Pirelli Diablo Stradas & direction of tyre

I've just got a pair of the above fitted, and while on the rear the tread appears to go in the direction of travel, on the front the tyre tread looks backwards! i've checked both tyres and the directional indicators show the tyres are on correctly (i.e. with the arrows on the tyres going in direction of travel) but it seems a bit odd...has anyone else got these tyres and can confirm? if pictures needed i can get them later

I've got some Diablos (not Stradas) and I noticed the tread on the front tyre was a tad backwards too.

Must be a Pirelli thing.

[Viney]

As long as the arrows point in the right way, then its cool

fair enough but everything about it looks backwards even the grooves - on the inner end they have a slope up to the surface of the tyre and the outer end just finishes near the wheel. but - these face backwards lol! ah well...i just hope they haven't moulded the arrows wrong or something!

Edit: here's a pic from the pirelli web site:



Now if you imagine that for the front one, the bike is facing towards the screen, and for the rear, the bike is facing away, you get the idea of why the tread looks backwards?

I don't get what you mean.

Treads on the tyre should run towards the "back" of the wheel as to help with dispersing water 'backwards' shouldn't they?

[northwind]

What it is, is the front does its hard work in the wet while braking. The rear, while accelerating. So when the tread's the same sort of design they'll often point in different directions. Plus, the way different tyres clear water isn't entirely logical- if it were, every all-weather tyre would have the same tread.

Originally Posted by northwind

What it is, is the front does its hard work in the wet while braking. The rear, while accelerating. So when the tread's the same sort of design they'll often point in different directions. Plus, the way different tyres clear water isn't entirely logical- if it were, every all-weather tyre would have the same tread.

good explanation

the knobby tread design on the Pirelli MT60R-Corsas that I run in winter is same concept, but even more pronounced cause it looks like a tractor tread . peeps are always telling me my front tire is mounted backward until I point out the directional arrow

Originally Posted by northwind

What it is, is the front does its hard work in the wet while braking. The rear, while accelerating. So when the tread's the same sort of design they'll often point in different directions. Plus, the way different tyres clear water isn't entirely logical- if it were, every all-weather tyre would have the same tread.

do you have much experience/knowledge on it? i don't want to be a pedant but i would have thought it wasn't the acceleration (positive or negative) that mattered, what matters is the direction of travel of the tyre (which shouldn't often be going backwards ).

the other thing - sorry - is that surely the rough design of directional/water dispersing tyres is the same - e.g. the grooves need to angle the water away from the tyre & its contact patch, right? the rear tyre does this because the "end" of the groove that hits the water first is the one in the centre of the tyre, channelling the water along the grooves as it goes round, to the edge (and out into the open). the front tyre though, would mean that the "end" of the groove (well, grooves, as one each side) that hits the water first would be the outer ends - so the water is again then pushed along the groove , towards the centre, basically squashing water in between the tyre and road - right where you don't want it to be...

am i talking complete b*llocks? (p.s. if so, why )

[northwind]

Originally Posted by muffles

do you have much experience/knowledge on it?

None at all. But that's what Dunlop and Michelin say

haha, fair enough - i didn't want to bother going into it too much if you were in a position where you could say "i do this every day, i'm right, stop questioning it" :P