18 inch rear tire on the specials
 

What is the thought behind the larger rear tire on the specials?

It mounts to a larger diameter wheel, which looks cooler. Or so the thinking goes.

You can't even see the back tire..lol.. I have asked a lot of people and no one knows why.

I think they want to make it little more hot rodish, with the low profile tire. I believe it will make for a rougher ride, than it already is.

you will see more of the the rear wheel with an 18".

I had both, SGS '17 and RG (not special)'18 and the 18" wheel is a little more stiff. Really don't care either way.

True, but even then how much of it do you see on a bagger?

I'd rather have the smoother ride of a higher-profile rear tire. I ride a lot of crap roads.

Dynamick ,One word, " Exactly" just out for a descent ride today, there are a lot roads that are quite choppy. Every little bit of comfort counts.

My opinion, about 18" low profile tires... it's well known low profile tires run cooler and are "performance" tires. In actuality they just make the ride harder. Harley is into what's cool to sell bikes. That's why we now have stretched bags, which hold very little more than the old ones, 130 19 inch front tires, to mimic the big front tire bagger craze, and de chromed blacked out bikes. If you want to really be cool the CVO $40,000+ Road Glide has a 21 in front tire with reduced front end suspension to match the short rear shocks giving a harsh ride in the rear. It's cool though it has an 18 in the back. Chrome isn't cool anymore either, it may hold up for many, many, years, but powder coated fork lowers and such, which will chip in the first year a real rider has the bike, is where it's at today! As a bonus it's much cheaper than chrome when building the bike but commands more money when you buy the bike! All the specials have short rear shocks to look cool, ride hard and most importantly, sell bikes.

Harley isn't really as up to date as they think though. Choppers were cool for a bit. The Rocker C was Harley's answer, but sadly it came out after the chopper fad died. The springer bikes never made it either. 240 rear tires on a couple of models of the new soft tails make great handling bikes handle badly, but some guys think they look cool. and buy them.

Harley won't stay in business building quality great handling smooth riding bikes. They have to produce bikes that sell. They'll give you what you want, not what you need. All in all they are still great bikes that we spend even more money on to custom tailor them to what we think is cool!

Harley is trying to sell bikes and God bless them I hope they do well.

Meh. Mine rides fine. Interestingly, I was looking up tire pressures in the service manual, and it didn’t have the 18” tire listed at all. I thought that was odd.