My new-to-me Valkyrie came with a brand spankin' new Dunlop 404 three months and 4,500 miles ago, and I fought with it every mile. It was noisy, harsh riding and slightly out of round causing it to hop not only going straight down the road but also leaned over in a turn, and was getting worse by the day. I put 10 ounces of Ride-On in it hoping to balance out the problem, to no avail.
Last year I wore out a set of Shinko Tourmaster 230 bias on an old Goldwing. They were smooth, quiet and gripped tenaciously both in the wet and dry. Initially I ran them at Honda specs, about 30 - 32 psi but at 4,000 miles I wised up and bumped them to 40 pounds; by then it was too late for the rear as it had already squared off. But the front hung on and wore evenly for another 3K, and handled and gripped extremely well up to the very end. I began running that bike again this spring in mid-March to the end of April (Wisconsin) as a daily commuter, so it saw it's fair share of frosty mornings, sand and rain.
Anyway, I wasn't entirely convinced the Dunlop was what was causing the front end to hop, and didn't want to drop 200.00+ on a Michelin to match the rear in the event I had to buy parts, so ordered the Tourmaster from Amazon for 88.00, and threw in an 8 oz bottle of Ride-On and a set of three tire spoons for and additional 36.00.
Sunday afternoon the front wheel came off. I placed the rotor on an upside down 5 gallon bucket, got to work with c-clamps and dish soap and by 9:00 was sporting a new tire. (My first motorcycle tire change.
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My take on the Tourmaster after a whole 105 miles is very favorable: it is smooth, quiet, sticky and handles well. The Dun-hop is completely gone.
I know there have been several posts of Shinko's delaminating, but to my knowledge the Tourmaster 230 bias has not been one of them. Keeping my fingers crossed.
I'll do my best to keep this thread updated as the miles are put on.
Shinko Tourmaster 230 with 7,000 miles:
