Last night it was pointed out that I had my tyres on the wrong way round.

Does it make any real world difference? Tyres are On-One Smorgasbord, and my riding style can best be described as “self-proclaimed King of the mincers”

yes.

self-proclaimed King of the mincers

but probably not in your case.

switch them round and see if you feel more confident.

Well it certainly won’t help. When your trying to pedal you will have less grip and the same when your braking.

Maybe you aren’t a mincer and you are just suffering from the drag of incorrectly fitted tyres!

Switch them round and unleash your inner riding legend.*

*Or possibly not.

‘Does it matter?’ The question should be ‘how did this happen?’ 😉

Isn’t everyone obsessive about tyre alignment, the right tyres for conditions and has an account at Stans on account of all the sealant used on a weekly basis? No, just me then 🙂

Answer – probably not. In fact some tyres run better the wrong way round anyway. I have a racing ralph in 29×2.35 that has the direction arrow reversed compared to other different sized racing ralphs. It was rubbish that way round so I reversed it and it was much better.

If you go fast enough you back in time

That depends whether whether you want your front or back tyre to go faster…

What way round are they?
I’ve had Smorgs for ages and I’m sure I forgot to check when putting the last one on.

Think I’ve got mine with the narrower bit of the double centre blocks to the front?

Probably wrong too.

Depends on the tyre really, if it has ramped knobs then it will be draggier the wrong way round but possibly a bit grippier, depending on sipes. You won’t die. I ran a crossmark the wrong way on the back once, and it worked a lot better in mud (but still badly!).

Mostly the difference seems to me to be towards the edges of the tread. I don’t lean over far enough for that to matter.

Last night it was pointed out that I had my tyres on the wrong way round.

I’d wager that the person pointing this out wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in a double blind test which way round the tyre was.

But yes, you’ll die a fiery horrible death is another STW’r spots this hideous and socially unacceptable faux pas.

I ride a geax saguro on my SS – that can be bi directional – I’m sure it’s all in the mind as teh grip on that bad boy is minimal (so, i suppose that having it on ‘grip’ rather than ‘speed’ probably would make a difference?

My hans damph are unidirectional…

I think it makes sense to have a big front tyre put on the right way – my front bonty XR4 looks like it’s be a bit sketchy put on backwards…but again, it this all in the mind??!!

DrP

The grip on a saguaro is indeed minimal. But for the sake of my mind, I have the rear tyre run the SPEED way round. If I had it the GRIP way round it would play on my mind and reduce my pace to a crawl and I would blame it all on the tyre. Because it is GRIPPING too much. Aaarrrghhhh 😀

Ramps on blocks often indicate the prefered direction. Generally you want the ramp to touch down first. That reduces rolling resistance and squirm and gives you a sharp-edge for traction.

Yak..you coming to Big Dog this year?? would be good to sahre saguro tales….!!

DrP

Yeah, but, er, have a ground control* on the back. The big dog thread suggested somewhere between mudmageddon and dust, so I have the ground control on that I had on at pivot2412.

*definitely the right way round

Normally a saguaro though. Best all-round rear I reckon.

Thanks all.

@Yak it happened because I’m a dumbass who doesn’t look what I’m doing

@aracer think I’d prefer the front to be going faster than the back. Got messy last time I tried it the other way

@Normal Man. My inner racing legend is a fairy tale

@Rusty Spanner. Mine have a big helpful arrow that I chose to ignore

In the end I remembered what happened. It was a real sod to get seated and when it finally did I realised that it was the wrong way round and left it. Couldn’t face that again so put on a spare wheel this afternoon. Unfortunately that’s the one with the single speed hub….

The front is similarly afflicted but I don’t have an excuse for that but when I switched it I found the sealant had dried out and my stock had gone off so cue a rush to the LBS at 520, mainly so they could laugh at me as well but also for some new sealant.

My lads bike came with schwalbe smart Sam’s, they are dual directional. Arrow points one way for front fitting and the other for the back. Don’t get why.

As explained above, it’s because you don’t want the back tyre going faster than the front 😉

This may be false memory syndrome, but back in the 90s was there a tyre which instructed you to point it one direction if you used it on the front, and the opposite direction if you used it on the rear?

Edit: sorry thread reading fail, hadn’t appreciated that Smart Sams still have this.

Some tyres are still like that

I have several different tyres with that feature. The really confusing thing is I’m using a tyre like that on my unicycle…

I recently had a pair of Geax which indicated they would provide “Grip” installed in one direction and “Traction” in the other…

Neither quality seemed apparent whichever way round you fitted them…

This may be false memory syndrome, but back in the 90s was there a tyre which instructed you to point it one direction if you used it on the front, and the opposite direction if you used it on the rear?

Edit: sorry thread reading fail, hadn’t appreciated that Smart Sams still have this.

That’d be a Panaracer Fire XC?

I suspect the differences are very marginal and only apply on certain surfaces and conditions. The directional tread is more about how the water/mud is displaced as the tyre rolls into it. You want the water and mud to be displaced to the side to clear it from the tyre and prevent aqua-planing and mud-planing (whatever the equivalent for aqua-planing on mud is called), so the tread/knobbles are shaped to do that as they present themselves to the water/mud – a bit like the bow of a ship parting the water and pushing it off to the sides.

If the tyre is the wrong way around and the tread is presenting a flat rather than angled edge then some water/mud will be pushed or squirted forward and not cleared to the side and you just ride over it again increasing the chances of aqua/mud planing. You want your knobbles to push through the water/mud layer to the firmer ground underneath where the grip is, so the purpose of the tyre is to clear as much water/mud away as possible.

I think you’ll be fine and will survive until the next time you need to remove the tyre, unless you’re a little bit OCD like me and just have to change it immediately.

The directional tread is more about how the water/mud is displaced as the tyre rolls into it

Maybe for road car tyres but the differences can be pretty big with MTB tyres when riding on dirt. On hard surfaces like rock (and tarmac) the directionality has much less effect.

With ramped centre knobs there is a good braking grip and faster rolling direction vs a good pedalling traction direction. On something like a High Roller the difference is pretty obvious. With something like a DHR2 where the knobs are more blocky and less ramped its subtler but still clear.

With side knobs there are a couple of elements – sometimes they’re shaped to clear dirt better, somethines they’re shaped to give more progressive behaviour on the limit, sometimes they’re shaped to give better braking when turning (L shaped knobs on a a Minion).

With reversible tyres I’ve found I prefer keeping the rear the front way around because I find it easy enough to balance the power when traction is low uphill compared to giving up braking grip downhill – and faster rolling is better!

I’m sure i have a tyre that says this way for grip this way for speed.

I think with bicyle tyres though the physics are a bit different, with them being so narrow they tend to cut through standing water rather than aquaplane.

(road) Car tyres for example have to have tread on them as without, and as they are so much wider they will generate a wave in front of them that will lift the wheels off the ground and aquaplane.
If it needs never rained we’d all be driving on slicks.
Putting directional tyres on a car backwards would be very risky as the tread pattern would simply stop dispersing water, or disperse it far less efficiently.. Imagine driving at 70mph with these on backwards..

I think knobbies are more to retain traction/stability on soft /loose ground rather than evacuation of water.

Not sure about grip but shirley braking on a ramp instead of a square edge would be the main difference especially on the front .

Yeh I think things like ramped knobs on one side and straighter on the other for grip under acceleration are one of the reasons for directional mtb tyres, rather than water displacement.

Yeh I think things like ramped knobs on one side and straighter on the other for grip under acceleration

You can’t out out anywhere near as much power with your pedals as you can with your brakes. Square edges for braking, ramped edges for rolling.