dumb question about tread direction

[electra_boogaloo]

I got a set of knobby tires from northern tool for my warrior today. Knobby ATV Tire Great for Rough Terrain — 20 x 7.00-8 | ATV Tires Wheels| Northern Tool + Equipment.

i'e been riding motorcycles for a while and sometimes the rear and front will have the same tread pattern but will face different dicrections. My warrior is going to be mainly offroad and a little on the ashpalt or concrete, so should i point the tread with the v pointing towards the front or vice versa? any point in having the two tires going different directions? there are no directional arrows on the tires either

 

[FOMOGO]

With the center of the tread contacting the ground first and the wide part of the V following they will tend to self clean and shed mud if you get them filled up in the muck. The other way they tend to fill up and hold the mud. That has been my experience with this style tread on 4 wheelers.

Doug

 

[Charles S]

Street motorcycle: Rear wheel drives; front wheel does about 90% of braking (for someone who knows how to ride); tread pattern is reversed to evacuate water from rear tire under acceleration and from front tire under braking; not an issue for your Baja. Typical minibike would have the V pointing forward when viewed from above (both tires).

 

[FOMOGO]

 

[electra_boogaloo]

cool, thanks guys!

 

[doodlebot]

It depends on the tire construction. I can only tell you about tires I've used on my db30. It originally came with p330 tread 145/70-6 made by Wanda Tyre Ltd from China. Wanda P330s are sold as directional and they expect you to have them spinning in the direction of the center arrow on the tread face as there is no spin direction listed on the sidewall. I've cut these tires apart when they are taken off my mini and I've noticed that the nylon belts are spun leaning towards the direction of the rubber arrows on the tread face. That means the they are molded with the strength from the center hub twisting out towards the spin direction of the "arrows" on the tread face. I used them for asphalt stree and grass on my DB30 with a slightly worked 212 and was happy with the results. The frame of a DB30 puts a shitload of stress on the back tire because it carries the most weight, has all the thrust torque, and all the braking is done there so the rear tire takes the most punishment. I am going to switch the rear tire to a Wanda P333 (sometimes they are sold as Wanda/Journey or simply Journey tires with the Wanda logo on them) which is a symettrical square pattern across the whole face of the tire since the only thing my DB30 will see is asphalt and grass.
These tires also have no sidewall directional arrows, so when I cut one open i expect to see the nylon belts wound from the center bead to the road face of the tire in a straight crosshair pattern.
In my humble opinon, since I've had this DB30 well up over 60 mph, the biggest issue for me is balance. I can feel and have to counter steer the wobble because of how difficult it is to get one of these small tires reasonably balanced on a low speed rim. The tires are not designed for high speed applications (rubber distribution is not quality controlled as meticulously) and the rims are not much better. Its very difficult to spin balance one of these small tires on a small rim unless you have all day to do it. I have pics of my chewed up p330 wandas on my db30 for you to see. Short answer is the tread direction probably plays a key part in how the tire was molded.

Here's what im using now for street and grass only. Wanda P330s.




Notice the rear tire is chewed up from the sidewall on up. Thats damage from the asphalt street from turning and acceleration.

 

[electra_boogaloo]

so what's it like to go 60 on such a small bike? i hit 41 on mine and it felt very smooth. i'll never hit 60 on mine without extreme engine modification.

 

[doodlebot]

so what's it like to go 60 on such a small bike? i hit 41 on mine and it felt very smooth. i'll never hit 60 on mine without extreme engine modification.

60 is insanely fast on that small of a mini. There's no suspension. I only have one place where I can run it out that fast. I'm 43 years old and if I were about 20 years younger without kids needing silly things like college I'd probably keep pushing it. I now have on my 212 hemi a black mamba cam, billet rod and flywheel, 2 valve springs and a PMR header heat wrapped pipe (removable briggs style silencer) and my friend changed the spring tension on the Tav2 driven pulley. The only brake I have is a hydraulic replacement that I got from hotrodminibike.com. I think most of the top end comes from the 32mm jetted mikuni. The next mod I plan to make is getting the smallest possible rear wheel sprocket on it.

On a side note, in my shed I have another DB30S roller and a 301cc predator still sitting in the box, but i am going to put a clutch on it instead of a TAV. I'm trying to find a good set of slicks to put on the DB30s's oddball stock rims. The torque output on any engine bolted to a DB30s ultimately ends up sending the twisting power to a handful of cheap hex head screws between the sprocket and the hub so I might have to completely redesign the rear wheel setup. If I could get a machine shop to cheaply do what I want, I'd replace the chain sprocket on the clutch with an alternator input shaft pulley to accommodate a flat belt (like automotive serpentine) to a pulley on the rear wheel so that it had a smooth belt drive output. One can only dream though. I drew it up in Autodesk, les see if I can get it made.

To answer your question shortly, 60 on that bike is way too fast.

 

[FOMOGO]

I'd replace the chain sprocket on the clutch with an alternator input shaft pulley to accommodate a flat belt (like automotive serpentine) to a pulley on the rear wheel so that it had a smooth belt drive output. One can only dream though. I drew it up in Autodesk, les see if I can get it made.

If you think an automotive alternator pulley would be the right size for the clutch and you want a small rear pulley you need to be looking at truck water pump pulley's for the rear. Or maybe a power steering pulley.