Topic: tire on backwards

[thelowmax]

I recently had my front tire replaced. When I got home I realized the guy had put the tire on backwards. Since I won't be able to get it changed for several days, I'm wondering... how sketchy is this situation? Am I in danger? Due to the design of the tread (designed to direct water away from the tire), I'm avoiding riding on any wet surface, but am unsure of just how this will effect road grip. Any comments?

[LesterPiglet]

Sorry no experience of this but I'm sure as long as you don't do any extrememe riding in the meantime you could manage a couple of days with it like that.

[toytuff]

Just makes you shake your head huh? 

tt

[dhall57]

Get it remounted so it will be in the correct rotational direction. That's how the tire was designed to run. I had one installed wrong on my 750KO and Cycle Gear remounted it at no charge.

[surveywaters]

It will wear fast and start to cup, may also be a bit grabby. I would just pop it off and flip it real quick, if you ride it to long you'll sacrifice tire life big time.

[Stoli]

I read an article that I will try to dig up about this subject. The rotation direction of tires is more about tire construction than water diversion. Has to do with the stress on the particular tire - front is used for stopping and rear for accelerating. That is why if you notice the tires that can be used for front and rear (Avons for example) are mounted in opposite directions. So if you are riding your bike in the mean time, instead of avoiding water, you should be more concerned with avoiding fast starts and hard stops.

[754]

It has to do with the direction the cord is wound, but also tread..re squeezing water out.
 I had one put on backwards in SLC, rode back before I realized it.  A split line formed across the tire, and it was very easy to lock up the tire.. It was a cheap rear tire. The line across tye tire never got worse, i think I turned the tire around, but I had well over a thousand miles on it when I noticed..

[BobbyR]

http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com/Riding/Street/Resources/TireDesignations.aspx

This will tell you what youneed to know about tires andthere is a section on rotation direction. One reason may surprise you.

[Don R]

http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com/Riding/Street/Resources/TireDesignations.aspx

This will tell you what youneed to know about tires andthere is a section on rotation direction. One reason may surprise you.

Thanks, that's usefull information.

[Powderman]

How did you determine it was on backwards? Is there a directional arrow on the tire? Did you go by the tread pattern compared to the rear tread? Was it the installers fault or did you not tell him what direction the wheel was?

The directional ply of the make up of a tire was made evident in the F1 race 2 weeks ago when several cars had left rear tire delaminations. They immediately changed the direction the plys go on the next race. This is explained briefly in the link below.

[Johnie]

Had a dealership do that to me a while ago. Keep in mind the yellow dot on the tire is where the valve stem should be located. I say this as if the guy did not know about rotation he maybe does not know what the yellow dot on that side wall is for either.

[thelowmax]

How did you determine it was on backwards? Is there a directional arrow on the tire? Did you go by the tread pattern compared to the rear tread? Was it the installers fault or did you not tell him what direction the wheel was?

The directional ply of the make up of a tire was made evident in the F1 race 2 weeks ago when several cars had left rear tire delaminations. They immediately changed the direction the plys go on the next race. This is explained briefly in the link below.

There is a directional arrow on the side. I bought it on eBay, rim and all. Nice rim, new tire on backward. I didn't notice until I put it on. I'll switch it when I get home from my trip. Thanks for the info.

[LesterPiglet]

The directional ply of the make up of a tire was made evident in the F1 race 2 weeks ago when several cars had left rear tire delaminations. They immediately changed the direction the plys go on the next race.

That made for an interesting race, I didn't know that was the problem.

[Stoli]

Here is the article. In Avon's case, the water dispersion (tread pattern) takes a back seat to the tread splice. Why they make tires that fit both front and rear is a mystery to me, but I can only assume it is to save a buck.

http://cyrilhuzeblog.com/2009/08/23/tires-directional-arrows-explained-by-avon-tyres/

[lucky]

If a dealership puts your tire on backwards do not do any more business with them.

It is a sign they do not know or care what they are doing.
They should not be working on motorcycles.

Ask yourself this question.

IF YOU were putting the tire on the motorcycle would you check
 to see that it is facing the proper direction?  OK then.

[Powderman]

The directional ply of the make up of a tire was made evident in the F1 race 2 weeks ago when several cars had left rear tire delaminations. They immediately changed the direction the plys go on the next race.

That made for an interesting race, I didn't know that was the problem.

The belts are wrapped essentially like a watch spring. When under power you want the spring to wind tight not unwind. The Pirelli's where wrapped the wrong way.They immediately started to wrap them the opposite way using kevlar belts for the next race.

[reddyvv]

Here is the article. In Avon's case, the water dispersion (tread pattern) takes a back seat to the tread splice. Why they make tires that fit both front and rear is a mystery to me, but I can only assume it is to save a buck.

http://cyrilhuzeblog.com/2009/08/23/tires-directional-arrows-explained-by-avon-tyres/

I posted a question about this in June's best bike contest. I saw that two of the bikes had the front tire tread backwards where water would be directed into the tire rather than away from it. It was explained that they were universal tires for front and rear. I would never buy such a tire with the tread working against me in the wet 

[seanbarney41]

I've seen several tread designs that appear to be backwards based on traditional "water shedding away from the center" type tread patterns.  I would guess there is more than meets the eye involved here as all these tires are modern designs by reputable tire companies that certainly spend plenty designing tread patterns that work in the wet.  Also, most of these tires have recieved good results from independant testing and customer feedback...unless you are some kind of tire engineer, all you can really do is buy quality tires and mount them with the arrow pointing in the right direction, and if they don't work good. don't buy 'em again.

[Powderman]

You would think the tread pattern would take water from the center of the tread and direct away to the outside. My new tire was mounted and I questioned why it was backwards but they showed me the directional arrow on it showing it was correct. The rear is suppose to direct water away under exceleration while the front takes the water from the outside during cornering and directs it to the center.

[lucky]

If you took a wheel in without the bike and did not supply direction to the tech or the bike make/model I would not blame him if he copied an existing error. How would he know what side of the bike the rotor is on? Just sayin is all and we are only human.

It is up to the tech to ASK you which is the drive side. Which bike. It should be on the work order.
The mechanic when mounting your tire should be thinking, how will I know what direction the drive side is? Then he would call you. OR Google it. But like I said a good service writer or mechanic would ask you when you drop off the wheel,
"We are only human" is not an excuse for a mechanic.

BTW .. If you take the wheel in to get the tire change and you drop wheel spacers in the parking lot or their car, that is not the mechanics fault.

If I was the service writer or mechanic I would write that on the ticket. "Came in WITH or WITHOUT wheel spacers" Drive side is the side with the sprocket or drive missing. LOL..lol Duh CB 750.... left side.

[Vinhead1957]

If you take a tire off the rim you should know which direction it should be put back on!   Just saying?

[petercb750]

Some tyres can actually be reversed, we did it back in the 70s when racing on low budgets on mainly right hand corner tracks.....only problem I ever had with that was an avon, and it hurt
But you'll notice that K81s have arrows pointing in both directions.....one way for front, other way for rear.......
Why? I don't know.

[pangloss]

YEP...Entirely correct.. The K81 was used front and rear .Every Commando I owned used 4.10 x 19 k81 front and rear....rotation was important as even the puny 35-40 hp would unfold the laminate if incorrectly fitted. AND heavy braking did the same to an incorrectly fitted front.

[DH]

Recently, a local dealer did a re-balance on the front tire of my cbr600rr (weights flew off). The mechanic reinstalled the WHEEL/TIRE
assy. on backwards (yes, it is possible), and as a result, the tire was rotating in the wrong direction.... Only thing that made me suspicious was that the front brakes seemed to be dragging slightly
when jockeying the bike around to park it, etc. After a hundred miles and a few high speed blasts, something was ever so subtly different
in the way the bike handled. That's when I discovered the reversed directional arrow. Keeping a cool and friendly demeanor, I talked to the shop service manager, who handled the situation very well
from start to finish, and directed one of the younger techs to
fix my bike. I WILL do business there again. But lesson learned,
ALWAYS make sure your tires and wheels are correctly orientated,
SOHC 4 or modern sport bike.

[Duanob]

Bobbr has it all:

The other big reason for noting wheel direction has to do with the manufacturing process. The tread rubber is initially a flat strip that's cut to length, at an angle, and then spliced together with the two ends overlapping, creating a hoop. Under acceleration, a tire mounted backwards will try to peel back this splice. The opposite is true for the front wheel, where directional forces are reversed under hard braking.

the PO had my front tire mounted backwards. I was always concerned about it but I'd heard that its fine the directional/power driven direction was mostly for the rear tire. I never felt a problem with the way it performs so I left it. Now I know for sure.

[thelowmax]

I recently had my front tire replaced. When I got home I realized the guy had put the tire on backwards. Since I won't be able to get it changed for several days, I'm wondering... how sketchy is this situation?

It was the front wheel that got the tire replaced so like you the tech did not read the information, no excuse part of being human right?

"We are only human" is not an excuse for a mechanic.

If I was the service writer or mechanic I would write that on the ticket. "Came in WITH or WITHOUT wheel spacers" Drive side is the side with the sprocket or drive missing. LOL..lol Duh CB 750.... left side.

OK. Just the facts. I bought this tire on eBay, rim and new tire, to use on a pre-76 cb750. When I got it, I barely opened the box, other than enough to give a quick look at the tread and chrome. It came with a disc attached, so directionally, it was pretty obvious which way the tire should go. The tire I had on my 78 cb750k was getting pretty bald, so when I took the bike to get inspected, I brought along the tire to put on temporarily, until my new front and rear tires get delivered... Bridgestone Spitfires with the raised white lettering. I told my mechanic, a very competent fellow, to put it on, and that it was temporary. He actually did notice but told me he figured I knew it was backwards, it was temporary, and wasn't that big of a deal (plus he got to bust my chops about it).

Ultimately, I rode my bike in the rain on the highway and really couldn't tell any difference from the last time I rode in the rain with a nearly bald tire.