Motorcycle Tire Question

 

When looking for tires for a motorcycle, one sees a tire advertised as
a "rear" tire and another as a "front" tire.  If the advertised "rear"
tire is the exact same size as what a person needs for their "front"
tire, what's the big deal and why do they even advertise them as such
instead of just going by the size, like they do on cars?

Is there something specific about motorcycle tires that I'm missing
here?

Bill

 


Motorcycle tyres come in 3 fitments - front, rear & universal.

With front & rear tyres the treat pattern tends to be very different as
the bulk of the forces will be applied in different directions - the
rear tyre will need most grip when accelerating hard & the front when
breaking hard. Most bike tyres have an arrow indicating direction of
rotation on the sidewall

As an example, a couple of blokes I know who race classic Laverdas use
modern Avon front tyres as rears, fitted in the reverse direction,
because no-one makes race tyres in a skinny enough rear fitting.

Universal tyres only tend to come in fitments suitable for small, low
power, commuter type bikes. Last time I bought a universal it wanted
fitting in different directions depending on whether it was going on a
front or rear wheel.

--
Bob Scott              

 


Thanks, Bob.  The reason I asked was that if you have an odd sized
front tire the only one you may be able to find in that size is one
classified as a "rear" tire.  Does it make any more or less difference
between the two if the tires are strictly on-road, off-road or dual
sport?  And finally, if that were the case, then you could use them
interchangeably if you changed the direction?

Bill 

 

[]

I've no idea - my only experience is with road tyres &, so far, I've
always been able to find appropriate size tyres without too much
difficulty. A bit more choice in what tyres would have been nice here &
there but that goes with the territory of old but not that old sports
bikes - the choice of skinny but sticky tyres is somewhat restricted.


Again, no idea. But personally I wouldn't, purely & simply because I
ride on road & both the police & insurance people tend to take a dim
view of things like this.

Thinking about it, I'd contact a tyre manufacturer (importer,
distributor, whatever) and ask - I've found both Continental & Avon to
be very helpful with regard to odd queries about fitments
--
Bob Scott

 




Good advice, that.
Need to be careful about reversing the rotation of a tire as it might
adversely affect grip/handling in the rain........as in greatly reduced
traction.