Rear Tire Mounted On The Front????

I must have missed something. I understand the part about more rubber on a "rear" motorcycle tire, but what is the thing about mounting it "Backwards" so it runs in reverse??? I missed that part. Please.
M

Has to do with belt seperation on hard breaking. There are lots of threads covering it.

Jerry

Personally I don't buy into that idea about a tire failing due to more stress on the tire during braking (emergency or normal) while on the front as opposed to hard braking while on the back. I've never made a tire so I can't be 100% sure but I would assume car tires and MT's are made the same way. So assuming they are (?) the manuf. has no idea which way the tire will rotate when put on a car. So the tire has to be made to withstand the stress of braking and hard acceleration no matter which way it is put on the vehicle. Now having said that I have to add that I have been wrong before and probably will be wrong again sometime in the future.

I have had the chance to ride a bike (81 Suzuki GS750 GL with 850 kit) that had the rear tire put on backwards and rode that bike for two yrs that way. I even rode the bike to Las Vegas and back from Okla and never had any problems out of it. BTW, I've never seen or heard of a tire failure simply because they were running it backwards.

So it all comes down to 2 things when putting a rear MT on the front:
1. Do you prefer to mount the tire backwards allowing the braking stress to be applied to the tire the same direction as accelerating on the back would or trust the tire to not fail if ran the way the arrow says to run it?
2. Which way do you want the rain grooves to push the water? Of course on some tires this doesn't matter.

Good luck to everyone that gets to make this choice, since I can't find a rear MC tire to fit on the front of my little 800 I don't have to worry about it.

All of the above is just my opinion, so buyer beware. Oh and I approve of this message.

Ihave been running a rear tire on the front for years. I mount them with the rotation arrows pointing toward the front like they are meant to be mounted. I have never had one fail from stress or anything else, just wear them out (25,000 to 30,000 miles on average).

I have a rear tire mounted on the front, standard rotation. If I read what everyone else says then a standard REAR TIRE mounted correctly on the REAR will blow up when I lock up the back brakes, right? Sounds as silly as crashing in a big fire ball when running a car tire on the rear.
Doc

OK, Then, Where do you find a "Rear" tire (to install on the front) that is BIG enough. Mine stock front wheel holds a 130/70R18 tire. I can't find an 18" rear tire ANYWHERE. Every search I do keeps trying to correct me and shows me "Front" tires in 18". Never "Rear" tires.
Whadge you guys do? change to a smaller front wheel?

Hey VS800Rider, I read this part in your post: "So assuming they are (?) the manuf. has no idea which way the tire will rotate when put on a car."
Maybe I don't interpretate this correctly, but CT's do have an arrow to point out the right rotation.
So you might check out the tires on your cage.
Tropical regards,
Robert.

directional CT have an arrow too... non-directional (meaning the tread is designed, or works out the same either way, tires do not have a "correct" direction).

Having "no idea" is a bit of an understatement since there is only 2 ways a tire can go on.

As for the 18" rear, I guess my bike has a fictitious rear end, as my rear rim is 18"....
18" rear tire

tire 1
tire 2
tire 3

and so on and so forth....

they are out there, revise your search.

IMO, which is worth about 1/3 of $0.02, the tires are designed to take at least 3 to 5X the stress that could be endured in their proper application. Reversing the rotation will most likely not affect or hinder anything. But this is just my opinion and ought to be taken with a grain of salt.... shrugging shoulders...

I just have to toss in my question or .02
What about a radial, rear tire on the front for the 1300S or R or whatever?
Anybody done this?
Now I have a Bridgestone 150/80R17 G701 up front. I do like the radials all the way around.

wayne wrote:I just have to toss in my question or .02
What about a radial, rear tire on the front for the 1300S or R or whatever?
Anybody done this?
Now I have a Bridgestone 150/80R17 G701 up front. I do like the radials all the way around.

Lots of folks running radials up front too. For me I like my metz and will replace it with another.

See you out there
Smokey

motorcyclereb wrote:Ihave been running a rear tire on the front for years. I mount them with the rotation arrows pointing toward the front like they are meant to be mounted. I have never had one fail from stress or anything else, just wear them out (25,000 to 30,000 miles on average).

+1...thanks for someone who runs them the way I do and thinks like I do!!!!


..........................bobby