The Dunlop Elite 4 motorcycle touring tire is designed to be a long-wearing dual-compound tire, providing stable handling on wet or uneven surfaces while delivering high ride quality and a competitive price.
Fitted to a 2007 Harley-Davidson XL883R Sportster—bias-ply tire sizes 100/90 x 19 front and 50/80 x16 rear–the performance of the Dunlop Elite 4 tires was excellent in wet and dry riding conditions. This Sportster has always been a solid road holder, with very little of the oscillation or cornering imprecision some Sportster models have noted. That performance continued with Elite 4s in use, even when pushing a fairly rapid pace.
Braking performance, including liberal application of the Sporty’s double-discs up front and hard acceleration in normal riding circumstances, did not cause any loss of traction, even on the less-than-perfect blacktop back roads I tend to frequent. In braking situations, while I did have times where rapid deceleration was necessary, there was neither any rear-wheel skidding nor deviation from a straight line. This bike does not have ABS.
Riding was primarily on town roads, county routes, and state highways, with only occasional freeway mileage. Ride quality was good, even when the surface quality of some of Wisconsin’s weathered roads was not.
Eventually, the rear tire had worn a little unevenly. The underlying cords had become exposed, so the tires were taken out of service and miles covered calculated.
This review of the Dunlop Elite 4 tires had an unexpected and revealing complication–the rear tire was punctured by a nail when it had 3,515 miles on it. Despite that, the tire did not blow out or fail in any way. Indeed, the puncture occurred on a day of riding two-up and was not detected until safely back home! No attempt was made to use a tire plug—we replaced it.
Treadwear was evident due to some flattening of the tread profile, but there was a lot of service life left. We kept the mileage mismatch between the front and rear tires in mind when the review was concluded. Note that road hazard damage, such as a puncture, is not covered under the Dunlop warranty–a common exclusion.
The tires went into service with 22,630 miles on the odometer, and the mileage on the odometer read 34,181 when the test concluded–a total of 11,551 miles. The front tire was in service for all of those miles. The rear tire had been replaced due to the nail puncture through the tread after 3,515 miles in service. The replacement rear tire went into service at 26,145 miles, so it reached the end of its service life after 8,036 miles.
The all-round performance of the Dunlop Elite 4 tires was excellent, and the ability of the rear tire to experience a puncture while carrying a two-up load and not fail or deflate is particularly impressive.
Dunlop Elite 4 Tire Sizes
Front
130/90 x 16
150/80 x 16
150/80 x 17
130/70 x 18
Rear
150/80 x 16
160/80 x 16
180/60 x 16
180/70 x 16
200/55 x 16
250/40 x 18
