ASK THE MXPERTS: DISCONTINUED OR CONTINUED MX3S TIRES

Dear MXperts,
I thought that Dunlop had withdrawn the MX3S and replaced it with the MX33, but lo and behold, my  new KTM came from the factory with the discontinued Dunlop MX3S tires. What gives?

Stick with us on this, because it seems a little loopy. Although it was assumed that the Dunlop MX3S combo had been discontinued when the Dunlop MX33 was introduced, this wasn’t completely true, which accounts for why some 2020 motocross bikes and 2021 off-road bikes are being spec’ed with MX3S tires (instead of the later generation MX33 tires).

Most MXA test riders feel that the MX3S front tire is better than the Dunlop MX33; however, Dunlop had doubts about the MX3S’s viability because the front tire had the nasty habit of chunking knobs off the side of the tread pattern. It should be noted that most of the chunking happened when riders misused the intermediate-terrain MX3S and rode it on hard-pack terrain (or more innocently rode it on intermediate tracks that had hard-packed corner exits). As the failures mounted, Dunlop decided to discontinue the front and rear MX3S tires.

However, some manufacturers wanted to mount the MX3S on their 2020 models, mostly notably KTM and Husqvarna. So, Dunlop made complete sets of MX3S tires (front and rear) available as an OEM tire; however,  they originally said that the rear MX3S would not being sold through dealerships in the United States (except for leftover stock). However, since then, we have seen Dunlop MX3S front and rear tires in some dealerships and the MX3S tires on are still on the Dunlop Motorcycle Tires corporate website. But, a quick check of the major motorcycle tire distributors found that most of them are not offering the MX3S. We assume, given this evidence that Dunlop has indeed discontinued the MX3S, but you can never tell. This tire refuses to die.