Mounting tires with directional arrows

swapdip wrote: Bob's saved me big time when I bent my rear wheel coming back on a cross country trip on my GV1200... altho they mounted my tire backwards. Serves me right for not checking. Good prices tho.

This post recalls my understanding about mounting motorcycle tires with directional arrows in the sidewalls.

A tire marketed by a tire manufacturer as a "front" tire, when mounted on the front wheel, should be mounted with the arrow pointed in the direction of rotation.

Likewise, a tire marketed by a tire manufacturer as a "rear" tire, when mounted on the rear wheel, should be mounted with the arrow pointed in the direction of rotation.

But, when a "front" tire is mounted on the rear wheel, the arrow should point against the direction of rotation.

Good Fortune!

Why is that? Seems counter-intuitive.

yeah thats right we used to do it wiht our race bikes we used front tyres off larger bikes on the rear and turned it round so the direction was facing backwards apparently the done thing as carcass is built a certain way, (front tyres need strenth when braking and rears need the strenth when accelerating) so to turn them round would have the carcass rotating the right way for each axle.