I was out on the Street Triple R today and enjoying a cuppa at Box Hill when Daryl walks over and points out to me that the Triumphs front tyre is all wrong
"The tread pattern (on the front tyre) will push the surface water back towards the centre of the tyre", he says.
Must admit it looked that way to me when I thought about it. But the arrow was pointing forward as is required by law. The rear tyre had the tread 180 degrees different and appeared ok (as did the arrow).
Does Daryl have a point here or did Dunlop (and quite a few other manufacturers) get it wrong when sorting their tyre moulds
Front Tyre
Rear tyre
Does anyone say Daryl is wrong here He speaks as an ex tyre fitter
Stuart. M1030M1, Honda NC700S, Grom!, Toyota Corolla 1.4 Turbo Diesel. Favouring MPG over MPH.
I would think Daryl is wrong, my VF Honda has a 16" front wheel that were popular quite a few years ago now everbody has gone for 17" front and back. Because 16" is quite rare when I needed a new tyre they got me a AVON ROADRIDER which is either a front tyre or a rear tyre, with two arrows pointing in either direction, as its fitted on the front the tread pattern goes the same as yours.
I read an article about some motorcycles tires having a reversed tread on the front, but can't remember all the details. From what I can recall the rear tire is optimized for accelerating and pushing the bike through rain. The front tire is optimized for braking. Under hard braking the forces on the front tire are reversed. Therefore some of anti-hydroplaning capability is sacrificed for increased braking capability. Hope that helps.
Dieselbikin is correct. Tractor tires with chevron treads show the same idea. Imagine your back tire spinning in water (or mud)...you want the water that gets grabbed by the slots to naturally be forced to the outside of the tire while it is spinning. For that to happen, the "point" of the chevron should be pointed to the rear of the bike where the tire contacts the ground, with the "wings" of the chevron spreading towards the front of the bike. The front tire is not powered (unless it is a Track:-) so the only force is a braking force, so the tread pattern must be reversed to produce the desired effect...essentially like the tire is driving in the opposite direction. We see this all the time on combines with treaded rear tires, which are installed the opposite way to the drive tires. It doesn't look as good, but it works the way it is supposed to. Dunlop and the others were correct.