Recently took a trip to Oregon. I'm considering a move up there which brings up the topic of rain. What are the best tires to run in a place that rains alot.

 

Welcome to the forum. Generally the rubber ones have good water resistance, though many on here have never allowed their bikes to come in contact with water so I'm sure you will here differing opinions.

Seriously I don't know that any decent tire would under perform as long as it has decent tread left on it. My stock Dunlops seem fine on th road king in moderate to heavy rain, the limiting factor is not traction, just that I can't see a damn thing if its raining too hard. On my old bike I ran Metzeler tires with no issues.

 

I am about to put the third set of stock Dunlops on my 2010 EGC. I ride in the rain a lot and they have served me well. Like KYbill said visibility is my bigest problem most of the time.

 

The Michelin Commander II is supposed to be a good rain tire. I have them but haven't gotten caught in the rain yet with them. I am very please overall with the tire and feel they are a nice upgrade over the stock Dunlops.

 

If you have the stock Dumflops get rid of them immediately. I have had bad experiences with them in wet conditions and I wouldn't recommend them to anybody.

Anyways... I ride pretty hard and like to have safe fun when I'm out, I have run Avon Roadrunners which perform nicely but I prefer Avon Venom X. Superior traction no matter what weather condition. I have also heard great things about the new Metzeler ME 888 Marathon Ultras.

 

Michelin Pilot Road IIIs are good in the rain. They are a dual compound tire so the mileage (tread life) is a bit better than straight rain tires.

 

Pirelli Night Dragons.

 

Pirelli night dragons

 

stock dunlops have not let me down so have not tried any other. wet is not the problem, but some oil mixed in will do any tire in.

 

I've used Metzler 880's for the past ten years and will never change back to Dunlop or Avon's again. This on a 1990 FXRS