Look at the tire sidewall. See what the tires max load and pressure ratings are. Then run the pressure anywhere in between HDs recommended pressure and the tires maximum pressure.

 

2010 Ultra Classic with stock tires ridding two up 95% of the time.

 

That is as dangerous on a bike as it is in a car. A road king might use the same tires, with very high pressures on the sidewall, as a Road Glide Ultra. But they may not handle the same at the same tire pressure since there is a weight issue, along with other handling characteristics.

Bike and car makers recommend a tire pressure based upon the characteristics of that particular machine. To deviate more than a tiny bit from that recommendation can cause handling issues, at all the wrong times.

 

I have way over 100k touring miles on harleys. I always run max pressure. Never had a tire issue.

 

Higher than recommended pressure is what I think wore out the rear tire ahead of schedule. Low pressure on a tire can lead to catastrophic failure(not a little low, but really low). I run about forty in front and rear on touring harley.

 

I respectfully disagree. Any pressure up to and including the maximum that a particular tire is rated for is not dangerous. The tire is designed to perform safely up to that pressure.

Vehicle Manufacturers recommendations are a compromise of many factors, i.e., ride comfort, fuel mileage, wear characteristics, handling characteristics, etc., and are recommended to provide satisfactory performance under typical and varying conditions for a wide range of users.

Varying tire pressures can actually improve performance and safety for different riders under different conditions.

For the average rider under typical conditions, I see absolutely no issue with my original recommendation of running the tire pressure anywhere between the vehicle manufacturers recommendation and the tire manufacturers maximum rating.

For the sake of argument, and I'm be no means recommending this, you could probably run a tire above the maximum rated pressure without issue because the max pressure rating is engineered with some safety factor designed into it.

 

I run my car tyres pressure well above manufacturer's recommendation and get a much improved mpg. Still below the max recommended by the tyre manufacturer.

 

I run 40 psi in front, and 42 psi in the rear. When I got the bike it had 36 psi in front, and 38 psi in the rear. I had a wobble in the front end around 75 mph. The higher pressure has pretty much made that problem go away. I also tightened my spokes at same time so that could have been the fix too.

 

I run my front and rear at 40psi with no abnormal tire wear or handling problems !!

 

Whats the manual say for touring bikes? 40 front 36 rear?