Confirming a few things about tires

[rondo_calrissian]

Spent the night searching through posts about tires and have two questions.

It was the Metzeler 880s that had the issues not the 888s, right?

Also, with all the shade thrown towards Dunlop. Is that all Dunlops, or just the Cruisemax the aren't great?

TIA

[Pauli466]

I can say without a doubt that the dunlop american elites don't have the grip of a comander2, but i bet they'll last longer, I've never had a real problem with dunlop's other than the grip isn't that great compared to other brands in the same price ranges, some metzler 880s that weren't made in germany had problems with delaminating i think they were made in brazil or the Philippines or something, they had a little elephant stamped into the sidewall

[davej]

I wouldn't use a Metzler if you gave it to me. I believe I have seen issues even with the 888 but only a couple. Metzler had an issue with tread separation and big chunks of the tire coming off the tire. They didn't immediately fix the issue and kept selling the tires knowing there was an issue. I don't trust any company that would keep selling defective tires for years after a known issue. Whenever they had a complaint they claimed it to be an isolated incident. You will get a lot of people here that buy and use them without an issue. Problem is that when you buy and install one you won't know if there will be an issue until you have the issue. Are you feeling lucky? If so go buy a lottery ticket or go play a slot machine. As far as Dunlop Cruisemax what issues has you heard of??? I have been using them for years and love them. In fact that is the only tire I will run on the rear of my bike. They have heavy sidewalls that can take the weight of the bike and will not collapse and come off the rim in the event of a flat while riding. I think anything bad you may have heard about a Cruisemax is from people that have never had a Cruisemax but are repeating forum BS. Just like people that have no firsthand knowledge of failure from a Fram oil filter but insist on telling other that they are junk because they read in on the internet from a bunch of others repeating what they read. lol.

Here is some reading for you about the Metz *** from someone with 1st hand experience and pics
https://www.bmwlt.com/threads/me888-...ailure.178281/

[NCB]

Commander II's or III's !!! Never had a problem! I can get close to 20K on the front and close to 18K on the rear.

[brianmac]

metzler decided years ago to manufacture tires at different sites around the world, and i spoke to the reps at daytona, and they had problems "mostly" at the brazil location..........they did not say which tires were effected

[Shores]

I’ve had the Dunlop D404 and Cruisemax on multiple bikes and the front cupped bad and the rear wore fast in spite of my vigilance with tire pressure. Davej, aren’t you using the Dunlop Elites? I’ve never used them. I had no problem with Metzelers 880 and got 19K out of one set, front and rear. I got 12K out of a set of 888, only to remove because of a road hazard cut on the front.

[Tropicalrs]

Davej - Do you use a rear Shinko reversed in stock front size on the front?

[rondo_calrissian]

Dunlop Elites came standard on my Vics and they've been great. That was why I was curious if it was just certain Dunlops that people had issues with, or all.

[davej]

No I use a Shinko that is a front tire proper size. The reason I don't use a Shinko on the rear is because I had 2 bad ones that wobbled at higher speeds. The first was after about a 4 mile ride to the xway on ramp and almost made me lose control and the tire was brand new. Shinko sent me a new one under warranty and the 2nd wasn't any better. They have weak sidewalls and can't take the weight of my full dressed R*. I put another cruisemax on it and never another issue. My front Shinko is just fine

[MikeyC]

The only problems I had with Dunlop was the 404 on the front of the bike, they seam to cause a wobble. I have not liked any of the Metzlers as they feel slick to me and I like a lot of grip, was slipping a bit yesterday. I have the Dunlop American Elites on one bike and have been very impressed with them, I think they are a multi compound, harder in the center and softer on the shoulders/edges. Only got them because I had a blow out while on the road and it was all I could get. But still my all time favorite is the Continental contiLegend WWW, I don't care if other tires might get more miles, these stay connected to the road, except in gravel, gotta watch that gravel.