Tire tread patterns

[chipmunk]

Not sure what category this post should fall under, but here it goes anyway...

Motorcycle tire treads are reversed for front tire. Rear tread is pointed forward, designed to push the water out. But the front is reverse, because the front tire is the driven wheel, not the driving wheel. Basically, the road surface pushed against the tire.

Then doesn't it stand to reason that our RWD cars should follow the suit? Right now all my 4 tires are pointed forward, to push the water out. Asymmetric treads, so can't switch between left & right (unless I want to test my theory out).

Has anyone tested this out? Or thought about testing it out?

[Spuds]

Asymmetric tread patterns can be swapped left to right and front to back. The outside is always the outside. It's directional tread patterns that can only be swapped front to back, and not side to side.

I wouldn't try to compare motorcycle tires to car tires. While both are "tires" they have very different mechanical actions.

[EndlessAzure]

Originally Posted by Spuds

Asymmetric tread patterns can be swapped left to right and front to back. The outside is always the outside. It's directional tread patterns that can only be swapped front to back, and not side to side.

I wouldn't try to compare motorcycle tires to car tires. While both are "tires" they have very different mechanical actions.

Follow the mounting directions embossed on the tire sidewalls. That is the orientation they are designed to operate under for optimum grip and water evacuation (modern car tires can have a compound profile that varies across the width, in addition to preferred orientation for water channeling features). Do not use intuition too much to read into the shape of the tread pattern.


Car tires are either inside-outside (sidewall "outside" face should always face the outside of the car) or directional (sidewall "directional arrow" marking should point toward the front of the car).

• With directional tires, this inherently means that you cannot perform a cross-pattern tire rotation (i.e. left-to-right side) unless you actually separate/unmount the tire from the wheel and flipped the tire.

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by EndlessAzure

Follow the mounting directions embossed on the tire sidewalls. That is the orientation they are designed to operate under for optimum grip and water evacuation (modern car tires can have a compound profile that varies across the width, in addition to preferred orientation for water channeling features). Do not use intuition too much to read into the shape of the tread pattern.


Car tires are either inside-outside (sidewall "outside" face should always face the outside of the car) or directional (sidewall "directional arrow" marking should point toward the front of the car).

• With directional tires, this inherently means that you cannot perform a cross-pattern tire rotation (i.e. left-to-right side) unless you actually separate/unmount the tire from the wheel and flipped the tire.

Yes. That's what I said...

[Tcoat]

As said the mechanics of car tires are different than bikes. The car tire width means you can only push so much water out anyway. Bike tires have a much smaller contact patch and treads further up the sidewalls so they are gripping differently and have a much greater effect on steering and traction so they sometimes use a different tread front and back. There would be no advantage to doing this with cars.

[EndlessAzure]

Originally Posted by Spuds

Yes. That's what I said...

Sorry wrong post quote button

[gen3v8]

Show me your Motorcycle Chicken Strips

[Captain Snooze]

Nankang AR-1 has "this side out" but the tyres are asymmetrical. That is, the grooves face different directions depend which side of the car it's on.
I have a fleeting suspicion this is not the only tyre guilty of this.
Admittedly, this isn't a wet weather tyre.

[Wally86]

Originally Posted by gen3v8

Show me your Motorcycle Chicken Strips

https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/pace/

[ZDan]

I've run directional tires backwards (even in the wet) and I've run asymmetrical tires inside-out (only after 1/2-worn) at the track. It's not that big a deal...

Directional tread patterns are often more to do with noise/sound than with actual water evacuation capability. Car and Driver (a LONG time ago with a C4 Corvette) and Tire Rack (more recently) have tested directional tires mounted correctly and then backwards in the wet and there's barely if any measurable difference, which is probably within margin of error anyway.

Regarding motorcycles, the big difference is that the front tire sees as much as 100% braking while the rear sees very little, and the rear tire of course sees 100% of accelerative loads. Tires are also subject to cornering loads while braking and accelerating. Since the braking and acceleration loads are in opposite directions between front and rear tire, often the tread block orientations can look directionally opposite from each other in motorcycle tires. A lot of times the front and rear tread patterns between matched front and rear tires don't bear any resemblance to each other because the nature of how and when braking + cornering and acceleration + cornering loads are applied are very different as well...

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by ZDan

I've run directional tires backwards (even in the wet) and I've run asymmetrical tires inside-out (only after 1/2-worn) at the track. It's not that big a deal...

Directional tread patterns are often more to do with noise/sound than with actual water evacuation capability. Car and Driver (a LONG time ago with a C4 Corvette) and Tire Rack (more recently) have tested directional tires mounted correctly and then backwards in the wet and there's barely if any measurable difference, which is probably within margin of error anyway.

Regarding motorcycles, the big difference is that the front tire sees as much as 100% braking while the rear sees very little, and the rear tire of course sees 100% of accelerative loads. Tires are also subject to cornering loads while braking and accelerating. Since the braking and acceleration loads are in opposite directions between front and rear tire, often the tread block orientations can look directionally opposite from each other in motorcycle tires. A lot of times the front and rear tread patterns between matched front and rear tires don't bear any resemblance to each other because the nature of how and when braking + cornering and acceleration + cornering loads are applied are very different as well...

I have done this too trying to eek the last bit of life out of a tire. Didn't notice a difference in the dry. Doubt it would have mattered in the wet either considering it was pretty much bald at that point

A quick google search of " Y R front tire bakwards motorpickle" pretty much says the same thing about the difference in tread pattern direction. That and the profile and narrow contact point doesn't have too much issue shedding water anyway.

[chipmunk]

Originally Posted by gen3v8

Show me your Motorcycle Chicken Strips

About 1" on the front; nothing left on the rear; a handful left in the freezer.

[chipmunk]

Originally Posted by ZDan

I've run directional tires backwards (even in the wet) and I've run asymmetrical tires inside-out (only after 1/2-worn) at the track. It's not that big a deal...

Quite interesting! Now I want to try that theory out. Unfortunately my snow tires are symmetric. Summer tires are asymmetric though