In my testing, Michelin Commander II tires have demonstrated impressive wear characteristics on both V-twin and V-4 powered motorcycles of comparable weight—a Harley-Davidson XL883R Sportster and a Honda VF700C Magna were the test beds, with the tires lasting longer on the V-4 Magma than the V-twin Sportster. That inevitably led to speculation about how the Michelin Commander III Cruiser tires would compare to the Commander IIs on the same XL883R.
The odometer reading on the Harley-Davidson XL883R Sportster at the start of this review was 34,208 miles. The Michelin Commander III Cruiser tires were professionally mounted and balanced by Vetesnik’s Powersports in Richland Center, Wisconsin. Inflation pressures are routinely checked, and no track days, burn-outs, wheelies, or other unusual riding techniques are used in this review. Also, the appearance of the Commander III features a sidewall treatment upgrade that Michelin calls the Premium Touch Design.
To minimize road surface contribution to vibration, I ran the tires for their first day on the road on a seven-mile stretch of new pavement completed just last summer. After double-checking front and rear tire pressure, I took the Sportster out for a run.
The blacktop surface is as smooth as any I’ve ever ridden on, and I varied the speed from 40 to 75 mph with careful attention paid to times of acceleration and deceleration. After multiple passes through the stretch of new pavement, I couldn’t detect any unusual vibration above what I’d expect from the bike and normal road surface variations.
Michelin’s Aramid Shield Technology provides a more rigid tire structure, according to the French company, while the lightweight aramid-fiber tread plies on the rear tire are designed to prevent centrifugal force distortion and enhance stability.
Thus far, the tires have been exposed to routine riding conditions on essentially rural two-lane highways, paved secondary roads, and a limited number of Interstate highway-speed riding. The Commander III cruiser version is designed to cover a lot of road miles. Part of the approach used to achieve slower wear is in the rounder cross-tread profile that is designed to optimize the contact patch.
Most braking and turning has been as would occur under normal cruising conditions, though some instances of more aggressive braking and cornering were included. The double-disc front and single rear non-ABS disc brakes on the 883R worked well to bring the bike’s speed down quickly under hard application with no tire wandering from the line and no side slip or wheel-hop from the front or rear tire.
Opportunities to evaluate traction in the wet were limited to wet stretches from passing showers early in the review. That didn’t include hard cornering or braking on wet pavement, so there’s not enough road experience to comment. However, Michelin says the compound used in the Commander III tires includes silica in 100 percent of the tire to enhance tread grip in the wet. The rear tire tread pattern is reminiscent of the Commander II, but the III puts more silica-reinforced rubber on the pavement. The sipe of the Commander III rain grooves starts slightly further out from the midline of the tire than on the II. Michelin’s website says that in an independent test against seven leading competitors conducted in 2020, the Commander III rated best overall in traction in wet pavement riding conditions—we’ll see when the weather changes.
The Michelin Commander III cruiser tires have a tough assignment in surpassing the impressive performance we found in our long-term reviews of the earlier Commander IIs. We’ll keep you posted on how they do as the miles accumulate.
Michelin Commander III Tire Sizes
Front
- 140/90 x 15
- 150/90 x 15
- 170/80 x 15
- 180/70 x 15
- 130/90 x16
- 140/75 x 17
- 100/90 x 19
- 110/90 x 19
- 80/90 x 21
- 90/90 x 11
Rear
- 140/90 x 15
- 150/90 x 15
- 170/80 x 15
- 180/70 x 15
- 130/90 x 16
- 140/90 x 16
- 150/80 x 16
- 160/70 x 17
- 200/55 x 17
