Dunlop D404 Tires | Gear Review
The Author’s 2006 Triumph T100 Bonneville, fitted with D404’s. Photo by Clement Salvadori
I?ve worn out a lot of tires in the last 66 years of riding, and I have no real memory or record of what I used when and on what bike. I am sure I had a lot of Dunlops, as they have been around a long time. Back in the late 1880s, John Boyd Dunlop made the first practical pneumatic tire for bicycles, which were a lot more comfortable to ride than bikes with solid rubber tires. In 1901, he started the Dunlop Rubber Company, which now belongs to Sumitomo Rubber Industries.Â
Dunlop describes these D404s as fitting ?standard? motorcycles, and they don?t get much more standard than my 2006 Triumph T100 Bonneville. I call these tires universal-use, reasonably good at everything, from wet pavement to dirt roads. My Bonnie is pretty much an all-around, local-use machine, happy with doing errands or a 200-mile day. Around here we do have all sorts of roads, from smooth asphalt to pothole specials, and lots of good dirt roads, from Gillis Canyon to Cypress Mountain.Â
I find the tread to be pleasingly chunky, and Dunlop says the design enhances wet grip and water evacuation. Since we are in a drought here in our part of California, I can?t attest to those functions. The off-set center groove is intended to improve straight-line stability, and I can?t fault that, as on some deserted back roads I just might exceed the speed limit.
The carcass is a bias-ply design, w...
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