OT Tires only go in one direction

OT I ended up with a pair of tires that only go in one direction. I want to learn about these things but I don't know what they are called. What are they called.

Reply to
micky
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Steel belted radical.

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Directional or unidirectional?

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

They are called directional tires. They provide better traction when spinning in the proper direction. ======================================================== Remove the ZZZ from my E-mail address to send me E-mail.

Reply to
Ron in NY

Ad look at their tread design(pattern)

Reply to
Tony Hwang

And look at the tread design(pattern) Most today's tires are directional. Can't rotate them side to side any more.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Only a pair? You are driving on a mismatched tires? Hope your car is not AWD type.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Read Tire Racks's explanation of directional tires here:

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Reply to
Retired

You must park on the street. I have a driveway. I couldn't use tires that only go in one direction.

Reply to
J Burns

Thanks. I opened this, and I'll read it today.

Directional. I think I can remember that. Thanks everyone.

Reply to
micky

No, he's right. If someone ever gets his car stuck like this, he can lengthen the driveway and make it circular. They have 24-hour paving companies for that reason.

Reply to
micky

After they told me I was no longer welcome at school, I began flashing my diploma so people would know I'd been honorably discharged. Everybody thought I'd be perfect in the heat-treating pit at a knife plant. All day long, I'd load about 1600 pounds of blades onto a

300-pound cart, push them up a steep concrete ramp, and unload them.

A lot of cars didn't weigh much more than my loaded cart. When somebody parked in my way and I couldn't get the door open, I'd pick it up and move it. I had a little secret: don't try to pick up both ends at the same time.

Picking up a car by the bumper hurt my fingers because I didn't own gloves. As long as I didn't get blisters, I figured it was okay. Bumpers are so flimsy these days that I wouldn't dare try to turn my car around in my driveway that way.

Reply to
J Burns

-Directional tread.

Reply to
clare

On their track, engineered like most roads, backward tires performed fine. That was my experience on motorcycles. I'd run at 80 or 90 in hard rain.

Ice was more interesting, but the coefficient of friction for tires is about .15, so it was okay. Wet ice was trickier, with a CF of about .05. Still, riding was safer than walking because my tires held better than my hiking boots. I just had to remember I wasn't on dry asphalt.

One morning on a deserted interstate in heavy rain, I hit the low point between two hills. I guess that's a saddle. I felt something new to me. It felt like a CF of 0. I guess the road was flooded deep enough that the rubber wasn't reaching the road.

I was afraid that if my tires started to slide from under me and they suddenly got a good bite on the pavement at the other side, I'd be slammed on my head. Riding a bike, I'd never paid attention to balance. I did now. I sat very carefully and used my knees and hands to try to hold the machine perfectly upright.

I'll bet invisible flooding like that is what causes most hydroplaning. I guess directional tires can handle slightly deeper flooding if they are mounted frontwards.

Reply to
J Burns

I believe hydroplaning occurs when surface has water, does not have to be puddle(deep flooded water). Once I was heading down on a local freeway doing 100kph in the rain when another guy merged in front of me at very high speed, suddenly his car flew across median and speeding up opposite direction perfectly and then caame to a stop slowly. He must have realized how lucky he was and know by now hydroplaning.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

When they tested on the wet track to see how fast they could maneuver, they had no trouble. Maybe there was puddling too shallow to see, where the guy lost control. The faster you go, the less water it takes to float you. I see another possibility.

In the late 1970s, there were a lot of wrecks at a curve on I-95 in Providence in the first few minutes of a rain storm. Engineers said more rubber and oil than usual had been deposited there during a long spell without rain. The water loosened it, making a slick surface. They said it could happen anywhere. So if you want to race your motorcycle in the rain after a dry spell, give the rain a few minutes to wash the roads!

Reply to
J Burns

My '86 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe came with unidirectional tires. I never unde rstood what that was all about but when I rotated the tires, I made sure th at the directional arrows on the sidewalls went the right way, figuring tha t it couldn't hurt and might help.

Reply to
Pavel314

On both motorcycles and bicycles some people mount the tires backwards on purpose and swear by the results. While I'm sure tire engineers do a lot of testing and computer simulation I sometimes think 'the pattern looks kewl' plays a part.

Reply to
rbowman

Biccyles? There is forward and backwards on bicycles?

Reply to
micky

Most definitely, particularly for mountain bike tires. Even slicks tend to have arrows but the direction isn't all that important.

Most of the braking on bicycles (most wheeled vehicles for that matter) is done by the front tire, while the driving force is transmitted by the rear wheel. This leads to markings like

since you want the most aggressive part of the pattern oriented differently. Or sometimes not. When I'm riding in the desert I don't like a really aggressive pattern on the front since it tends to dig in and send you off in strange directions. I'd rather live with the understeer.

Motorcycles are the same. I've run several different flavors of DOT knobbies on the DR650. The more off road oriented ones like Dunlop 606's are better in snow and mud but on the loose, rocky roads around here they tend to deflect on rocks rather than just pushing through. Those waterbars with the thick rubber strips can be interesting too.

Reply to
rbowman

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