# Tyre treads - does it matter which way?



## kishin (18 Jul 2011)

After a recent spate of punctures, I invested in a pair of marathon pluses which I put on the bike over the weekend. Before I put them on, I looked to see if there was any indication on the sidewall of how they should be put on but couldn't see anything and just fitted them anyway.

On my ride yesterday morning, I noticed that the tread seemed to be facing backwards and on looking again, I could see a direction arrow on the sidewall which showed that I'd put both tyres on backwards.


I'm probably going to change them to the right way around over the next day or two but I wonder if anyone knows what difference it would make if I didn't. Would I face some dire consequence just for having two bike tyres on the wrong way around?


----------



## Cyclopathic (18 Jul 2011)

I don't think it is as dire as the old warnings about mixing crossply and radials on the same axel of a car. I put mine on the right way round simply because it is the recomended way to do it. I have no idea if it makes any difference at all but it does provide people with an oportunity to show off that they even know that there is a right and a wrong way to align tyres when someone comes along with them on the wrong way. For this reason alone it is worth putting them on correctly as there is nothing worse than the derision of some know it all as they smugly tell you that you've done it wrong.


----------



## jig-sore (18 Jul 2011)

i can only guess that it has something to do with the way the tread expels the water ???

but then i have heard that it makes no difference at all.

i suppose it would be more important on big knobbly MTB tyres.


----------



## abo (18 Jul 2011)

Cyclopathic said:


> I don't think it is as dire as the old warnings about mixing crossply and radials on the same axel of a car.



That takes me back!!!

[media]
]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c23MFIKiVdE[/media]


----------



## pepecat (18 Jul 2011)

Presumably you won't have to change the front tyre - just take the wheel off, turn it round and put it back on again?

I understand it to be somthing to do with the way water is 'sprayed' from the wheel - the tread helps direct the water in a (upside down) V shape away from the wheel and is meant to give a bit more grip. But i might be wrong.....


----------



## HLaB (18 Jul 2011)

If you have a lot of tread on your tyre it'll make a difference in which way surface water is dispersed (thrown forward on to your legs) I could be wrong but I doubt it'd make a difference to the p'ture fairy especially if its a fairly slick tyre.


----------



## subaqua (18 Jul 2011)

pepecat said:


> Presumably you won't have to change the front tyre - just take the wheel off, turn it round and put it back on again?




unless you have OCD and quick releases and don't want the release lever on diferent sides


----------



## HLaB (18 Jul 2011)

pepecat said:


> Presumably you won't have to change the front tyre - just take the wheel off, turn it round and put it back on again?



Remove your QR Skewer before doing that, it just wouldn't be right on the right side


----------



## Angelfishsolo (18 Jul 2011)

Yep tread direction on road tyres is to do with water dispersal. On a MTB it is more to do with grip and mud shedding.


----------



## Norm (18 Jul 2011)

As the rear tyre moves the ground, whereas the front is moved by the ground, tread patterns for dispersing mud and/ or water should be reversed anyway. 

As no-one worries about that, I'd say it's pretty irrelevant.


----------



## Angelfishsolo (18 Jul 2011)

Norm said:


> As the rear tyre moves the ground, whereas the front is moved by the ground, tread patterns for dispersing mud and/ or water should be reversed anyway.
> 
> As no-one worries about that, I'd say it's pretty irrelevant.


Many tyres have arrows indicating front and rear useage


----------



## steve52 (18 Jul 2011)

i also did this once but found that i could sit on the handelbars and ride backwards, this helped ease all my worrys


----------



## BSRU (18 Jul 2011)

My conti GP 4 seasons do not have a direction indicator, apparently according to another forum someone emailed Continental about GP4 seasons and the reply was it makes no difference.


----------



## abo (18 Jul 2011)

Angelfishsolo said:


> Many tyres have arrows indicating front and rear useage



+1 my Double Fighters are directional and have arrows showing which way to fit them. The Innovas I have don't, but looking at the block pattern they look like they are directional too, but the tyres don't say and I'm trying to decide which way they go...


----------



## kishin (18 Jul 2011)

I'm probably pretty anal but I've now changed them over even though I can't really see the direction of the tread making any major difference to performance, particularly as my last tyres were quite slick - I don't see how having a reversed tread can be inferior to having no tread in terms of grip or water dispersal.


pepecat said:


> Presumably you won't have to change the front tyre - just take the wheel off, turn it round and put it back on again?


I couldn't do that because of the disc brakes.....


----------



## HLaB (18 Jul 2011)

BSRU said:


> My conti GP 4 seasons do not have a direction indicator, apparently according to another forum someone emailed Continental about GP4 seasons and the reply was it makes no difference.



The base Gran Prix's do have a indicator but I think the 'makes no difference' response is apt to them too


----------

