Importance of tire direction when mounted

[Mel46]

Recently my wife had the front tire on her pcx chnged at the dealer. Yesterday, when the bikes were parked side by side, I noticed that the grooves on her front tire went in the opposite direction that her back tire, and my front and back tires, were mounted. On a car I know that it is essenial to mount them correctly. How important is it on a scooter? We have Michelin City Grips on our bikes. Should I go back to the dealer to get the tire remounted in the correct direction?

[MikeP]

I would take a picture of the two bikes and go back to the dealer.
I don't know the science around tire direction, but my Pirelli's clearly state tire direction on them.
I can see it is critical to wisk water away from the tire contact surfaces.

[Alibally]

Yes you should go back if they are mounted the wrong way. As the post above said, it wont dissipate water and it might even pull water in to the centre of the tyre, and you don't really want it doing that.

There's an arrow on the sidewalk showing direction of rotation. Clockwise on the right side of the bike, anti-clockwise on the left

[fish]

Recently my wife had the front tire on her pcx chnged at the dealer. Yesterday, when the bikes were parked side by side, I noticed that the grooves on her front tire went in the opposite direction that her back tire, and my front and back tires, were mounted. On a car I know that it is essenial to mount them correctly. How important is it on a scooter? We have Michelin City Grips on our bikes. Should I go back to the dealer to get the tire remounted in the correct direction?

Actually, I think it is your scoot that has the incorrectly mounted City Grips....I'sshm away from my scooters at present, but I seem to recall that the front and rear treads are mounted counter to each other. The rears for forward accelerating grip, the fronts for braking grip.
Viewed from the front..... tread should look like arrows pointing up,on a Michelin City Grip.
Fish

[Alibally]

If you look at this from the Michelin website it states the arrows are the direction of rotation. Front and rear are the same.

http://moto.michelin.co.uk/advice/faq/a ... f-my-tyres

[Mel46]

Thanks for the link to Michelin. I read through it and then went out to the tires to look for the arrow. At first, on the right side, I found no arrow. However, on the left side I finally found one. Fish was correct, it seems. Though the front and rear have tread going in the opposite direction, the arrow shows this to be correct. I asked my dealer why her Michelin City Grip front was the opposite of my Dunlop and he said that each manufacturer has different reasons for their tread going in a certain direction. Interesting. The tread on my front, Dunlop tire, goes in the same direction as the Michelin tire I have on the rear. I checked for an arrow on the Dunlop, and it is installed correctly. Yet on my wife's bike, the treads on her two Michelin tires go in opposite directions. That is strange, and I can only hope that having different tires on mine will not cause me problems.

[Alibally]

It's always best to check if your not sure, especially with something as safety critical as tyres. It's you only contact with the road after all.

Directional tyres on cars are a bit of a pest really as you cannot swap them side to side or diagonally as they would be going in the wrong direction. Most decent manufacturers are making treads that have inner/ outer on them now. The directional ones are usually lower price range tyres as its older tech.

[WhiteNoise]

Oh Mel please go back to the dealer with both bikes or photos of the tires. Be Safe! Not Sorry. Live to Ride (okay?)

[iceman]

I was intrigued by this so just checked both my tyres - IRC's - and both have an arrow and the word 'direction' on both front and rear tyres - and both are correct
Also wondering what makes a rear tyre rear only as it states on the tyre - the tread seems to be arrow shaped and pointing to the front on both tyres.

[vamootsman]

Why some motorcycle tires have the chevron pointing in reverse sort of baffles me. It channels water to the center of the tire. I don't recall ever seeing that on bicycle tire.

[homie]

There is a number of things going on with todays tires that require specific rotation that help us stay upright. Braking can squeeze in the tread patterns, hydroplane management, cornering etc.. All have been linked in past threads and it was enough information to make sure my arrows are going in the right direction Even debate about how to read that arrow was an issue.

btw it does not matter if you read it on the top of the rotation or the bottom you silly billy's