Possible new tire choice for r3t rear

Mule skinner ,I have the same problem ,I blew out the rear tire at 5700 miles at 60 mph I did the hoochy coochy all over the road and got it to the shoulder. Anyway I swore that's the last f'n metzler my rocket will ever have. Went to the darkside for now however I'm still on the fence with that, Dunlop makes a tire for our rockets ( touring) d251's nd they are radials in our size. 178.99 front 199.99 rear at rocky mt atvmc.com . Bridgestone makes the excedra max I rad on the other rocket forum that we CAN use these.they are a lot cheaper 114.00 front 150.00 rear not bad.at least we now have better options.....sandman
 
Point of interest. I just looked at the Dunlop Elite 3 radial in 180X70/16 and the new rear tire for the Harley baggers, 180X65/16. The 65 series tire is .73" shorter than the 70 series tire. That ain't much. 26.06" vs 25.33". I might just try them. From what the Dunlop site says, the new Harley tire is only available from OEM dealers. That in of itself might make me look else where. The stealer will get top price for a tire!
 
!80/65 Rear Tire

I did that on mine and other than maybe throwing the speedometer/odometer off a little bit it seems to work just fine. In my other post I stated the Michelin Commander II bias ply tires only came in the 180/65-16 for Harley applications. The 150/80-16 size Michelin was only available as a rear application but I had it put on my front anyhow. The rear Michelin Commanders have an extra kevlar belt and more sidewall reinforcing than the fronts have. I havent had any problems yet with these tires and find them to ride and handle better than the stock metzler radials ever did. I got them based on Michelin's claim of over 25,000 miles of tread wear and time will tell if that is true or not. As for cost, they're not any more costly than most motorcycle tires and probably cheaper than some. P.S. The difference in tire crcumference between the 180/70 and the 180/65 is 774.3 revolutions per mile for the 70 aspect ratio tire and 796.6 revolutions per mile for the 65 aspect ratio tire. The difference to the odometer is 3 percent (registering 103 miles when you've actually gone 100).
 


I think your on the right track. 3% ain't much!
 
slidderhd said:
Has anybody tried the Dunlop Elite 3s that the Gold wings use? A friend's got 18k miles before changing...
Click to expand...


That's another choice. I run the E3's on my wifes Road King. Great tire! Of course when I talked to the Dunlop folks, they said the E3 was not rated for the R3's. Go figure! It works just fine on 910 pound Harley touring bike with a passenger and loaded saddle bags! Why would it not work on our 869 pound bikes? I understand the torque question, but I'm not sure how relevant that argument really is. Most of us don't accelerate away from a stop wide open with the tire spinning all the time anyway.
 
muleskinner said:
Most of us don't accelerate away from a stop wide open with the tire spinning all the time anyway.
Click to expand...

You're absolutely right Dennis. However, given our litigious society, they have to rate the tires for the worst case scenario. Evidently its much easier to build a tire that can handle the weight than it is to build them to handle the power/torque.
 
I have been happy with the General Altimax HP, it rides great and corners good.

 
I just decided "what the heck" and took a chance

That pretty much sums up why I went with the Michelin Commander III bias ply tires instead of another set of Metzler radials or Avon Cobras whatever. I just wanted to see if I could get a longer lasting tire and I am willing to take that risk to find out if they work or not. While not really in the same category as darksiding, it still involves taking the chance that maybe it won't work. I have had very good mileage out of Michelin car & truck tires over the years and thought this was a good time to try their motorcycle tires out. If they are anything like their other products, they should perform just fine. It has to be said that my R3T only has the TORS and the dealer remapping, so it isn't in a high state of tune over what it was stock. I also do not perform stunts or burnouts so it may be that these tires may do just fine for me.
 


I'm sorry, but 900 lb Goldwings are nothing but overweight sport bikes. The E3 should handle our rides.
 
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