Recently picked up a new Orange P7 from an LBS in Burnley who put rim tape on and filled tyres with tubeless gunk.

When I got home I noticed the tyres were on back to front, or rotating in opposite direction to arrow, so I changed them back round.

Was back in the same shop last week and when i queried it they said Orange fit them like that as standard for more grip??

Is someone pulling my plonker?

Prepared to stand corrected on this one, but I’ve always considered that standard orientation (following the directional arrow) gives optimal grip under braking, fitting the “wrong” way round gives better grip under acceleration.

Utter bollocks.

This comes from the olden days when Schwalbe Nobby Nicks has the outward set of knobs in an inward facing direction.  In those days reversing them – giving the same pattern as today’s tyres – gave better grip.

not true today.

Utter bollocks.

That was my initial thought too

I’m sure tyre manufacturers spend millions on research just to decide to rotate the tyre the other way…

Some tyres did have a “front” and “back” direction. The front was for braking grip, the rear for pedaling. It was bollocks as far as I could tell.

Why would they put a direction arrow on if they were better the other way?

rear tyres I can go along with – fronts, nah

what tyres are they?

Utter bollocks

Well unless they’re totally symmetrical then there must be *some* sort of difference?

I just look for any sort of ‘v’ pattern or shape in the tyre, I run it on the front tyre so that the ‘V’ is pointing backwards where it hits the ground, and run it pointing forwards as it hits the ground on the rear tyre, so that it drives better.

Agree that maybe tread pattern makes limited difference, I think volume and compound are more important.

Sounds more like someone was covering their blushes.

What tyres are they?

No, that’s not true.

If there’s a defined V pattern to the tread then they are possibly graded as mud tyres so counter intuitively they need to be run with the Vee pointing in the direction of travel this helps to grip by cutting in to the surface and promotes self cleaning of the tread pattern and thirdly improves braking by the greater aggression of the reverse V. Running this type of tyre backwards on either front or rear simply defeats the object of their design, notably by clogging everything up in muddy conditions.

“Listen mate, if I hadn’t fitted them tyres the wrong way round, they would have rolled up to a patch of mud and—VOOOM!—gone!”

Schwalbe g-one bites have different front and back directions.

“Listen mate, if I hadn’t fitted them tyres the wrong way round, they would have rolled up to a patch of mud and—VOOOM!—gone!”

Genuine LOL

Running this type of tyre backwards on either front or rear simply defeats the object of their design, notably by clogging everything up in muddy conditions.

Hmm… interesting! Didn’t think about the clogging bit

Bolleaux

Totally depends on the shape of the blocks and which way the ramps slope.
Square edge to front for acceleration grip, sloping edge to the rear for braking grip.
not really seeing it on a road tyre though.

I would have thought in today’s “where there’s blame, there’s a claim” culture a big company like orange would put tyres on the correct way to avoid a claim against them when “I was just riding along when……..” and it wouldnt have happened if you had put the tyres on following the manufacturers instructions.

I suspect the trainee put them on the wrong way round and as they were tubeless couldn’t be bothered to fix it

Folk out in Fernie ride a reversed Dilli 5 on the rear wheel for more traction in the snow. It seems to work well though I do think fussing about tyre pressure can make a massive difference too.

I seem to remember being told by someone “knowledgeable” that ‘proper DH Racers’ all fitted a minion DHR on the front, mounted the other way round so that the edges intended to give traction on the back hooked up and gave extra grip for braking on the front…

I carried on using tyres more or less as recommended by the manufacturers, and as I never became a successful MTB racer I have to asuume he was totally correct and tyres should be run back to front and the wrong way round. What other possible reason could there be for my lack of WC podiums?

Working in an Orange dealer that sells a lot of P7s, I can’t say i’ve come across any fitted backwards from the factory, however, if they’re the tyres I think they are, they do look like they should run in the other direction (personally, I put my hand up when I put one on backwards, and swapped it over, no sense in BSing anyone).

Slight thread hijack, but why is the direction arrow always the least obvious marking on a tyre? It’s pretty much the only one I ever want to check.

I haven’t read anything so far that would be different for tyres with tubes.

I seem to remember being told by someone “knowledgeable” that ‘proper DH Racers’ all fitted a minion DHR on the front, mounted the other way round so that the edges intended to give traction on the back hooked up and gave extra grip for braking on the front…

That’s genuine, whether it worked or not there were plenty of folk doing it back in the day.

@pdw – I know, I’ve missed it on lots of tyres.

I checked my fat bike tyres, both are 45Nrth Vanhelgas, I’ve the front on “right way round” but the rear is reversed. I think I read something on MTBR forums about the rear being better the wrong way round to give better traction in snow. Dunno if it does as I’ve never run it the right way round!

As said earlier, if they are ramped for rolling speed then switching the direction will give more forward traction but less braking.

All depends on the tyre although if both are the wrong way around, I’d call BS.

For example, the trail kings on the wife’s bike have the rear tyre the other way around from the front.

The shorty and DHR2 on my bike, I can’t imagine why I’d want to try and turn them around to run them backwards.