Dunlop Elite 4 Tires | Gear Review

Dunlop Elite 4 motorcycle tires.
Dunlop Elite 4 motorcycle tires.

According to Dunlop, the Elite 4 is for riders who like to cover miles. Lots of miles. The E4 is designed to cover as much as 15,000-18,000 miles on everything from open highway to twisting back roads, in fair weather or foul.

And, with sizes that range from 15- to 21-inch diameters and a mix of radial and bias-ply designs, they’re made to fit just about any tourer, cruiser or standard out there, new or older.

Dunlop claims this latest iteration of the Elite series provides longer wear, excellent cornering stability and outstanding wet weather grip—the kind of overall performance the traveling rider is looking for.

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I set out to challenge those claims by fitting a fresh set of E4s to my Indian Chieftain (previously fitted with Elite 3s). I gave the tires a workout on a mix of high-speed Interstates, stop-and-go traffic, sweeping back roads and a few jaunts down patched-pavement farm roads. I rode in temperatures from 32 to 80 degrees.

The 850-pound, high-torque Indian really puts a set of tires to the test when pushed through corners. Tires designed for high mileage often disappoint in the twisties, but the E4s were tremendously stable and provided excellent grip, even when powering hard out of corners at a good tilt.

Dunlop’s Multi-Tread (MT) rear tire surely contributes to that performance, thanks to a special lateral-grip compound on the shoulders of the tire adjacent to the long-wearing compound in the middle. The transition across compounds is seamless and wear appears to be even across the tread thus far.

The tires tracked surprisingly well on rough and patched pavement as well, handling imperfections, longitudinal ridges and pavement cracks without drama—and without jarring the rider.

One oddity of the Dunlop Elite 4 is conditional road noise. Although the new tread design was designed to be extremely quiet, there is an exception. On very smooth pavement and on tar strips, the tires emit a loud chirp-like hum reminiscent of a swarm of cicadas. The chirruping lasts as long as the tires remain on that surface.

Generally, it’s an intermittent occurrence, but on long stretches of certain smooth surfaces the noise can linger. On roads with an abundance of tar snakes, the cicadas seem to practice Morse code. That said, on most road surfaces the treads are nearly silent. The periodic hum, in this rider’s opinion, is a minor tradeoff for the otherwise stellar performance of these tires.

Dunlop claims excellent wet weather performance thanks to a new tread design and, during my rides through light and moderate rain showers, the Elite 4s delivered, gripping confidently without hint of slipping—a much welcome improvement.

Based on initial wear, it could be a long time before I am able to report on total tread life. There is virtually no sign of wear after more than 2,000 miles of hard use. With the Elite 4, Dunlop may have just captured the trifecta of exceptional grip, wet weather performance and long, long tread life. 

For more information, see your dealer or visit dunlopmotorcycletires.com.

22 COMMENTS

  1. I ride a 2017 goldwing 165000 miles, always ran elite 3 , loved them. The elite 4 front tire has has groove in middle of tire , follows the grooves in concrete roads , don’t like. The rear tire elite 4 after about 1000 miles , lean right or left my bike has a vibration, back up straight goes away. With my elite 3 , after 20,000 or 21,000 miles on rear tire , my bike would get vibration, put a new elite 3 on , vibration went away. Don’t know if elite 4 tires are just this way, may try another manufacture of tires. I really liked the elite 3 tires, front and back usually got 25,000 miles out of each.

    • Its the crown in the highways cause the tires to wear on one side more,try switching lanes to kind of rotate the use. If you tend to ride the passing lane more then the right side of the tire wears more

  2. On my 2008 Goldwing I have reached 22,000 miles on my back elite 4. I did not show any signs of vibration or slipper age just no more ware line. My front elite 4 wore out at 19,000 with some capping. I am very happy with the elite 4 and will continue to use them on my bike. I ride ~ 100 miles a day with a mix of easy curves and freeway @ 80 MPH with sun shining to rainy weather condition.
    Thanks Dunlop for creating a long mileage, well handling tires.

  3. Just put 18K on my set of E4’s. I live in the Pacific NW and have ridden in some extreme rain. This tire held up fantastic and gave me confidence that the E3’s did not in extreme rain. Putting on another set of the E4’s on my 2016 Indian Chieftain.

  4. When Professor Trow writes “The 850-pound, high-torque Indian really puts a set of tires to the test when pushed through corners”; having taken one of his classes, you know that he pushed those tires to the extreme. I dont quite ride at Professor Trow’s pace, but I do love the twisty’s and I do put some big miles on my E4s over all conditions and weather. I’m on my fifth set of E4s and looking at putting on my 6th set. Call me overly cautious but I change the rubber at around 14,000 or earlier, even though there is still more to go on the old ones. I ride a Chieftain as well.

  5. Will be changing tyres on my 06 Goldwing in a couple of months. Always used either Metzeler or Bridgestone on other bikes. Wonder how these Dunlops will handle the Australian summer. Temp can be up to 50c in places. More investigation i think.

  6. Wayne Vander Jagt
    Wayne Vander Jagt I have no idea mine is a lowrider. Its a small bike maybe a tad bit bigger than a sportster. I dont like big baggers. Growing up riding bikes Ive come so close to crashing so many times but didnt because I had a small bike. People pull out in front of me cuz they cant see me. Most times u cant stop in time so you look right then left and make up ur mind which way ur going all in about 3/4 of a second. Last year was a dump truck pulled out covering my lane, saw me and just stopped right there. I looked under but big gas tank looked behind but another truck was there so I just laid it down as far as I could without coming out from under me watched the bumper fly by and then back as far as I could to the right so I wouldnt go off the road and made it. It was dang close but those Dunlop tires are so awesome. I was on the sidewall and it never lost grip.. I love my small bike. I’m old school I want to feel the wind in my face no windshield. The sound of the pipes not a radio. When I get done with a 4 hour ride I want to feel it in my bones acknowledging that I just had a great ride.
    Edit or delete this
    Li

  7. I ran Elite 3 on my Suzuki M109R for over ten yrs and loved them. Only got about 10k but what can you expect from a high torque m/c.. Only issue I had was a high speed wobble on sweeping on or off ramps. Tried E4 and they lasted around 12k , But.. They run harsh. You feel every bump. Didn’t like it. I’ll trade a smooth ride vs. a harsh ride if it on;y cost me a couple of k miles. Going back to E3 .

  8. I run E4 on my 2000 Aspencade and I get good handling on different road surfaces … grooves, tar snakes the tires don’t follow them or have a wobble … I run my tires at 41 pounds each and enjoy the ride
    Will I buy them again ??? Heck ya!

  9. 24000 miles on my elites. They are the original tires on my 2017 Indian Vintage, Best tire I ever had. I’ll change them for next season but would still have another 1000 miles easy on them.

  10. I had and elite 3 that came on my 2018 Indian Springfield over 27000km and in good condition until I picked up a screw in tire. Could not find an elite 3 to replace it went to an elite 4 only 15000 Km an tire is done not impressed , check tire pressure regularly and bike is equipped with tire pressure sensors .

  11. I have chords just showing at 13000 miles on my rear the front is crowned out pretty good, but for my riding style this is pretty impressive. I jam the canyons like a sport rider, and almost exclusively ride my bike as the car is severely neglected even loading it with a couple hundred pounds of tools. I tested these tires when new in heavy heavy rain (sheets of water flowing across all lanes) at 90+ Mph sustained and I didn’t hydroplane or slip a bit. Granted no abrupt movements such as braking or changing lanes. The bike I run elite 4’s on is a modified Honda shadow ace deluxe 750.

  12. I put a rear tire on at 42000 miles Dunlop elite 4 expecting long wear 2004 ultra classic at 47000 already wore out I don’t ride aggressive or do burn outs Very unsatisfied

  13. Riding GL 1800’s on this trip… avoid Metzler 888 for the wing.. during one recent trip our group had one rear one blow out on I-95, the next one blistered on ride back from Key West… then mine blistered in Maine….. we all tried the recommended 888’s .. [ yes tire pressures checked each morning, bikes in the shade etc ] AND the tires were purchased from various shops prior to long ride. The two up with trailer blew first, the two up blew second and my solo bike lasted the longer… the worst part is a returned to the shop I purchased mine from and started this process with Metzler… complete dicks to deal with did nothing… avoid them for any touring bike. [ we all own [ed] several bikes… avoid Metzer [ btw manufacture dates and locations were different among them ~ crap tire period/ worse service from Metzler… The E-4 worked and ran excellent is the list of this story, and avoid Metzler company!

  14. I ride a 1989 Venture royal XVZ 1300 which now has 180,000 KM on it. I am not a hard fast rider preferring to enjoy the scenery versus watching it go by in a blur.

    My last rear tire a Dunlop E4, had a big lengthwise split in middle of the tire (a split not a cut) and probing it revealed it was separating from the cord as well. It also started slipping in the corners. The tire still had better than 50% tread and was new in 21. As well it spent the past year sitting on my lift in the garage. This is the third set of Dunlop’s I had to replace before its time. The first set (E3’s) I replaced because the bike suddenly started to slide sideways on highway ramps at normal ramp speed, despite still having 30% tread, the rubber just got hard. The second set E4’s at about 50% developed the same slipping plus a bad case of hair line side wall cracks too numerous and deep to feel comfortable about. And now this second E4 with the 2 1/2 ” split to the cord down the inside of one of the grooves. Plus it too was starting to get slippery. I am done with high end Dunlop’s. If any thing I would go back to the 404. However I decided to give the SHINKO 777 a try since they seem to have a good following on my venture rider forum were other members have also complained about E4’s starting to slip at around 50% wear point. The SHINKO 777 may not wear as well as the E4’s but if I have to replace the E4’s at the 50% wear point that basically doubles the cost of the tire what good are they not to mention dangerous when they start slipping.

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