Tyre Reviews: What happens if you mount a tire backwards?

I always knew mounting directional tyres backwards would be a real help on loose/dry sand. It effectively is a dig in prevention scheme. I was keeping it a secret but cat's out of the bag now anyway.
 
I always assumed directional tires are optimized for braking rather than acceleration, since the former is more important for safety. So mounting them on the other side of the car (rotating in reverse) could improve acceleration traction at the expense of braking?

I've found this is true of bicycle tires, so for the mountain bike I mount the rear tire in the "reverse" direction. For the front tire I want maximum braking traction, for the rear tire I want maximum traction for climbing, which is important for 20+% grades on unpaved trails.
 
I wonder... since launch (the first 60') is such an important part of 0-60 times, perhaps one can slice a tenth or so off the time by mounting directional tires backward.
 
CapriRacer said:
Answer: only a little worse:

Tyre Reviews: What happens if you mount a tire backwards?

As a tire engineer, I also conclude that directional tires aren't that much better than non-directional tires.

Nevertheless, Jonathan Benson has done excellent work here.
Click to expand...
My Ferrari factory Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires actually had different tread patterns for the front verus the rear tires, and the rears were specifically marked "left" and "right". It was a pain ordering them, and Pirelli only made them every couple years and finally just stopped, since Ferrari only made perhaps 2000 each of the cars in 2008/2009 worldwide. I imagine most owners no longer bothered buying the factory tires, so no reason for Pirelli to keep making them.

I really wonder how much difference it made, versus regular Corsa tires?
 
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Torrid said:
Why is the tread pattern on front motorcycle tires always "backwards"?
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Good question…mine looks backwards especially for water evacuation.

IMG_8901.webp
 
CapriRacer said:
Do the tires have directional arrows? If not, then I'll bet it doesn't matter what the tread pattern is as the contact patch is long and thin - unlike a car with wide tires.
Click to expand...
They do, yes. It's universal across all different brands (Michelin, Dunlop, Pirelli, etc) that the V mounts the other way on just the front tire when you mount it per the direction arrows. Been that way for years.
 
cheesepuffs2 said:
They do, yes. It's universal across all different brands (Michelin, Dunlop, Pirelli, etc) that the V mounts the other way on just the front tire when you mount it per the direction arrows. Been that way for years.
Click to expand...

Curious.

One of the things that jumped out at me in Jonathan's video was an early comment about the snow braking being quite good on his approach to the test area on the reverse mounts. The data shows that, too!

But the data doesn't show the same thing for wet braking. I wonder what's going on.

Plus I wonder how you would sort through this? Is it necessary to compare car tires and motorcycle tires to sort this out?
 
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