Dunlop Roadsmart Update

Two Brothers

Walking, Talking, and Smiling!
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Some of you may know I have pursued this Dunlop failure thing with a vengence. I was finally able to get a local D rep that would listen to me and forward emails to the right people.

With the threads created here I forwarded them the info. It seems they have sat up and took notice.

I know they sent call tags to some of the members here for the bad tires.

These tires were produced in France and they have narrowed the time frame down on production of these. They have the engineering dept looking into it and the legal dept. They would not come right ou tand say they would produce a recall on the tires. I tried to explain what this has done to the brand Roadsmart in the ST Owners minds.

They claim that those tires in that production run have been used up and things should be fine now. I expressed it would hard to win over the past Dunlop customers who had these tires of that.

I was also told that they only knew of about 14 or 15 tires that had this problem. This is why I wanted to do a poll and see how many we had here.

Thanks for all the help with this guys, maybe we'll get it straight.
 

wjbertrand

Ventura Highway
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I don't care if they do fix the problem and issue a recall. My defective RoadSmarts are long gone and there are too many other good choices out there to bother with them again. I don't think I'd accept a free pair at this point. Thanks for your persistence though.
 
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I've now got over 13,000 miles on my second set of RoadSmarts and they (Rear) are ready for replacement. Got about 13,400 from the first rear and didn't have a problem at all. The second picked up a large nail only 3,000 miles into the run - plugged it, kept my speeds to a reasonable level and STILL no problems.

Frankly, I think Dunlop has gotten an overly enthusiastic bad rap from users for what likely WAS as very small number of tires. Next week the third set will be mounted. Until I can figure out how to obtain and mount something other than the Z rated tires I will continue with the RoadSmart. :)
 

v8-7

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I bought my bike used, about 2 months ago, with RoadSmarts
( unknown mileage and dates ) on it.

It would be nice to know if my tires were in the bad batch.


Thanks
 
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Frankly, I think Dunlop has gotten an overly enthusiastic bad rap from users for what likely WAS as very small number of tires.
"Overly enthusiastic" - you mean people were too quick to throw up pictures of their blistered front tires? I had never even heard of a blistered tire on the street until the bubbled Roadsmart tires started showing up on almost a weekly basis at one point. That's good enough reason for me to give them a "bad rap." :(
 

Mellow

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The only way I'm going to feel some restored faith is if the lots which were supposedly the issue were exposed.. then, we could have members check their tires and any future - hopefully none - failures we could at least say 'yes, that was one of the bad lots' or 'no, Houston we still have a problem'.
 

STDaveNW

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Frankly, I think Dunlop has gotten an overly enthusiastic bad rap from users for what likely WAS as very small number of tires. Next week the third set will be mounted. Until I can figure out how to obtain and mount something other than the Z rated tires I will continue with the RoadSmart. :)
I loved my roadsmarts until the bubble.
Easy to say when your not 500 miles from home with a bubble.
 
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EVERY manufacturer likely has had, at one time or another, a defect problem. In nearly fifty years of riding I've had blisters on at least four different makes and styles. How many of you remember tube type tires and the problems they had? What we are being offered now is far above the quality that was expected just 20 years ago. When we as a community band together after just a few failures from a new type/style, (the poll only shows FIVE reported) and say that all of the products from that manufacturer are worthless ... that's what I mean by over enthusiastic. The 'Black List' attitude is not entirely justified.

I seem to recall in the last couple of weeks an accident reported in which a tire blew and two of our riders were injured. I don't recall that tire as a Dunlop ... do we now assume that every tire from that maker is to be avoided? Of course not.

Don't forget, these tires, and all others come from an assembly line that probably makes hundreds, or thousands, a day. At that rate just a 30 minute window of inattention by an assembly worker, or a few pounds of resin and support compound, can cause a problem that is difficult for the manufacturers quality control department to track down.

When Mellow says he'd like to know the lot numbers of the failures and the suspected lot numbers from the factory... THAT'S the right way to approach it. This board represents how many ST owners? 17 - 18,000? If everybody just jumps up and yells, "Dunlop's are crap, and I don't care what they do to fix the problem!" Do you think Dunlop will take us seriously?

On the other hand, if we 17,000 owners all do something to constructively ask Dunlop to address the problem and maybe get our business back I think they would be foolish not to listen.

Throw rocks at me if you wish, I don't care one way or the other. I've always had good luck with Dunlops on every bike I've owned. And even if I get a blister I'd just say that's the way it goes sometimes. If we were provided a product that was 100 percent perfect and was guaranteed not to fail I'd expect to pay MUCH more than we do now. We live in a real world and with reality comes product failures...

Oh .. and easy to say until 500 miles away from home with a bubble? BEEN THERE... DONE THAT... had to limp one weekend from Eastern Wisconsin, across the UP of Michigan, across the Mackinac Bridge down to Cheboygan on a blistered rear Michelin. Running two up on the shoulder of the road at 15-20 MPH all the way. Would I buy a Michelin again.. maybe, but you folks have me concerned that the darn things cup too easily ... :D
 
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When I had my problems with the Dunlops it was the third set. The first two sets were really good! It would be interesting to know if it was indeed a bad batch.
:dr13:
 
OP
OP
Two Brothers

Two Brothers

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Hey guys posted this Christmas day but I think it got lost in the upgrade.

It's an update that I received Christmas Eve.

I want to thank everybody that had problems and helped out returning tires and sending emails.

I'm not sure if anyone is still running these tires.

Hope it helps.
 

Attachments

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Well...the fact that they admitted there was a problem ... is good. The bad comes in several different flavors.

1 you get a "new" tire like the one that failed
2 I filed a formal complaint, took lots of photos....asked the people to save the tire (they didn't) so have no tire to send to them.

I wonder what's going to happen when I throw my fit? LOL :)

Thanks, by the way....for going out of your way to put some pressure on Dunlop! You guys do a great job.
 

v8-7

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Thanks for your perseverance and your contribution to causing this to happen.

I'll be getting my replacement soon .
 
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I was contacted by Dunlop this morning. The conversation was very positive.

1 they had my original report close at hand...I didn't have to jump through hoops
2 they told me that changes had been made to the tire to address the issue
3 they advised that a new tire would be shipped to me the middle of January....
4 they said a check for $60 would be sent the first part of February for the mounting expense

The Dunlop representitive was very professional and all that was discussed was positive. I am very sure that all who reported this issue to Dunlop or their dealer will be treated with the same level of professionalism. Good goin' Dunlop....and hurrah for all dealers national wide who went to bat for their customers. A huge thanks to Two Brothers! Good goin' guys.....
 
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I got my letter today and as luck has it my old tire is still out in the garage. Not sure why I kept it when I got rid of my last batch of used tires. I am still not sure I want use the replacement. I really like the PR2 I put on when the Roadsmart failed. The PR2 has 11K on it looks like it will go a few thousand more miles.
 

st11ray

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What changes did they make to the new tire? How many who had a problem would actually want another one of their tires without knowing what the changes are?
 
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They called last week, sending me a check for $60 and a new tire. Tried to get them to apply the cost to a 427F for the front of my Fat Bob, but no go.
 
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I was at the Calgary Bike show this past weekend and they did have an ST on the floor which surprised me but even more surprised to discover it had Roadsmarts on it! The Honda rep was raving about the dual compound, it's the latest and greatest. He didn't want to hear about the negatives about the tire at all. He just kind of glazed over and walked away. Oh well.
 
OP
OP
Two Brothers

Two Brothers

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OK glad to hear that they are coming clean and taking care of the problem. I'll make sure that I pass this along to the Dunlop reps I deal with.
 

v8-7

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About 3 weeks ago I contacted my local shop that I have used for service and tire changing .

They hadn't heard about the recall but said the Dunlop rep was coming in later in the week.

The Dunlop rep said the recall was only for tires that had a problem.

What an idiot .

I showed the letter you posted here to to my shop and he agreed with me .

He contacted dunlop directly and ok'd my replacement .

In fact , the shop also had a tire in inventory that needed to be replaced.

Thanks again, Stan
 
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