The ULY? Whats the deal with these tires on it? Whats the deal with everyone hating the D616 on the Buell? My Friend has a 2005 Triumph Spring ST & last year he put the D616's on his Sprint. he loves them & I have ridden his bike. In June we did a trip from Washington DC to Knoxville KY for the Honda Hoot, he on his spring with wife & luggage & myself on the Tiger. The D616 performed amazing for him, good wear & handled all the weight, I got a pic of him below going through deals gap! He is an all year rider, has about 6000 miles on the Dunlops now, they have been good to him & he is considering going with them again for the next tire replacement. Is it something to do with the short wheelbase on the Uly that makes the D616's a terrible tire? I like the way they look & they look like they have a bit more grip in the dirt? New D616's on the back of his sprint, he had great performance with them, & he is a hard rider & puts about 10K miles a year on his bike! My Friend Aaron & his wife pushing the sprint through the Dragon with the D616 keeping the Triumph Planted to the street.
Hi, Kev! Glad to see you're enjoying your new ride. I think it was Eor (who had one of the very first Ulys, a new '06 that he bought in '05) who first reported that when the rear 616 is replaced and the front is not, the front end starts making weird vibrations. When the front 616 is replaced as well, it quits. At first, neither he nor the Buell dealer had a clue what was causing the vibes. Eor made many, many trips back and forth to the dealer trying to get it sorted out... The dealer replaced the rotor, then wheel bearings, then tightened the head bearings so tight that the bars would hardly turn... no joy. Buell customer service finally flew Buell engineers to Arkansas to shake down Eor's bike (a few times), and finally attributed the phenomenon to the 616's. Apparently, he was only the first to experience the problem, as Buell Inc was completely baffled as to the cause of the vibes. They must have seen quite a bit more of it as time progressed, which is why 2007+ models came with Pirelli Scorpion Syncs. What I don't know would fill a warehouse, but I've heard no complaints about the tires on other bikes. It may just be the way the 616 tread pattern creates a resonance with the Uly front end geometry.
My D616 are fine up to the fastest I have traveled which is 85 mph. Some Ulys don't like them so are okay like me. Chas
I really like the look of the D616. I do not go "off road" but it just seems like the D616 might be a better performer in the dirt roads. I just think they are tough looking ;-) I usually go through a set of tires every 12-15 months ;-) Its early to be shopping since the weather here has been crap & I have only put 130 miles on my Uly in the 6 days I have had her... I went out last night it was 30 degrees.. thats fine, but it was raining/ice all week earlier
I just sold the last of my stock of D616s. I loved them on my Uly so much I bought 3 sets as spares (incase Dunlop decided to cease production). The Uly's gone and they wont fit on my TA.
It would seem Dunlop is keeping them in production, there website is showing them available now in 190 size tires for more bikes.... so they are not going anywhere ;-) I think Ill be going with the Dunlops next year!
The tires themselves are great. Many really like them. The problem isn't the tires, it's the tires combined with the suspension angles of the Uly. If you had a different head angle or longer wheelbase, I'd bet that many would still have them on the bike. I think a lot of it also has to do with the rider weight and height as well. As you increase the rear preload, you shorten the wheelbase further. A heavier rider with a lot of preload will have more "squirm" than someone with a lower preload. These factors are exacerbated by the design of the tread of the front tire. It has a center split. This results in lugs that are able to "squirm" independently on each side of this split. This is what causes the odd feel. Change the tread pattern and the feeling goes away. If they redesigned the D616 to have alternating solid blocks with split blocks the squirm wouldn't exist. I'm surprised they haven't.
I remain sold on the 616 as a good tire for gravel roads and good on pavement at brisk but not berserk speeds. I got poor mileage out of the rear (slick at 4K miles), but the front is going strong at 13K miles and works surprisingly well with the Sync that is now on the back. I've gotten over 7K on the Sync, and it's still looking good. I've gone back and forth about what to do about the next set of tires, but the fact that I do up to 25% of my riding on gravel and sand forest roads, and that I can't afford to be frequently changing soft-compound tires, keeps me coming back to the Sync/616 combo.
The only issues I have had with the D616's is the floating feeling at high speed on my ULY. It is not dangerous just gives you an uneasy feeling. Mine seemed to go away after a few hundred miles or I got used to it. Also, in some really hard corning the front would tend to chatter just a bit, not terrible but noticeable. Could have been more suspension set-up than tire.
I liked the D616's on my bike. They are not my "best" choice for a tire, but they did okay. I have gone through two rears in 10k miles and the front is just starting to cup. So when I spoon on a set of Distanzia's I'll ditch both D616's. On road, they stick pretty good on clean pavement. Any gravel, and they hate it. Wet weathee performance was good. I felt I got better wet weather out of a set of Pilot Roads I ran on another bike. The front end wobble...well, mine never really had that. But then again, I run higher tire pressures than most (40psi front). The steering was REALLY light though around that center circumfrential groove. Off-road...well...they did great for non-paved roads. But for roads with large rocks as it's medium..not so much. They also didn't like sand too much. Then again, I was in a place the Uly should never have been.
I was quite happy with the rear. The front was the worst tyre I have ever used by a considerable margin. Caused the front end to wander badly when travelling in a straight line. 0/10. I almost sold the bike because of it. It was fixed the moment the tyre was changed. Off road performance of any of the heavily treaded road tyres in all pretty much the same. Isn't till they have knobs on them that there is any real difference.
A lot of people complained about the 616's, but I never had a problem with them. Decent off road (for a road tire), great in the rain and on the dry road I dragged the Uly pegs plenty with confidence in the tires. A little wandering sometimes on the highway, but never enough to worry. Had about 9300 miles on mine when it was totaled and the tires were just about done.
I really liked them on my 06 Uly. They hooked up very well in mild off road conditions and I went down many a trail without dropping the bike. With regard to speed: I took them up to 125mph via GPS (closed course naturally), without issue. If you've ridden a bike with knobbies at speed the 616's will feel very stable in comparison. My only issue was wear. I was usually lucky to get 3500 miles out of a rear tire before it was toast.
I have a 2006 Uly with 616s and a 2007 without. I like both tires. The 07 is slighly more stable at higher speeds. I have the 06 setup more like an enduro and the 07 as a touring bike. Once the 616s get worn I plan to put a more agressive tire on the 06
