New Member

Just want to introduce myself. I own a 2005 Firefighter Special Edition Road King. After months and months of reading forums, measuring, reading remarks about wear and stability, reading all the negative posts, etc., I found it was time to replace my rear tire. I installed that Coker 550r16-excelsior-stahl-sport-radial. I ALMOST went with the 600, but I'm glad I didn't. This is about as big a tire as will fit on these bikes. The dimensions are pretty close to the stock tire. It's slightly taller, I can feel it, but not much. I have only put about 100 miles as I'm still playing around with air pressures, but have had no problems scraping the floor boards on tight RLAP type maneuvers. It only comes as a tube type and I used dyna beads for balancing. I ordered their tube, but maybe should have gone with a HD tube as theirs has a short stem.

I did all the work in my garage. I have a Harbor Freight bead breaker and used regular tire irons and a big rounded edge crescent wrench to mount and dismount the tires. Using Dawn detergent, the beads seated at about 65 psi. (Maybe I should have tried lemon pledge, haha!) The hardest part of my install was removing the mufflers which had never been off since installation, and, aligning the rear caliper while re-inserting the axle. Tire to belt guard and fender clearance is almost the same as stock.

Thanks to Quadancer and all the other pioneers who were willing to take the plunge and relay all their findings to the rest of us. I've seen several posts regarding Road Kings with the old style frame like mine and hopefully my install will serve as a guide to them as well. I am on the HD forums as TxMongrel if you want to see pics. I don't know how to post them here yet, other than the avatar. Thanks again!
Rob

Congrats and welcome to the wonderful world of the darkside!



........................bobby

You're now a Pioneer yourself! Congrats bro, and welcome to traction, comfort and safety you never thought possible!

Hi RobSATX,

Do you know if there are any size differences between the Road King and the Electra Glide Ultra? How has the tire been working out for you? Gonna have to get one in a couple weeks. Not sure which one to try. Excelsior or the Dunlop Taxi tire???

Rob... and
It is always good to hear success stories!!!

Look in the General Discussion forum at the sticky at the top of the page on How to Post Pictures.

We love pictures!

SugsPa wrote:Hi RobSATX,

Do you know if there are any size differences between the Road King and the Electra Glide Ultra? How has the tire been working out for you? Gonna have to get one in a couple weeks. Not sure which one to try. Excelsior or the Dunlop Taxi tire???

My dad has an Ultra and it appears he has the same clearance and swing arm configuration. The only clearance issue is with the belt. The stock tire converts to a 500r16 but after measuring countless times, the Exelsior 550r16 was the closest to the stock tire dimensions. It took me a few days to get used to the handling on curves, but now I am very confident in the way it grips and runs. I'm still playing with the air pressure. Two up this past weeknd seemed to work well with 34psi. Very smooth. Good luck!

00 Doc wrote:Rob... and
It is always good to hear success stories!!!

Look in the General Discussion forum at the sticky at the top of the page on How to Post Pictures.

We love pictures!

Will do! Thanks for the welcome!