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9,928 Posts
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On another website, this comment was made:
"I know for sure that when the BT45 rear on front of my Goldwing is run with arrow forward does not have the hold that it does reversed."
My response:
I would respectfully differ. You don't know that unless you do a test with the same bike in the same conditions (highway pavement composition, wetness, temperature, air pressure, etc.) at the same time with the same parameters. Otherwise you are just guessing. You can tell if one tire gets longer mileage (although it's unlikely you rode the same for the entire life of each one) mostly because that's an average of a long time/mileage test.
Check the number of edges on the tire grooves and the angle. It doesn't matter whether the angle is to the side, frontward or backward, only that it's the same amount whichever way the tire is rotated. What can happen is that after a number of miles, the tire can be worn so that the groove edges are worn so that they have a sharper lip one way and a more rounded lip the other. Usually you can feel this difference on a tire with your hand after 5,000 or so miles. If you rotate the direction of the tire after it's worn down so there is a different pattern of grip (i.e., the prominence of the lip), then that would grab more one way than the other would. That's the only thing that can modify the amount of traction. Things like tire pressure, or amount of tread, tire size, or rubber hardness would be the same either way, so none of those things would make any difference.
The grooves themselves are there only to channel water away from under the tire and they do that regardless of the angle. Have you ever noticed how auto tires are frequently designed so the tread on one side angles forward and on the other side angles back? All those tire can be used on either side of the car, front or back, front wheel drive or rear wheel drive. You think the water only gets pushed out on one side that's angled back and gets forced underneath the tread on the other side? Of course not.
The tire tread depth (actually, the "height" of the blocks or higher parts of the tire) controls most of the "squirm" that a tire has which is why an auto road racer will grind off 1/2 to 2/3 of the tread of a new tire before using it so he will have the same traction without any movement of the tire blocks. Haven't you ever wondered why Indy racers only get 40 laps, or so, on a set of tires? If the amount of tread didn't matter in grip and consistency, they could put maybe 2" of tread on the tires so they wouldn't have to stop long enough to change out the tires. On the other hand, it is one reason why street bike tires have so little open area (to minimize the amount of lip) and have such a small amount of tread depth (typically 1/3-1/2 a car tire's depth). Contrarywise, notice how off-road bikes have knobby tires with much tread depth and lots of blocks with many lips for traction. Completely different type of tire for completely different use.
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On another website, this comment was made:
"I know for sure that when the BT45 rear on front of my Goldwing is run with arrow forward does not have the hold that it does reversed."
My response:
I would respectfully differ. You don't know that unless you do a test with the same bike in the same conditions (highway pavement composition, wetness, temperature, air pressure, etc.) at the same time with the same parameters. Otherwise you are just guessing. You can tell if one tire gets longer mileage (although it's unlikely you rode the same for the entire life of each one) mostly because that's an average of a long time/mileage test.
Check the number of edges on the tire grooves and the angle. It doesn't matter whether the angle is to the side, frontward or backward, only that it's the same amount whichever way the tire is rotated. What can happen is that after a number of miles, the tire can be worn so that the groove edges are worn so that they have a sharper lip one way and a more rounded lip the other. Usually you can feel this difference on a tire with your hand after 5,000 or so miles. If you rotate the direction of the tire after it's worn down so there is a different pattern of grip (i.e., the prominence of the lip), then that would grab more one way than the other would. That's the only thing that can modify the amount of traction. Things like tire pressure, or amount of tread, tire size, or rubber hardness would be the same either way, so none of those things would make any difference.
The grooves themselves are there only to channel water away from under the tire and they do that regardless of the angle. Have you ever noticed how auto tires are frequently designed so the tread on one side angles forward and on the other side angles back? All those tire can be used on either side of the car, front or back, front wheel drive or rear wheel drive. You think the water only gets pushed out on one side that's angled back and gets forced underneath the tread on the other side? Of course not.
The tire tread depth (actually, the "height" of the blocks or higher parts of the tire) controls most of the "squirm" that a tire has which is why an auto road racer will grind off 1/2 to 2/3 of the tread of a new tire before using it so he will have the same traction without any movement of the tire blocks. Haven't you ever wondered why Indy racers only get 40 laps, or so, on a set of tires? If the amount of tread didn't matter in grip and consistency, they could put maybe 2" of tread on the tires so they wouldn't have to stop long enough to change out the tires. On the other hand, it is one reason why street bike tires have so little open area (to minimize the amount of lip) and have such a small amount of tread depth (typically 1/3-1/2 a car tire's depth). Contrarywise, notice how off-road bikes have knobby tires with much tread depth and lots of blocks with many lips for traction. Completely different type of tire for completely different use.
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