Conti Rubber queen help!

Cutty Dyer

I'm in the middle of fitting some conti RQs to my rims. I have only ever had tyres with a direction arrow - these have a front and rear direction arrow which implies one tyre is reversed from the other - is that right or have I got it wrong?

:?

Ta

cooldad

Fit in direction of arrow depending on whether fitted to front or rear.

Cutty Dyer

Thanks for that... I made an assumption that the arrows were pointing front and back (which is how the tread looks like it should be fitted) rather than the direction of rotation for front and back tyre; which wouldn't make sense as one tread would be reversed.

Am I wrong????

cooldad

You are wrong. The tyres are meant to run in opposite directions.
The front maximises braking, the rear traction.

Cutty Dyer

Nice one. Very many thanks and much appreciated.

The Rookie

Just to give some insight....
A tyre grips best (for a number of reasons) when approaching the ground in one direction, the rear can spin, so traction is maximised for the normal rolling direction, for the front a lockup is the most critical condition and the tyre then approaches the ground 'going backwards' which is why many makers reverse the tyre for the front....if you think your ability is such you'll never ever lock the front, then in theory you'd gain a benefit by running the front in the same direction as the rear, though there are other differences as well.

Cutty Dyer

Blimey! I had absolutely no idea. Thanks for the explanation... I shall reverse it tonight.