You're mistaken!

 

The 408F is a redesigned tire. It IS NOT THE SAME COMPOUND.. I do some side work for Dunlop and have been told that this was a known issue way before problems were popping up. Harley already had thousands of these tires and therefore couldn't return them. Instead they are assuming that not to many people will figure it out. The D408F though is mounted "backwards" for two reasons. The first is so the bike will track better and not wear fast, and the second is for better water dispursment. If you look at Dunlops history, all of the motorcycle tires have always been oppsite treads. They feel this helps for the above reason. As for Harley they wanted the treads on both tires facing the same directions and therefore would be visually pleasing to the eyes..

 

not totally true on tread placement. the touring bikes with 402s always faced the sipings down and out looking at the front. the softails and dynas were mixed on the directions. some sitting side by side in showroom faced opposite to each other. you would think that facing the sipings like the 407 would drop the water out better than the 408s that scoop it up. BUT i put 69K on my 01 with the sipings on the 402 facing like the 408 and never had a handling or braking problem in heavy water loaded roads. key to riding in rain is slow down. you won't see any passenger car directional tire with the sipings mounted like the 408.

 

Here is what we know as fact:

The 2009 Touring bikes all got a D407F on the front and a D407 on the rear.

The 407s were a joint effort between Harley and Dunlop to produce a high wear tire for high speed 09 touring bikes.

During the first 5 or 6 months, some owners began to complain of irregular wear patterns accompanied by a whinning or singing noise at around 55+ mph.

At about midpoint in the production year (maybe late Dec or so) Harley started putting a new tire on the front of the Touring Bikes.

The new tire was designated as D408F. There was no change in back tire.

Dunlop says Harley gave them new specs and they, like a good little soldier, made the new tire to Harley specs. That is what they do. The new D408F has the tread pattern reversed from the earlier D407F tire. I have not been able to accertain whether the tread compound has been changed, although I suspect it has not.

Dunlop also says there is no safety issue with the older D407F tires so they are not contemplating a recall on their part.

Harley is real tight lipped on this D407F/D408F thing as they don't want to eat a boat load of the D407F bad wearing tires. They have authorized some of those early built D407F tires to be replaced with the new D408F tires as warranty work. Nobody seems to know for sure what the deciding factor is but the fact remains some get a new front tire and some do not. For my part, (pure speculation I might add) I think if you get a new D408F it is because the dealer is doing the right thing and he probably eats it, not the MOCO. Good dealers sometimes have to do this because it is good business practice to keep your customers happy. Bad dealers never seem to do anything more than take our money and run for cover when a problem crops up.

As more and more miles are put on the early 09 Touring Bikes, more and more owners will become aware of the irregular wear pattern (in the center of tread) and there will be more publicity around this subject. To be fair, there are a good many bikes out there who run their tires at low pressure and this too will cause an irregular wear pattern also, but not in the center of the tire.

Harley would not have spent the bucks to develop a new tire D408F and make a mid year change if there were not significant problems with the D407F tire. So for my money they need to step up to the plate and make these bad pennies good for anyone who complains about it.
So give em hell if your 2009 Touring Bike has a D407F on the front.

 

Put Elite 3's on and no longer have any worries...

 

Not sure E3s come in 17"?? The service manager at the stealer said that only the 407s were available. He didnt say anything about 408s. I sure dont want another 407...

 

I'm at 16,500 miles on my original set of tires on the RK. The front is definitely cupped but considering what some of you have gotten in mileage I'm not complaining at this point - though I do normally get 25-27k on a front tire easily on previous bikes.

My dilemma is whether the 408 is an improvement or just the same problem - too early to know this as it's so new. Although the only "known" factor here is that the 407 is undesireable.

My rear is about ready to be replaced - I can probably get another 1k-2k out of it and probably the same with my front so they'll both get changed at the same time at about 18k+ in my case. I hope the 408 is an improvement.

I did some recon at my dealer last week and the service guy seemed clueless about the 407 vs 408 issue. I educated him and he looked online. After about 20 minutes he did find what I was talking about but claimed this was news to him. Though the interesting part was he had in his computer that the 408 was listed as "obsolete" so either it's already on the chopping block to be replaced by a THIRD tire/version or someone made a mistake and made the 408 obsolete rather than the 407 in the computer.

I'll be replacing my tires in about a month at the most. Going to WWW's this time!

PS: I can definitely say the REAR tire is an awesome performer as far as wear - I'll have at least 18k on it - maybe more, I'll report when I do change them.

 

I love the E3s and have them on my 07 but Dunlop does not make E3s in a size that will fit the 09s...and it was reported that they don't plan to either.

lp

 

and i haven't been able to find out if the e3 dunlop is made in the sizes that are correct for the 09's and i think they're not, yet. heck, the old d402's got twenty thousand miles. i changed out my rear at 12,000 miles and got tons of tread left on the original front. no need to change the front for a long time. yes, i put the mu9016 e3 dunlop on the back, and what a fantastic difference from all viewpoints. handling, rain grooves are no longer an issue at all, it grips through curves like never before, and they claim that they wear like 30%longer. all good things. hope they come out with sizes to fit the 09's in the dunlop elite 3. that would be the logical cure for the current problem i'd think.

 

You may want to check more into the WWW for your bike. Dunlop/HD doesn't make a 17" WWW in the 407/408. The only wide white they make is for the 16" rim on the RKClassic.
Jerry