[Volkmeister]

The Chieftain has blackwall tires instead of the wide whitewalls that come with the Vintage and Classic. I like the old-school look of the whitewall tires and was wondering which tires I can get to achieve that look without compromising safety when it comes time to change them. The bike comes with Dunlop Elite 3 130/90B16 73H in front and 180/60R16 80H in the rear. The spec sheet shows the Chieftain only 18 lbs heavier than the Vintage with a full tank. Any tire guys out there who can shed light on this?

 

[lou8700]

There is another thread 'This looks nice'. You might try giving them a call and ask.

 

[Spur]

Dunlop makes a 180/65 B16 and a 130/90 B16 in WWW. For HD FL models, probably close enough

 

[Indijoe]

We recently had a guy want to change to whitewalls on a Chieftain at the dealership where I work and they said it would't be a problem. The Dunlops mentioned above sound about right to me. The guy also wanted to put spoke wheels on the Chieftain, that wouldn't work. I like the spoke wheels on my Classic, but I really wish I could get tubeless tires on the bike. BMW makes a spoked, tubeless wheel on their dual sport bikes. The spokes are crossed and placed on the outer edge of the rim rather than down the center. Of course the BMW weighs less than 500#'s too. That extra weight on the Classic and Vintage pre-clude that...

 

[Xlr8]

There are companies out there that will "seal" you spoke wheels so you can run tubeless tires.