Tire Direction

Should say direction on the side, if not, I imagine they are not uni-directional...

The new ones, slicks, have the directional arrows on the sidewall.

Some of the older grooved ones did not, they are Bi-directional (not bi-sexual), I use one on the front with the grooves in the centre of the tyre pointing forwards at the top of the tyre.

If in doubt, manufacturers mark (Brand) is on the Drive Side, in this case, mine has the same on both sides.

[font=Arial]Its a road tyre, it really shouldn't matter. When they depress onto the road, unless there are significant knobs or anything like them, they all depress pretty uniformly. That is why michelin pro race service course do not have tread grooves, yet they are one of the best gripping tyres[/font]

I think all tires that are uni-directional will have a V type tread. The point of the V will point towards the front. Inother words the Point will be in the center and will open in the back.

Any tire I have ever seen that has this type of tread patern also had the side-wall marking indicating this. I have never seen a tire that had a sidewall marking that did not have a distinct V patern.

have a look at the tread pattern, I use hutchi trainers. I think the conti gators have similar diagonal groove like pattern from the centre to the sidewall? If this is the case the diagonals both sides should point towards the rotation/front of the bike almost like a feather in an arrow. Just a guess I think the gators have a small tread patch then a large? Logically the small should be in the front/foward direction.
If pattern is regular either way no direction.
Front.
/ \
/ \
/ \
If all else fails contact conti

Saksiri said:

Does anyone know if the Continental Ultra Gator Skins have to be installed in a certain direction?

I have the tires you are asking about. And they are marked as to which direction they should be mounted. Because of the pattern printed on the sidewall, it is hard to see.

You can find the rotation direction on ONE side of the tire, 15 inches to the right of the word Continental.

I think that the one reason rotation is marked is so you will always mount the tire in the same direction after repairing flats, or truing the wheel, etc. But may also have to do with the way the tire is constructed.

A related question.

I have a set of Continental Grand Touring 2000, and the directional marking on it suggest the normal V pattern on the front but reverse on the back wheel. Has anyone seen that before or I'm just losing my mind (and eyesight at looking at the directional symbols)?

My other Cont GT3000 follows the normal V pointing to the front for both front and back.

Put 'em on any way you want. Grooved tread on road bike tires serves no purpose other than to look cool. Road tires won't hydroplane until yer going about 80-100 mph.

Tire Direction😕 ...I get tired whichever direction I travel...

ohh you mean TYRE direction...well, that's different :eek:

alienator said:

Put 'em on any way you want. Grooved tread on road bike tires serves no purpose other than to look cool. Road tires won't hydroplane until yer going about 80-100 mph.

Correct about putting them on any way you want.

You are incorrect about hydroplaning. Depending on the tread design a road tire can hydroplane at extreemly low speeds. Racing slicks are worthless with just a sheen of water on the road. Intermediates work well until pools of water are on the road. Then one goes to full wets.

It is all based on whether or not there is a cushion of water between the road and tire. That is based on mass, surface area, and tread design. Thus allowing the water to be "squished" out from under the tire.

Then in dry conditions, if you mount the tire bacwards it traps air causing more resistance, thus will be slower.

I do not care about either one of these factors. I do not ride when it is that wet, nor do I care about that minimal of amount of resistance. I also do not care about saving 20 grams on a water bottle cage either.

alienator said:

Put 'em on any way you want. Grooved tread on road bike tires serves no purpose other than to look cool. Road tires won't hydroplane until yer going about 80-100 mph.

Is that from personal experience? :eek:

vadiver said:

Correct about putting them on any way you want.

You are incorrect about hydroplaning. Depending on the tread design a road tire can hydroplane at extreemly low speeds. Racing slicks are worthless with just a sheen of water on the road. Intermediates work well until pools of water are on the road. Then one goes to full wets.

It is all based on whether or not there is a cushion of water between the road and tire. That is based on mass, surface area, and tread design. Thus allowing the water to be "squished" out from under the tire.

Then in dry conditions, if you mount the tire bacwards it traps air causing more resistance, thus will be slower.

I do not care about either one of these factors. I do not ride when it is that wet, nor do I care about that minimal of amount of resistance. I also do not care about saving 20 grams on a water bottle cage either.

I disagree. Feel free to correct me here, but I agree with alienator.

Lets say the cycler weighs 75kg, with bike and clothing and gear and bottles, about 85kg. You have a pair of whatever racing tyre, let us say michelin pro2race as they did a test on this and they are a slick tyre.

About 50kg of that weight is concentrated on a 6cm2 patch below the rear tyre. This is about a force of 8.3333 kg per cm2

The front bears the other 35kg, which depresses the tyre less resulting in a 4.5cm2 patch. this is around 7.7777kg per cm2.

(These are a theoretical set of estimates, they are probably very wrong, wrong at the least, don't hassle me please.)

These forces concentrated on such a small area push the water outwards from the area of contact, there is no space between tyre and surface for the water to get to. The narrow leading edge will also part the water, aided by the force of gravity. All tyres will depress in a basically uniform manner.

This only works in a straight line though. Water is a lubricant, and turning a corner will see the tyre become lubricated as the edges bear a greater weight involving inertia, momentum, friction, g-forces and stuff i can't explain. But the tyre will not aquaplane, it is not possible with such a narrow leading edge and a concentrated weight bearing surface.

Alienator, you are needed.

bobbyOCR said:

I disagree. Feel free to correct me here, but I agree with alienator.

Lets say the cycler weighs 75kg, with bike and clothing and gear and bottles, about 85kg. You have a pair of whatever racing tyre, let us say michelin pro2race as they did a test on this and they are a slick tyre.

About 50kg of that weight is concentrated on a 6cm2 patch below the rear tyre. This is about a force of 8.3333 kg per cm2

The front bears the other 35kg, which depresses the tyre less resulting in a 4.5cm2 patch. this is around 7.7777kg per cm2.

(These are a theoretical set of estimates, they are probably very wrong, wrong at the least, don't hassle me please.)

These forces concentrated on such a small area push the water outwards from the area of contact, there is no space between tyre and surface for the water to get to. The narrow leading edge will also part the water, aided by the force of gravity. All tyres will depress in a basically uniform manner.

This only works in a straight line though. Water is a lubricant, and turning a corner will see the tyre become lubricated as the edges bear a greater weight involving inertia, momentum, friction, g-forces and stuff i can't explain. But the tyre will not aquaplane, it is not possible with such a narrow leading edge and a concentrated weight bearing surface.

Alienator, you are needed.

To say there is no space between the tyre and surface for the water to get to would imply the bike is levitating.

As soon as there is more water under the wheel for the tyre to disapate the bike will be hydroplaning.

Apply your same physics to an auto tyre. Then look at race teams. The China F1 GP would be a great example of this. Watch how the cars hydroplaned after switching to slicks.

Airplanes hydroplane as well, and that is a lot of force when they land. That is one reason they grove the runways.

Anytime the tyre is not in direct contact with the surface, there is no control.

vadiver said:

As soon as there is more water under the wheel for the tyre to disapate the bike will be hydroplaning.

Sheldon Brown on his site said that bicycle tyres travelling at regular speeds can not hydroplane. For bicycle tyres to hydroplane, great speed is needed.

Alienator and bobbyOCR have it right. You can't compare automobile tires to bike tires - apples to oranges.

sheldonbrown.comtires.htmlOpen ↗

sheldonbrown.comslicks.htmlOpen ↗

Scotty_Dog said:

Alienator and bobbyOCR have it right. You can't compare automobile tires to bike tires - apples to oranges.

sheldonbrown.comtires.htmlOpen ↗

sheldonbrown.comslicks.htmlOpen ↗

And check out is initial comment about automobiles rarely hydroplaneing. That is why so many cars slide of the road in wet conditions.

As soon as the tyre is not in contact with the road, you are hydroplaneing. There are more factors than just speed involved.

And I am not saying we all need groved tyres to prevent hydroplaning. I am saying hydroplaning happens at all different speeds for all different tyres. My original comment was that starts to happen with road tyres at 80-100 MPH.

Yes you can compare auto (motorcycle as well) tires to bike tires. A tire is a tire. The difference is the contact patch of the tire. Then the weight of the vehicle (bike, motorcycle, car, plane) etc. Then complound also comes to play. Any rolling object on a surface will act the same.

Even more articles debunking the bicycle tire hydroplaning myth:

schwalbetires.comtire treadOpen ↗

slowtwitch.comrolling.htmlOpen ↗

epinions.comotdr review 6ADE 7848EB6 38A478B0 prod4Open ↗

precisiontandems.comarttiresbymark.htmOpen ↗

72.14.209.104searchOpen ↗

vadiver said:

And check out is initial comment about automobiles rarely hydroplaneing. That is why so many cars slide of the road in wet conditions.

You don't need to hydroplane for wet asphalt to be slippery, and just because a tire is sliding doesn't mean it's lost contact with the road.

Scotty_Dog said:

Even more articles debunking the bicycle tire hydroplaning myth:

schwalbetires.comtire treadOpen ↗

slowtwitch.comrolling.htmlOpen ↗

epinions.comotdr review 6ADE 7848EB6 38A478B0 prod4Open ↗

precisiontandems.comarttiresbymark.htmOpen ↗

72.14.209.104searchOpen ↗

I guess you are right. The bicycle tire is the only tire that will never hydroplane. Although each one of those articles does suggest otherwise.

None of them show how the tests were done, if at all. The ones that do only factor speed. None of the other factors that go into hydroplaning. Increase the depth of the water and the speed at which hydroplying occurs is lower.