Jim, I have the twin of your bike that I bought two years ago with 3000 miles. The stock rear lasted until 12K and I ride fairly aggressively. I. too, switched to the AE (Gen 2) and so far, it's good with about 9K on it. I have a MV ride in June and will likely add around 3500 miles on it on that trip.
This AE looks good enough that I don't plan to change it until I get back. I'll let you know how that works out.
Two thousand miles after the rear I swapped the front original due to cupping though not close to worn out at 14K. i switched it also to the AE Gen2.
Quoting myself to follow up.
I just returned from my Maggie Valley trip; with about 9K on the rear AE2 it looked good at the start but I didn't know if it would make the whole trip and back home.
It did not. Taking a scenic wandering route for days and then riding at Maggie Valley for three more and at 10,729 miles the AE2 looked done. At least done to the point that I decided not to ride it home. I had started the trip with the tread grooves in the center of the tread well-defined if a bit shallow. After a couple of days the grooves were pretty much gone in the center two inches, but you could easily see where the HAD been... a few more days and you couldn't find even a trace of the grooves in the center and it was time to bail. A few phone calls and I went to the Indian/Victory dealer right there in Waynesville and had it replaced with the same AE2.
FYI: HD Asheville was out of the AE but had a Commander II or the original D407/8.
Indian had The Commander II for 299 OTD and the AE was 320 OTD beating the HD dealer by 25 bux each.
The Indian Dealer was not busy, got me right in, done in an hour. Their service was exceptional.
The only issue I had (nit-picking here) the parts guy referred to the tire repeatedly as "E-3", "Elite 3".
I explained that they don't make an E3 in this size, do you have the tire that fits my bike, or do you have an E3?
It was a little frustrating, to the point that I had get him to pull the tire from the shelf to satisfy me that he was quoting the proper tire model/size/price. All because he kept calling it by the wrong model name.
He finally looks and says "yeah, that's it... it says "American Elite".
When I got there I verified it was an AE Gen2 tire.
I'm very happy with the service.