hat big 240 rear tire Harley-Davidson equipped its newest models with is a Dunlop. Not surprising. For years now Dunlop has been original equipment, OE, on Harleys and that distinction extends all the way from those bread-and-butter D401 and D402 tires found on most every Harley right on up through that very special version of the Elite 3 designed just for Harley-Davidson, that good looking 240/40R18. Its exact replacement is in the FatBook. It isn’t alone in there, either.      Dunlop’s entire Elite 3 lineup is there, too, the full range of Elite 3s, and each one is perfectly sized for a custom application. Harley-Davidson sure thought so when it picked that 240.
     Along with that 240 Elite 3 there’s an Elite 250. A 250/40R18. And there are all the matching Elite 3s for the front. There’s a 90/90-21 and a bigger radial, a 120/70R21, is available. And all of them–fronts and rears–are tires that are a lot more than just good looking on a custom. They’re all long-distance, high-mileage tires with tread patterns and compounding to provide all-weather performance. An Elite 3 isn’t thrown off by rain grooves, steel bridge decks or tar stripes. These are responsive tires with a solid feel for confident riding. And they look great.
     There’s a lot of Dunlop technology making all this possible. In fact, Dunlop has employed plenty of its race bike know-how here. The Elite 3’s overall profile is sportier, for instance, making it a more lively-handling tire. Dunlop spent more than a year and a half making sure everything about the Elite 3 was absolutely correct.      These tires were even developed and tested at Dunlop’s high-speed proving grounds, the first time ever this technology and attention has been applied to a custom tire.
     The Elite 3 addresses all of the common custom-bike problems–wear, handling and cupping. Additionally, the Elite 3 is much better in the wet. To gain all this performance, and build in some incredibly high-mileage, Dunlop really refined the Elite 3 tread patterns. The approach was to re-distribute the grooves, re-positioning them so none of them line up and compromise the contact patch. Additionally, the shape and configuration of the tread grooves is more in line with what Dunlop uses in its sport bike tires; they’re curved to follow the driving forces on the tire, both straight-up and leaned over.
     Put all that together, not to mention the fact that a Dunlop Elite 3 is already OE on the most custom of factory Harleys, and it’s no stretch at all to see these Dunlops as OE–that’s optional equipment–on plenty of custom Harleys not from the factory. The sizes are all here, the performance is here, the looks are here and so are the tires. Elite 3s are all in stock at Drag Specialties.