So while in my garage today I decided to check the manufacture date of my Dunlops on my 05 Road King. When I checked the date I saw Week 3 of 2004. Now I bought this bike last October with 4000 miles on it, so these have to be the original tires. I consider myself fortunate nothing has happened with tires this old. They have plenty of tread and since Ive had Ive put 2500 miles on them and had no issues.

So do I keep riding them or change them immediately? I am guessing the popular choice will be change immediately, but Im interested to hear your feedback.

 

watch em for cracks and remember they may get hard and not get as good of traction.for tooling around locally it wouldn't bother me but for 2 up touring i would think hard about changing em out.

 

Around 8yrs old, for safety reasons I would change them out.

 

Every time I put a new set of tires on a motorcycle it rode like a new motorcycle. Just saying.

 

u probably got like 3000 miles left on the rear anyway,change both and it will ride a whole lot better.

 

I'd just give them regular visual inspections and run 'em unless I saw something to tell me differently. Date codes on anything can only be used as reference point. Nothing goes from good to bad overnight just because of some date code.

 

I have a 69 ford torino talladega with 21k miles and the original Firestone bias ply tires dated sept 1968.(My retirement parachute)
I keep the car on jack stands and keep it covered.Though I drive it very little to keep the mileage down, the tires look and run great.

I think the reason the rubber lasted so long is because the car is garaged out of the sunlight.

 

Horrible advice IMO. Polymers age and the performance of the tire is compromised. Those 40+yr old tires will either turn to dust or is rock hard and severly compromise braking and handling emergency maneuvers.

 

I agree it's an issue with the Torino, but not so sure on an '05 HD. Before you take all the "good" advice available here, why don't you call Dunlop customer service and get the immediate and correct answer? Compounds have changed over the years and 7-8 year old tires may or may not be an issue. Now if you had a set of Goodyear Speed Grips from the '70's, we all know they last forever.

 

I did call Dunlop when I bought my 03 with 2k miles on it last year. They recommend changing tires over 6 years old. Which is what I did.

I wouldn't enjoy riding, worrying about a blowout. The original tires probably were fine, but I didn't want to worry about it.