Steve,
This was a huge issue on the 2009 bikes when HD went to the D407F and D407R on the touring bikes. The tires cupped horribly. Dunlop then came out with a D708F in an attempt to rectify the issue. Here is my horror story:
New SERG Front Tire " Warranty" Replacement. See reply #11 for Dunlop's e mail to me.
Can't say why you observed "Looking at the new bikes on the floor and at pictures of new bikes, the tire runs the opposite direction of the one I bought." I have not seen this but maybe this explains it:
The D408F runs in the opposite direction of the D407R. The story I got here on our boards is that is the way it was originally designed but HD insisted the tires be in the same direction for aesthetic purposes. The follow up to the above thread is that I got 17K miles out of the new set, D408F and D408R and probably could have gone farther but I was leaving on a trip...
Hope this helps.
GK