I noticed that my tires have opposite "waves" front vs rear. To me it seems like the water will be directed from the middle and out (rear) BUT the opposite on the front tire.
The rotation symbol on my front tire is correct. Quite the mystery to me

I remembered when I saw the tires on the somewhat modded "696" - they have the same pattern.

http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=11215.0

I've noticed that on some tires, but it hardly ever rains here so I've not worried about it....

i always thought that the tread pattern direction was to help prevent cupping, not water removal.  just go by the directional arrow on the sidewall.   

+1, they are always backwards for some reason. No idea why. Its like that on pilot powers, diablos corsas, pilot road 2ct. etc

It has to do with drive tires versus non-drive tires.

Think about it this way...

Replace the rain water with mud.

Now imagine the front wheel bearings have a lot more friction than they actually do.

If the tread pattern on the front tire were the same as it is on the back tire, the mud would pack toward the center of the tire.

Reverse it, the way it is on most front tires, and it gets pushed towards the outside.

The same physics are at work, just to a lesser extent with the realistic amount of friction from the bearings.

Maybe it has something to do with ze going versus ze stopping?

On mountain bike tires there is (generally) no difference between the front and rear tire, you just run the front tire backwards.  If a tire is designed to provide the most amount of traction rotating in one direction, it would make sense to give you more traction backwards in the rear and more traction for stopping in the front.  Obviously there's a difference between knobby dirt tires and road slicks.....  I really don't know the answer, I'm just talking out my ass. 

ramses is right, it has to do with the rear tire producing power and the front tire free-spinning. 

Quote from: deweey on September 29, 2008, 09:24:21 AM
ramses is right, it has to do with the rear tire producing power and the front tire free-spinning. 

Well, not so much "free spinning", those brakes on the front wheel provide more force at the contact patch than the motor does at the back wheel (on most bikes). When they're working, they're slowing you down - which is why the orientation of the pattern is the other way around compared to the rear tire...

big