[Motorbikerx]

Riding the XC tonight, wet road 2-up, Dunlop E3's,...missed a turnoff onto the highway so had to double back to a roundabout and take the correct lane that led onto an uphill on-ramp.
Was gunning it in 2nd or maybe even 3rd up the on-ramp when the rear broke traction and the arse of the bike came out momentarily!...a steering correction caught it and we were on our merry way again.
Now the bikes definitely got more power, the road wet, and I was on the throttle, still it's a bit disconcerting...
Rear still got heaps on tread, records show it was fitted just a few months ago, so I'm hesitant to take it off.
Front is getting down a bit on the sides, plenty in the middle.
Guess Ill just have to take it a bit steadier in the wet in future.

 

[RICZ]

E3s can be like that MBX. I was a loyal Dunlop fan from the first E to the E3, then it was suggested by my very experienced tire guy to go to Avon Cobras and I never looked back.

 

[Bigmike17]

I would check the DOT code on the tire to verify when it was made. Old tires even though not worn begin falling out of spec for performance after a few years. I just put an E4 on the rear of the XCT which IMHO rides tons better than the E3 on dry pavement. I will likely find out tomorrow what it is like in the rain since I am leaving for a 5 day MC trip in the morning and rain is the forecast every day.

 

[IndyVictory]

Yeah I've not been in rain on my E4. I'm hoping I made a good choice. Didn't have a local source on the suggested Avon and I was not wanting to wait last year. Went from E3 which did feel a bit squirrelly to me on wet pavement to E4.

 

[visionjohnny]

Might even be to low on air or to much air. But with horsepower a lot of tires will not grip good and who knows how much antifreeze was on the road.
A car tire is the answer

 

[ScabbyDoo]

Over the last ten years I have run Metzler, Avon and Elites. One thing they all have in common; you 'twist the wick' on a wet road, if your scoot is packing any kind of power, good chance your going to break the rear loose.

 

[rojo154]

How hard were you on the throttle? .. in the rain i'm sure not that hard. I never been a fan of Dunlops. Get another brand and you'll be surprised. I've ran Bridgestone Excedras on my last Kingpin, good grip and still long life. My current 2011 I believe still has the original Dunlops on them though only 5k on them they feel "hard" and even on dry roads I feel hesitant to lean very much. I just get the sensation that the tire will slide out.Like yours, mine have plenty of tread too. I've been looking and just got to bite the bullet, better to be safe than try to squeeze a few more miles out of them,plus the weather here in Ct. still sucks so I should just do it now.

 

[PaiN]

Got to go easy with these torque monsters..... Good catch @Motorbikerx

 

[TNXR]

The E3's on my XR were great till they got some age on them and started to get loose even on dry roads. At 5 years old I swapped them out for another set of E3's.

 

[ObiSteve]

E3s can be like that MBX. I was a loyal Dunlop fan from the first E to the E3, then it was suggested by my very experienced tire guy to go to Avon Cobras and I never looked back.

Avon Cobras (and before them Avon Venoms) are the best bike tyres I've run on the HardBall for wet grip. Still got one on the front, but on the back they were costing A$1,000 each year.
But put enough power through any tyre on wet roads (mixed with spilled diesel, ATF, coolant glycol, leaking sump oil), and its gonna let loose sometimes.

 

[Motorbikerx]

Yeah,lots of valid points from everyone, tyres are well within life at 3717 (37th week 2017)..41PSI.
Wet road, running late, wrong turn, grunty bike,...wasn't wide open throttle but I was accelerating fairly hard.
Too hard for the conditions...and the bike gave me a little warning!:eek

Thankfully with the inherent stability and feedback of the Victory it didn't get any worse and I've felt the back go out like that many times fanging my old XS650 Yamahas on dirt roads in years gone by.
and dirt bikes.
Just this time it wasn't on purpose, and I had a passenger on board.
Lesson learned.

Wont be fitting any more E3's, they're fine in the dry, had the XC cranked over fairly hard on some favourite twisty roads, fine but they don't excel like the Night Dragons do on the Vegas, or even the Shinko 777's.
VJ, Bbob, n' ObiSteve got me thinkin bout the darkside but, I must admit....just something about it seems wrong.

 

[ScabbyDoo]

...My current 2011 I believe still has the original Dunlops on them though only 5k on them they feel "hard" and even on dry roads I feel hesitant to lean very much...

Mileage is not the only thing that will render a tire unsafe. No matter the 'high tech', 'special compounding' etc. nature of a tire; the rubber will age/degrade/harden over time. The issue here is not the 5k miles, it's the eight years.

 

[RICZ]

I would never ride on 8 year old tires. My life (what little might be left) is worth much more than a pair of tires.

 

[IndyVictory]

More like 9 years. A 2011 probably had 2010 tires.

Definitely worth changing.

 

[TNXR]

Also when you buy tires look at the manufacture date on them. You may be buying a set of new 3 year old tires. I had to insist that my then local Victory dealer to order me a new set, the two sets they had in stock were over 2 years old.

 

[ObiSteve]

"VJ, Bbob, n' ObiSteve got me thinkin bout the darkside but, I must admit....just something about it seems wrong."

Hey Motorbikerx, with some lead time in arrangements, you can try them on the HardBall. I guarantee you won't like them on a first ride. I spent a couple of hundred kms thinking WTF have I done? After about 500 kms I felt a bit more comfortable, and after 1000 kms was starting to use the different handling characteristics to advantage. All of the 5 tyres tried had at the worst only slightly less wet grip than Avon Cobras, a couple of them had more, like the Avon Cobra front would let loose before the Pirelli Cinturato P7 or Michelin Primacy rears on wet roads.
But yeah, it not only seems wrong, it is wrong in Australia; against the ADRs in the same way that performance exhausts, reworked air cleaners, hot cams and remapped ECUs are.
And are very hard work at slow speeds on rough roads (like my driveway), as Depot Picker has also pointed out.
But once you get used to them:

 

[RICZ]

That video reminded me of that WWII song, Coming In On A Wing And A Prayer.

 

[ObiSteve]

Hey Motorbikerx, I'll have to hold off that offer of a ride on the Darkside for another 10 or 12 thousand kms, about 6 months. I took a flat on the rear late last week, with the tyre almost at the end of its life, so decided to bite the bullet and get the rim sealed by a local wheel business. Tubeless tyres from now on for easy puncture repairs! I get a lot of them from sharp rock fragments. Well it turns out that they had started selling bike tyres since I last used them, and as I wanted the first tyre mounted on the sealed rim to be done professionally, a new Dunlop E4 will be on the wheel when I get it back.
Back from the Darkside for a while, I'll have to get used to what will feel like weird handling for the first couple of weeks, and put up with less wet grip than the current, don't laugh Aussies, Bob Jane All Rounder!
I greased the suspension rocker grease nipple while I was at it. The photo I took suggested an idea for a new thread: What Tools Ride in Your Saddlebags?"

 

[Motorbikerx]

Hey Motorbikerx, I'll have to hold off that offer of a ride on the Darkside for another 10 or 12 thousand kms, about 6 months. I took a flat on the rear late last week, with the tyre almost at the end of its life, so decided to bite the bullet and get the rim sealed by a local wheel business. Tubeless tyres from now on for easy puncture repairs! I get a lot of them from sharp rock fragments. Well it turns out that they had started selling bike tyres since I last used them, and as I wanted the first tyre mounted on the sealed rim to be done professionally, a new Dunlop E4 will be on the wheel when I get it back.
Back from the Darkside for a while, I'll have to get used to what will feel like weird handling for the first couple of weeks, and put up with less wet grip than the current, don't laugh Aussies, Bob Jane All Rounder!
I greased the suspension rocker grease nipple while I was at it. The photo I took suggested an idea for a new thread: What Tools Ride in Your Saddlebags?"

HaHa!!....yeah, We call 'em Outta Rounders here, cos they seem to go outta round before they wear out.

 

[ozpacman]

HaHa!!....yeah, We call 'em Outta Rounders here, cos they seem to go outta round before they wear out.

Ah yes - in a previous life I had an XF Falcon company car with a set of 'Outta Rounders' on it. Bloody thing felt like it was rolling on pizza boxes! :laugh