Strong Dunlop presence at Harley-Davidson anniversary festival

Dunlop has hailed the official birthday party for Harley-Davidson a success after over 100,000 visitors reportedly attended the ‘Celebrating 115 years of Freedom’ festival in Prague, Czech Republic. Dunlop maintained a strong presence at the event, with its official motorsport tyre fitting service on site. The Dunlop team also displayed the brand’s extensive range of exclusive co-branded Harley-Davidson tyres.

The event was the first public show appearance of the Dunlop D429 tyre, following Harley-Davidson announcing that its latest Fat Bob and Fat Bob S are now fitted with the distinctive scrambler-like tyre. Like many of the exclusively developed tyres, the D429 features Harley-Davidson/Dunlop branding on the sidewalls.

In addition to the Festival being a significant birthday for Harley-Davidson, Dunlop also had its own birthday to celebrate. 2018 is the 130th anniversary of John Boyd Dunlop’s patent for the world’s first practical pneumatic tyre.

The company’s official OEM supply partnership with Harley-Davidson began 37 years ago when Dunlop was chosen as the approved tyre for the Sportster. Last year, Dunlop supplied its 10 millionth original equipment tyre to Harley-Davidson.

More than 60,000 bikers and about 40,000 other visitors from over 70 countries revved into Prague, making it the biggest anniversary festival for the motorcycles outside of Harley-Davidson’s home of Milwaukee, USA, where a similar party takes place in August.

“Dunlop has 130 years of tyre making experience and nearly a third of the brand’s life has been spent working closely with Harley-Davidson,” comments Luca Andreoni, Dunlop Motorcycle marketing manager, Europe. “Dunlop engineers have worked with Harley-Davidson to develop tyres that meet the stringent performance standard demanded by such a premium manufacturer. That’s why our tyres are authorised to carry the official Harley-Davidson logo.”