go up from stock on the size... your only options are the Dunlops or the Pirelli/Metzlers.

If you were compairing: 170mm Dunlops tread tread lays "flatter" or "wider" looking, while the 170mm Metzler's is more "rounded" or "narrower" looking.

I now have the Metzler 170 on the rear and went up to a 110 on the front and really like the look. Front now looks similar to a Fat Bob or C Bones.

Word to the wise.....many of these tires are directional....before you leave your shop, make sure they are mounted in the right direction. There is usually an arrow indicating it on the side wall.

Next go round, I am going to get a Softail wider rear rim and go back up in size on the tire since I will have more tire options with the wider rim.

Hope this info helps.

 

Thanks for the info. I had just come to the same conclusions. This will be my 1st tire change right now at ~7500 miles. I will get maybe June out of the existing rear tire which will put me at 1 year.

I'm going with Dunlops: 180 rear / 110 front on my stock mag wheels.

Have you noticed any handling differences positive or negative?

Steve

 

I had the Metzlers before on a Suzuki Intruder and they were great. The Metzler performs best once it has some heat in it. The Dyna being heavier, heats the Metzlers up sooner so they perform better on the Harley, even more than they did on the Zuki.

By the way, something else I forgot to add: I REEEEAAALLY wanted to go with the new Dunlop 407's since they are the new for 2009 milti-compound tire. This would be the best of both worlds since the compound in the center is like the Metzlers and the compound on the side of the tread, (where most of the cornering is done), is like the Screamin Eagles or Pirelli Dragons! However, the new D407 only is available in a 90mm front, and I don't like the skinny front tire look, like is on the Softails and Rockers.

I wanted to stay with the same tire and tread combo for front and back, so this won't be an option till they make a 100mm or 110mm for my front, in the D407.

 

Thanks for research.........I got a 180 SE tire for $112 from HD dealer selling leftovers on Ebay, last tire listed. see how long it lasts, last 160 Dunlop HD lasted arounf 7k miles.

 

can you put a 180 on the bikee without the kit? what is in the kit?

 

The Pirelli has a 8% larger contact patch than any other cruiser tire and cheaper than the SE 180. The Metz 170 is a radial so you should match front and rear radials, just my opinion. I did not change my riding style and I replaced my O.E. Dunlop K591 with the same tire and got slightly more than half the mileage as the O.E. one, I will say I felt the replacement K591 had better grip than the O.E.? It is my experience that O.E tires are always a longer lasting compound than the replacement, even of the same exact tire. I would like to know if anyone is getting the same mileage out of a replacement K591 as their stock one?

I replaced the O.E. K591 with the same because the front tire had plenty of tread life left and I wanted to match fronts and rears. However, the front tire never wanted to stick and I have never really felt confident pushing it into the corners, even after replacing the rear, so my advice would be to replace both the front and rear when the O.E. rear wears out, I think my bike would have handled much better had I replaced both with new dunlops and I don't think you should judge a replacement set of dunlops with the the handling of the O.E. dunlops. Just my opinion.

I too was looking into the D407 with the dual compound, not sure what bike you have, but they don't make it in a 17" period and Dunlop told me they were not going to go back and make a version to fit the older bikes, stupid, they could sell a lot of those tires!

Note; I thought I had 1K left on my rear and took a 135 mi rip today and my rear is now 1/32 from the wear bar so I have about one more 130 mi. run left in it and I'll trying out the Pirellis sooner than I thought.

CB

 

Not to disagree with you, but check this link:

http://www.dunlopmotorcycle.com/tire...ire.asp?id=107

Dunlop DOES make a 407 for the rear! It's a 170/60/17 for your 4.5" Dyna rim. Part# 3029-84. It's the only one, and the very one I wanted to go with...but they didn't make one for my front in the size I wanted.

 

I don't know what I did, but I had 11K on my SE 180 and still had about another 1K left before I hit the wear indicator. I changed over the the Metzler 880 we will see how long that one lasts. But you are right HD is the only company that makes a 17" rim so the tire options are limited. I ended up changing out the rims so still able to keep the 180 rear.

 

This is a radial, has a thin white stripe and it is new since I talked with Dunlop, bastards misled me. So, I stand corrected. Interesting option, something to look into. The SE FXDSE ran Front: MH/90-21 Rear: 170/60R17 78H with mags. I guess the Bias Radial issue is moot these days and I always thought you were not supposed to run a radial on a spoke or a tube, but I guess there are radial tubes. Well, when I use up this next set there will probably be even more options.
CB

 

The sport bikes have 17" wheels...check out their tire options (and the load rating).