I am in the process of shopping for tires and am looking for input from anyone with a Touring class bike. My Road King is Pearl White so am planning on wide whites. Also I really dont care about mileage but am more interested in traction. The two tend to be at cross purposes in motorcycle tires. I am interested in the Metzlers and wondering if anyone has real world experience with them and the Dunlops that can give me their impressions.

I have never had a bike similar to an Electra Glide, but I know who does!

Drop a PM to our member Badinfluence63. No one, and I mean no one, takes longer vacations on the back of an HD touring bike than BI63. His wife runs a "chase vehicle" for him! He wore out a tire during a vacation trip!

He knows rubber tires better than Obama knows rubber checks.

I haven't tried the Metzlers but I have had the Dunlops and Continentals.
The continentals gave high mileage but were slippery to say the least, over 20,000 out of the front tire and almost 11 out of the back. The Dunlops have much better traction/compound and the mileage was less, average for the front is 18,000 and back was 9,000 or roughly 2 to 1. I don't do burnouts... often, JK, But I do ride the bike aggressively and loaded.




Now I'm jealous... I'd love to have my tools and spare parts just a minute back down the road, opens up a lot of territory....

LOL. BI63 tells me it's a win/win situation. His wife gets A/C, a comfortable seat and music, and he gets to ride as much as he wants. My guess is that he knows the best 'high mileage tire' ever made.

I'v only had the Dunlops, 10,100 on the rear, it was SHOT. I still love to press corners. Some of my "other" riding friends have said they never saw anyone try and knee slide a Harley. So the point is I'm happy with the Dunlops, they have never slipped out always have had good traction. I'm on the Oregon coast.

I also ran/run the Dunlops, and I got +5K off of Betty's original tire and about 9K off of Spinner's. Considering the individual bikes, I don't know if that's good or bad. I have kind of a "when it breaks fix it" attitude on motorcycles. It's a hobby, I need tires, so I buy a new one when the old one is worn. A fatalist opinion. I do hate that "scrub in" period. I have +500 miles on Spinner's new tire and she's still a tad buttery on her right side.

i ride an '03 Ultra and like the dunlops. I have tried the "softer" tires and all i did was wear them out faster.

Those softer tires do wear faster but they grip better. You will hit the floorboards usually before you will kick out the tires on a Harley. Sportbike different story. There are duel compound tires for the sportbikers now. Hard compound in the center for the highway and soft on the sides for the curves. I don't think that technology has hit the touring class yet.

After my experience with the Continentals which were a harder compound, my preference is with the Dunlops and they're softer higher traction compound. I could skid the front wheel easily on dry pavement - Conty's not so much with the Dunlops.

The stickiest tire I have ever ran were the Pirelli Night Dragons.Always run the manufacturers recommended air pressure for your bike model.People that I know who were complaining about the tread life were running to the Dunlop recommended air pressure spec in the the Harley owners manual, it doesn't work well for other tire brands. I run Metzelers ME880's on my Dyna, they work extremely well on it but I haven't tried the Metzeler on the Electra glide yet.