Dunlop Taxi on Softail. It fits! ; {)

I've been lurking here with great interest. I'm tired of a new rear tire every 7k. (Metzler M880) I gathered enough data to have enough hope that the Dunlop Taxi 175R16 would fit & be my best option.
After it arrived from Universal, I took it & the lace rear wheel off my FLSTSCI ('05 Springer Classic) to 3 local shops. Going rate was about $40 but they all refused to put a CT on a MC rim. Fine, I've changed a lot of car & truck tires, I went to Harbor Freight & picked up their mini tire changer for $39. Money well spent. They say it's for lawn tractor tires up to 12" but it made changing out the 160/80-16 to the Dunlop fairly easy. Just having it bolted to concrete as a stable "work stand" was cool.
Holy Crap the Taxi is a taller tire than the Metzler! I wish I'd measured the circumference of the Metzler 160/80-16 before I deflated & dismounted it.
Got the bike on a stand, pulled the shocks, popped the fender on & to my thrilled amazement, the only things it rubbed were the plastic box on the tail light & the one for the ECM. Those are easy to modify & I'm swapping to an FLSTN rear fender anyhow.
Funny thing though, there is 1/8" space between the tire & the left fender nuts but 7/16" space on the right. I did a bit more measuring & sure enough, the rim is not centered in the frame. Why the rim is not centered in the frame puzzles me. I'll be replacing the wheel bearings tomorrow, I may find my answer then.
I've never adjusted the rear shocks & it you look close, you can see where the Metzler has rubbed a little during aggressive 2 up riding. (Stock tire size is 150/80-16, the 160 pushed the limit of width) I'll be firming the shocks up for sure. I'm always dragging boards & tailpipes so I'm looking forward to a little more height & firmness. And I've wanted a 6 speed, so I think I'll like the final ratio change.
I can't wait to ride this thing!


Metzler M880 160/80-16

Like something from Star Wars....

I like the look.

Fully compressed. (Shocks removed)

I HATE the tips myself, but your softie has true duals? Where'd you get them? those would ROCK with my RoadKing bags.
Oh, I think I mentioned in your other thread that your new high gear will be something like 5th and-a-half.
Works great with cams.

First let me say that yes, a Dunlop Taxi 175R16 fits on a Twin Cam Softail. But it is NOT a bolt-on upgrade, it's a conversion.
Second let me say that it is totally freakin' worth it! What a difference, it's like a new bike!
It "centers itself" differently. As I come hard out of a nice curve, my brain calculates the normal interval of time it takes the bike to "center". And when that interval of time passes, my mind is amazed to realize that it is already, seamlessly, "centered". There is no longer a perceived division between riding a corner & riding straight. Hiway expansion joints are no longer jarring, the amount to road vibration is dramatically reduced.
It's not a conversion for the mechanically unimaginative or unequiped. For the most part, the only stock thing about my bike is the engine & trans. I bought the bike as a wrecked re-builder on eBay, I bought all the replacement parts & upgrades on eBay. I do my own fab/refab of my personal upgrades. IE, The engine crash bar was a chrome item off an old Road King, modified for my bike & powder coated. The auxiliary light bar/mounts are homemade & including so chromed pieces of used bathroom sink drain. The aux lights are 100W Cessna landing lights. The love them or hate them pipes are 1 of 6 sets made, in Costa Rica. (Some folks see flames, some folks see Daffy Duck. I love them. They are LOUD!
The True Duals are Vance & Hines for TC Softail. Lots of True Dual options for Rubber Mount bikes, but when I added these, V&H was the only source for Softails. I shopped frugally for 8 months & scored this set for $675 new & resold the V&H fishtail mufflers on eBay for $175.
From arrival of the Dunlop Taxi tire to 1st test ride, 12+ man-hours. I had to move the wheel to the right .075" to the right. (Any more than that & the brakes drag & the belt tracks unacceptably) The plastic box behind the tombstone is gone, as are the ridiculous big plugs for the tail lights. So is the plastic box for the ECM. All the through bolts for the rear crash bars, luggage rack, turn signals & passgr backrest are dressed flush with the inside of the fender. Quite a bit of grinding, filing & re-wiring involved. Fabbed a stand for the frame that allowed easy access to the shocks. Fabbed a jig to connect bike jack to axle, allowing the rear wheel to be spun at any point of suspension travel. I adjusted the factory shocks to 2 threads, from 4. Adjusted the head lights for higher back end. (The rear fender was already crinkled by a bump & run in a parking lot.)
Conclusion, it's wonderful to ride! I love doing 'tinkering upgrade' projects like this, it was wayway worth it. [img][/img]

You done good, man! But now you mentioned Daffy, that's all I can see!!! Sometimes I just wish a job was finished, then when it is, I kinda miss it.
Both my trailers were that way, but at least they're nice. I like the look of the bike overall; very old school. I need a page to list all the mods I did on mine.


I should mention that I didn't have to do ANY mods to fit the 175/80/16 Austone in mine. I may have to do some stuff to make a 185 fit very soon. All other
mods on my bike are for looks, performance, and comfort.

I didn't see any mention of sealing your rims/spokes, so I'm assuming you used a tube. How many pounds of air pressure have you settled on?

After trying to seal my rims with 3M 3200 I had trouble. The front trie/rim appears to have worked perfectly, but the rear leaked air at 35 spokes!!!! and I thought it looked perfect before mounting the tire. So I'm putting in a tube today, reassembling tonight, finishing a few other things (adding chrome), wash and polish, then test ridin tonight and tomorrow.

I'm still on schedule to leave Wis on Saturday and be in Georgia on the 8th.

quadancer wrote:You done good, man! But now you mentioned Daffy, that's all I can see!!! Sometimes I just wish a job was finished, then when it is, I kinda miss it.
Both my trailers were that way, but at least they're nice. I like the look of the bike overall; very old school. I need a page to list all the mods I did on mine.


I should mention that I didn't have to do ANY mods to fit the 175/80/16 Austone in mine. I may have to do some stuff to make a 185 fit very soon. All other
mods on my bike are for looks, performance, and comfort.

If you're getting a 185/75-16 tire, that tire should be just a little shorter(less than 1/5" shorter) than the 175/80-16 tire. But with the extra 10mm in width it might rub on the side of the fender. Hope for the best, that its a plug and play tire.

ROD

Hey, as long as I don't have to move the SPROCKETS, I'm cool with it! Dan, I used the GM5200 and it leaked, but only because I didn't wait for the cure.
And only on one spoke - but the bit that stuck to my workbench I nearly had to SAW off!
At this point I'm assuming that you are on board with the Nokian Cargo Tires I found that may work well:
http://www.tiresbyweb.com/p-8963-nokian-hakka-c-cargo-tires.aspx

Dan Koich wrote:I didn't see any mention of sealing your rims/spokes, so I'm assuming you used a tube. How many pounds of air pressure have you settled on?

I did not seal the spokes but they are cast "profile" rims, not stamped steel. I'm still using the stock tube that came with the bike. I've read pro's & con's about running balance beads in a tube. I tired it but no matter what I did, I never got 1 single little tiny bead to fit through the stem. I had no problem static balancing with the axle sitting on balancing stands & it rides smooth.
I started at 42PSI for a 100+ miles. Dropped it to 38PSI for 50 miles, much happier at 42PSI. 900+ miles on the Dunlop so far & it's still the best thing I've done for this bike. My wife also noticed the increased traction & more comfortable ride when 2 up. No sign of overall tread wear but it's easy to see in the 'wear pattern' that even after dragging boards & throwing sparks, it never rides on the sidewall but has a much wider contact patch than a MC tire. It's habit forming to be able to stop at an intersection & then turn right or left by laying the beast way over, dragging boards, nailing the throttle hard & never spinning or sliding at all.
I'll say it again, I'll never go back!

I'm with you man, lay her over and ride it like ya stole it! My 777 Shinko takes the worry off of front slippage as well, and 1/3 the price of an Avon.

I still wonder about the Softail centline and moving my wheel over to take a 185 in there. That said, if it DOES rub the fender, I won't have to move it very far.
I wonder what the deal is with the offset wheel?

My guess is that the wheel is moved to the left to allow enough meat for the axle end of the brake caliper. I know, it should be designed to be centered anyhow but I have a wild guess that they had issues with the strength of the caliper casting & it was way cheaper & quicker to fatten it a little & reduce the left spacer instead of retooling for a wider swingarm, frame & rotor anchor points. The rear brake caliper "floats" at the outer end but not enough to allow very much left movement until the rotor is dragging on the left pad constantly. The right axle spacer goes between the axle bearing & the caliper, not between the caliper & the frame. I made several different thicknesses of axle spacers attempting to center the hub but right now I don't remember why I wasn't able to shift the caliper to the left so it would still be centered on the rotor. My Dunlop has more clearance from the fender than it does from the drivebelt but since nothing rubs, ever, so I'm happy.

Check out the rims & tires on this pig. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.466990383355373.107361.145778612143220&type=3

helixhippie wrote:I made several different thicknesses of axle spacers attempting to center the hub but right now I don't remember why I wasn't able to shift the caliper to the left so it would still be centered on the rotor. My Dunlop has more clearance from the fender than it does from the drivebelt but since nothing rubs, ever, so I'm happy.

Duh, now I remember, I was trying to move the wheel to the right, not the left. No way I was going to start reducing the thickness of the caliper casting to accommodate that.

Confusedd. Your frame is apparently the same as my 05' Heritage, but I didn't have to move anything to fit the 175's - but may to get a 185 in there soon.
.075" isn't very much; almost 5/32" (actually 1/14"), but didn't you have to cut off and reweld the brake caliper guide on the swingarm? Or are you saying that there is
enough play in the caliper to move this much? I might rather do that than bend my perfect fender out to clear the bigger tire.

Was able to move it that much without any modifications, any more & the rotor was too far from center of the caliper & the belt tracked odd. I did not make any modifications to the brake caliper/mount/guide.
One day last week, had the pleasure of riding 100 miles in the hardest rain I've ever ridden in. Four different places, the flood waters were well over the foot boards. On nice well drained roads with little traffic, I was comfortable at 55-60 MPH. The rear tire continues to exceed my expectations.

Congrats and welcome to the darkside!!!!!



......................twin

Hi,

This post by HelixHippie is the only one I've seen on getting a CT on a Softail. There was a post by a guy who put the Taxi Tire on his '98 Heritage Classic and it didn't require mods. But HelixHippie had to do extensive mods to make it work.

Anyone know whether I could squeeze a Taxi Tire on an '07 FLSTSC? I'm not willing to go at my new bike with a dremel, but I'm not willing to ride a motorcycle tire either. Dilmena. Looking at tire sizes doesn't answer the question. Guys with newer Softails with 200mm tires can go Dark. It seems some of the older Harleys have room for a CT too. But the mid-2000's Softails seem to be too narrow under the fender for a CT.

Been DoubleDark on my Wing for a few years and am switching to Harley and really want to go Double Dark. I've found a knobby front tire, but nothing that will likely work on the rear.

Thanks,

Sly

Been asked that before and still dunno, mine's an 05'.
Hey hippie, my sweet spot came in on the Dunnie at 33-34 lbs -and as always, there are differences in gauges, but I check mine against several when I buy a new one.