Me too Larry,,, cept on the last pair,, I bought the coolaid from Mich's commanders II's..

13k on them now and it about time for some new shoes (Both)...

13k is 3K better on the rear than the Lop 401's - which my first 4 went 10k each. but he Mich's are cupping pretty bad both front and rear.

13K on the Mich front is not good at all.. Both the Lops 402s fronts easily went 20K when I changed it them and both still had 3//32'nds left and could have went more..

I do like the Thread design better as the Mich's don't follow road cracks as much and are better on tar snakes.. but I wont go with them again..

was thinking about some 888's this time.. so -- NOW -- I'll be reading more about how they are doing...

my other pick could/might be some Lops new American tour Elites....?????



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Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind I recall hearing a conversation about Metzler having production problems from their plant in Brazil. They said product from their German factory was problem free but be wary of tires from the Brazil factory. I can't speak to the veracity of that claim but perhaps there's a code on the tire that shows its origins.

 

Just found this....
http://xlforum.net/vbportal/forums/a.../t-532396.html

 

I ordered an Avon Cobra today to have installed. I'm going to get this tire sent in to Metzler and see what comes of it and get back with you.

 

I heard there is an issue with the 880 but not the 888...

 

I put a set of ME888's on this spring and with about 2500 miles on them, they still look new and handling is much improved over the stock tires they replaced. Will check the tires tred and pressure more often to hopefully not have this happen..

 

and this tire is a metjeler 880 from the 2002 kawasaki with 2000 mile on it the tire went in sturgis

 

Wow, serious damage. I did have an 880 come apart on me several years ago on my 08 ULtra but it had almost 13K on it so it was time and I didn't think twice about it.

I just put 888's on both my King and her Heritage before Sturgis and 6K later all 4 still look good. I will check them close and report anything. I do check the air pressure weekly as a routine and run a couple psi more in the Metzelers than I did the Dunlops. I had high hopes of them lasting longer than the stock Dunlop's and I had almost 14K on those.

 

I've run Michelin dual compound tires on a BMW I've had for several years, and wanted to switch to Michelin Power Commander II's when it was time to change the stock Dunlops on my '14 Ultra Ltd. But my tire dealer was out of stock and suggested the Metzler ME-888's as a comparable tire (superior in his opinion). So, I took his advice and had both tires replaced.

I've since run 12k miles on the Metzlers, and they have been a vast handling improvement over stock. I'm preparing for a 5k mile trip in a couple of weeks, and I'm confident these tires will see me through that with something to spare.

 

Were these failures with the German or Brazilian made tires?
Any idea of the year of manufacture?

I am pricing a new rear 880 for my FXR4. Looks like I will get 6k miles from my current German tire. I prefer the metz to the dunlops, but the dunlops have been pretty dependable through the years.