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Cruiser
Posts: 101
| Good morning all.
Was at the dealer yesterday and had them take a picture of the front tire. The shop was going to send the picture to victory to see what can be done bout it. There seems to be a raised area bout inch and a half wide in the center of the tire as if a belt broke loose or something.
Started bout at 6 thousand miles, now at 8700 it has me a little leary of it. No cupping or such as I always run 38 in the front tire. Was wondering if anyone eles has had the same issue ?
Thanks all Bob |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 810
| One question. Why are you riding on something like that ? I would not be chancing a blow out. Swap it out ASAP. Tim
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Visionary
Posts: 2027
Brighton, TN | So far, mine has done it on both of my sets of dunlops. Starting to wonder, myself. I had brought it up earlier, but no one else seem to have the problem. I managed to replace mine, after puncturing holes in them around 7000 miles. I noticed it around 5000 miles. I will go back outside and look, but I don't think this set is doing the same thing as bad. The dealer was calling it cupping, but I didn't see any real wear that I would call a cup. My second set of tires did not come from Victory, they are the same E3 but from another retailer. I have about 7000 so they should show the same kind of wear by now. Also check your rear tire, I seem to have the same raised bar in the middle just larger on the rear tire.
My normal commute is a very straight run, with very few tight turns except a couple of on ramps. Thanks for bringing this back up. I need to go check mine. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 101
| I also do a lot of straight highway commuting myself, 120 miles round trip 70% of the time. I will wait till later today to see victory will do anything bout it. If not I will replace ASAP. Also (Tim) I am not ridin it till I get it resolved.
IronButt I will be out TN way in a week or 2 out in the eastern part of the state, be cool the have a cold one with another vision rider. Thanks for the responses
Bob |
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Visionary
Posts: 2027
Brighton, TN | I'm in the western part of the state near Memphis. so, if your this way give a holler. there is another fella, who loves to ride his machine on here from Memphis also. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 810
| I have @ 16,000 miles on my E3's and will be replacing both of them on Friday. I have not seen any abnormal shape on either of them. Tim
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Visionary
Posts: 1484
LaPorte,Tx. | Have 17000 on the front tire and really looks good, no bad wear patterns. I run the pressure at 40 psi. If you use the same tire gauge all the time, you may want to check with a different gauge. So far I like the performance of the E3's. |
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Visionary
Posts: 3204
Memphis | I have 14,500 on the original tires and will change out the rear at 15,000. It's not down to the wear bar yet but I have a 4,000 mile trip to New England coming up in three weeks. Front tire looks like it should get 20,000 easy. I keep both at 40-42 psi. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 98
Santa Maria CA | I have 22,000 on my front tire and wearing just fine so far, the rear tire I changed at 17,000.
I keep 40-41 psi in the front and 43-44 psi in the rear. |
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Tourer
Posts: 460
Centennial, CO | I am running 38 (front) and 40 (rear). Should I put a couple of more pounds in?
I only have 2200 miles on the bike (3 weeks to do that...what a blast this bike is!) at this point so I am sure I won't see any wear for a long time. |
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Tourer
Posts: 340
Regina Saskatchewan Canada | Here is something I got from Teach regarding tire wear.
"Crawford my front tire has a band around 1.5-2.5 inches wide and is raised a good 1/8 of an inch from the rest of the tire. This is a COMMON tire wear pattern. The tire manufacturers use a stiffer compound in the middle of the tire to cut down on flat wear in the front. The result is the sticky sidewall compound wears quicker producing a ridge. Road crown and road surface compounds effect the tire wear pattern in this manner as well. I've had this same issue with Bridgestone tires which could be corrected by running additional tire pressure in the front tire. That hasn't seemed to work for the E3's. " |
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Visionary
Posts: 1290
Ruskin, Fl | I was on the Dunlop site and Teach is correct about the softer compound on the outside rubber. Both mine have the band at 7200 miles, although the front is worse. I plan on e-mailing Dunlop to ask about the safety of the tire when this wear pattern is visible. I suspect if you ride it aggressively and have scratches on the bottom of your floorboards like me, you too will see this pattern. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 141
| Hey Songfan ...... If you come to new england in three weeks make sure you bring yer thermals. Its starting to get a chill here. AS for tires 7500 and no apparent problems. Love the twistys when they can be found. |
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Tourer
Posts: 377
O'Neill, Nebraska | TimS - 2008-09-17 10:33 AM
I have @ 16,000 miles on my E3's and will be replacing both of them on Friday. I have not seen any abnormal shape on either of them. Tim
Does Metzler have a tire that will fit the Vision? If so that's what I'd go with over the Dunlops. Just my personal preference. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 810
| spursmvp - 2008-09-17 7:34 PM Does Metzler have a tire that will fit the Vision? If so that's what I'd go with over the Dunlops. Just my personal preference. Both Metzer and Avon have tires for the Vision. My dealer warned against the Metzer due to reported high speed wobble problems. He said the Avon's were OK. At the last minute, I decided to put on another set of E3's because I have not heard much feedback on the Avons. Tim
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Visionary
Posts: 1290
Ruskin, Fl | I talked to a guy with a Kingpin last night running Avons. He said they were much better than the Dunlops. I have to read more reviews, but I'm not against giving them a try. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 101
| Good Morning all
I talked to my dealer yesterday and the factory says they know there is a problem with some of the e3's but they have no fix as of yet. So I am getting it changed on Saturday and going to cut the tire in half to see what is going on with that band in the center.
Bob |
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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 17
Decatur, GA | I have heard that Avons are a very good tire but I have had others report the wear on a Kingpin stinks. They say the handling is outstanding with the Avons the wear factor/mileage is low as compared to the Dunlops. Only time will tell what will make a good replacement for tires on the Vision. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 235
Evergreen, CO | I put a Metzeler ME880 tire on the rear of my bike at ~11300 miles. Have ridden around 1000 miles since the install. NO high speed wobble, although I have not ridden the bike much above 80mph since the tire install. Just as always, the bike is quiet, composed, and well balanced. So well balanced that I can ride with cruise set and no hands on the grips when I'm in areas of straight roads and no traffic.
I was a large fan of Metzelers when I had my HD, as they provided much better grip, and much better in the rain than either Avons or Dunlops. I haven't had the Metzeler in a good rain yet, so I cannot comment on comparisons on the Vision between the Dunlop and Metzeler. Still running the factory front tire, and will most likely change it out this winter with another Metzeler, just to have a matched set.
From what I remember on my HD, the Metzeler wore slightly faster than the Dunlop, but the increased confidence factor was well worth the 1000-2000 miles less per tire. |
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Visionary
Posts: 1484
LaPorte,Tx. | To comment on the wobble from a Metzler rear tire. This mostly came from the Kingpin fitment. When I had my Kingpin I put a Metzle 880 on the rear and had bad high speed wobble, mostly above 85 mph, so I changed it out for an Avon 42C, this was or still is a custom tire and the fitment is for a 5" rim, it ran great, but wore fast.
I believe the rim size for the Vision is 5" and not 5.5" which I believe the Metzler fitment starts at. Just have the dealer or tire supplier give you the fitment chart for the tire you want and then compare to the Vision's rim width, if your in that range, then I would say there won't be wobble.
All I can say, sometimes I do go over 80 mph  and I know I don't want to experience what I had on the KP. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 143
Sparta, WI | Bikertrash666 - 2008-09-17 6:28 AM
Good morning all. Was wondering if anyone eles has had the same issue ?
Thanks all Bob.
Hey Bob, I have exactly what you have described. Never really checked them until you brought it up in your blog. I have 7200 miles on mine. At 6000 miles the tech at the dealer told me I had some cupping but the tires looked good. This is more than cupping and I have it on both front and back. Just emailed Dunlop.
If it is normal wear as Teach says, how can some riders put 18,000 miles on with no signs of the raised ridge?
Have you gotten any resolve?
Mark |
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Cruiser
Posts: 101
| Hey Mark
I did read that message from dunlap that teach got. I am with you why do some do it and others don't. I guess I will keep on riding it and see if it does go away at 10,000 or so. Still no word on my deal.
Bob |
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Visionary
Posts: 1436
| Mark, the reasons that it does not affect all bikes the same has to do with two factors. The first is personal riding habits, like angle of attack on corners, twisty verse straighter roads etc. The other reason is road compounds. For example the roads in florida use a lot of shell in their mix where up north there is more gravel in the mix/compound. In addition the road grade which also varies by area affects the wear. The ban on my front is almost gone now, began disappearing at around 8500 miles. Some folks may have it the entire time, or not get it at all again based on the roads and personal habits. It shouldn't cause you any issues with handling or at least I have never noticed any on the E3's or E2's I've run.
As for running Metz verses the E3's? Well thats a good fit IF you never run on cold wet roads. The Metz are well known to sliding on cold wet surfaces. They also pick up way more road junk than any other tire manufactured which leads to far more flats. The Avon is a great tire, hell they grip on snow. But they wear out really quick. The normal wear pattern is nothing for around 5k miles and then they wear out almost overnite. I like them a lot and have run them many times, I just don't like replacing them that frequent. My average was 8-10k for the Venoms and don't know anyone who has gotten more out of them. Run what you like and/or can afford but for my money the E3's offer the BEST overall package for ANY heavy.
ps... I'm still arguing with the dealer and victory over my rear tire. However if it doesn't work out getting some pro-rating or a free rear tire installed under warranty I'll probably go to a darkside tire (car tire) on the rear once I finish wearing this one a bit more. |
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Front tire issue