Michelin Commander III Touring.

[redjay]

2,000 kms on the Commander III's now and no regrets. Comfortable and good in the corners.

[Chuck A.]

When I put on new tires I ride around the yard for about 10 laps then I go to the nearest gravel road and ride it. Helps cut the mold release agent off (that's why they are slick).

[Peg]

I'm going to resurrect one of these MCIII threads with an update on my latest thoughts about the tire.

I've had a pair of MCIII Touring tires fitted for a little less than 7,000km's now, and tread-wise they look about new still. Until this weekend, I thought they were about the best set of tires I'd ever fitted to a large cruiser.

This weekend, my mind has been changed a little. So now I'm going to say they're about the best set of tires I've ever had fitted to a large cruiser for dry weather riding.

We took the Voyager away to visit my wife's father for the weekend. Typical spring weather meant there was likely to be a few showers along the way, so we were likely to encounter some wet at some point in a five hour journey.

We certainly did... About two hours in we caught a torrential downpour around the edges of a heat built thunderstorm. And along with that came two seriously bad pucker moments when the rear tire suddenly let go in very wet conditions. The first was going into a moderate right-hander with the cruise set - nothing too sharp. The rear went suddenly sideways & saw me wrestling with the bars to avoid a tank-slapping wobble, and then half an hour later the rear aquaplaned again, upright on a straight road this time, with the cruise set once more.

Scary stuff, both of them, and with fairly heavy rain for the rest of the journey I found myself riding on familiar roads where I'd usually be dragging the boards - as though I had bars of soap front & back.

I certainly didn't set the cruise much again.

It's knocked my confidence in these tires a little. We have quite a bit of wet weather down here, and this isn't something I've ever experienced with any other tire.

Dry, they're excellent. Fortunately the return journey was hot & dry. Confidence returned to some extent.

[The Black Knight]

Thx for the info, Peg. Have a nice day, my friend!

[Sabre-t]

Thanks for the updated review. Wet roads and tar snake traction is what I don't like about MCIIs. Won't use MCIIIs until I see more reviews about traction, but this confirms what I suspected: they are still too hard to have good wet traction.

BTW, I've always read that you should never use cruise control in rain because of what you described, so I don't, but since the Voyager CC gets hinky in rain, I wouldn't anyway.

[redjay]

Originally Posted by Peg

I'm going to resurrect one of these MCIII threads with an update on my latest thoughts about the tire.

I've had a pair of MCIII Touring tires fitted for a little less than 7,000km's now, and tread-wise they look about new still. Until this weekend, I thought they were about the best set of tires I'd ever fitted to a large cruiser.

This weekend, my mind has been changed a little. So now I'm going to say they're about the best set of tires I've ever had fitted to a large cruiser for dry weather riding.

We took the Voyager away to visit my wife's father for the weekend. Typical spring weather meant there was likely to be a few showers along the way, so we were likely to encounter some wet at some point in a five hour journey.

We certainly did... About two hours in we caught a torrential downpour around the edges of a heat built thunderstorm. And along with that came two seriously bad pucker moments when the rear tire suddenly let go in very wet conditions. The first was going into a moderate right-hander with the cruise set - nothing too sharp. The rear went suddenly sideways & saw me wrestling with the bars to avoid a tank-slapping wobble, and then half an hour later the rear aquaplaned again, upright on a straight road this time, with the cruise set once more.

Scary stuff, both of them, and with fairly heavy rain for the rest of the journey I found myself riding on familiar roads where I'd usually be dragging the boards - as though I had bars of soap front & back.

I certainly didn't set the cruise much again.

It's knocked my confidence in these tires a little. We have quite a bit of wet weather down here, and this isn't something I've ever experienced with any other tire.

Dry, they're excellent. Fortunately the return journey was hot & dry. Confidence returned to some extent.

I had an incident on the Commander III's with about 10,000 kms on the tires. I was on my 1300 V Star. It was a dry day in the summer and I had to make a emergency stop from about 30kmph. The back tire locked up and the tire slid for about 20 feet. It was like I was driving on ice. It really surprised me. I made a comment in an earlier post in this thread about how slick the tires were when new. The tires rode really nice in the dry at speed and cornered well. I never rode it in the wet so I can't comment on their performance in the wet. I am not 100% sure I would buy another set.

[Top Cat]

I have a post on here somewhere telling how freaking bad Commander 2's are on wet roads. I took them off my Victory Kingpin with only 1500 miles on them and put them out for the garbage truck.

[redjay]

The best tire I have used in the wet was the Avon Cobras on my 05 Nomad.
Great longevity out of them too.

[The Black Knight]

Thanks for this last info, mates.