ChromeWorld Motorcycle Parts and Accessories Blog

As promised, here is the update on the Goldwing tire situation. While at the trade show in Indianapolis I had the opportunity to spend some time with the folks from Dunlop. I’ll bet you won’t be surprised to learn that I was there with just about every other tire dealer in this great land of ours. We all listened while Dunlop painted a very nice picture of the future supply of tires and told us that all was well with the world. Well, call me a skeptic. But while the other dealers nodded their approval and walked off smiling at the thought of no more back orders, I set out to find someone in the know.

I ended up having a nice friendly chat with a fellow by the name of Ed. Ed billed himself as the production manager for motorcycle tires at the Tonawanda facility in Buffalo, New York so I felt like I would be able to get some good information. Once we got past the everything is fine and dandy corporate talking points, Ed and and I talked for a while about what was going on behind the scenes at Dunlop.

As you may recall from my earlier posts I have been concerned with Dunlop’s ability to maintain aftermarket supply after taking on new OEM projects for Harley Davidson. Dunlop has made no secrete of their production priorities. In short, they are supplying OEM tires first, followed by OEM dealer replacement tires and, finally, aftermarket tires. According to Ed, Dunlop was able to fulfill OEM tire production during the strike by using management and replacement workers. Now that the stike is over Dunlop is working on filling the OEM replacement and the aftermarket orders. They are starting with the most popular tires which means they are making Qualifiers. While Elite IIIs are not at the very top of the list, they are by no means at the bottom either. One saving grace may be that they have to make the Elite III for the OEMs so they are likely to continue those production runs to pump out a few aftermarket tires while they are at it.

I asked Ed about the shortages that occurred last year prior to the strike. Ed acknowledged that new OEM contracts had pushed back production of aftermarket tires. As a means of addressing that problem as well as the back log caused by the strike, Dunlop has converted some capacity at the Tonawanda plant from automotive applications to motorcycle applications. They have also converted some overseas production to pick up some of the motorcycle back log.

I have to admit that I was pleased to hear what Ed was telling me. Dunlop appears to have taken the very corrective measures I suggested were necessary in my previous posts. If what Ed says is true, then Dunlop is making a serious effort to right the ship. And hopefully, once Dunlop catches up with demand, they will be beyond the shortages we have seen since early 2006. But there’s the rub. Keeping up with demand is a lot easier than catching up with demand.

Around here the days are starting to turn warm and tires are selling like hot cakes. The riding season is here and Dunlop has had only about two months to play catch up since the strike ended. They’ve done a fairly good job as most of our back orders have been filled and we have seen quite a few truck loads of tires come in. We have been able to clear our customer’s back orders on all Elite IIIs with the exception of the GL1500 rear tires. I’m expecting a load of them in mid March. But, and this is a big but, all of our suppliers are currently low or out of the Elite IIIs when, normally, they would be fully stocked at this time of year.

So here is the bottom line. Things are looking better but we have some catching up to do. I’m still advising my customers to order tires before they need them. That way you won’t end up sitting out that ice cream ride or even worse, getting hurt on bad tires because you couldn’t stand to keep your baby in the garage. The good news is that if Dunlop continues with their current production levels we shouldn’t see any back orders exceeding thirty days. That is a heck of an improvement over last year. Additionaly, Metzler, Bridgestone, Avon, and Michelin are making great tires for the Goldwing. All of those manufacturers are aware of the Dunlop shortage and have taken measures to increase their production numbers to pick up the slack. All of these tires perform well and would make a great alternative to the Elite III.