A place to ask bicycle repair questions, and for bike shop monkeys to share advanced non commercial wrenching resources (no YouTube self promotion). This is only for repair related topics.
Basically title, this symbol is on the tires of my new (to me) CAAD12. Are the tires on backwards? The right side of the picture is the front of the bike, the left side is the rear. This is the front tire. Another picture below showing which way the tread is facing. The tread "looks" right, it appears it would channel water away from the center correctly.
If I had to guess the arrow shows what direction the tire should rotate in and the correct direction is dependent on whether the tire is in the front or the rear.
I'm left wondering why the tread direction of a tire would differ if it's on the front vs rear wheel of a bicycle. They're still rotating the same direction, right?
Another comment said something about one wheel being under power and the other not having something to do with it.
Edit: and now I can't seem to find it, I must be hallucinating.
I'm not aware of any other tire on land that would vary based on being driven or not. Sure, a driven wheel has torque applied to it, but I haven't seen an automobile with an equivalent arrangement. Nor are rail wheels for that matter.
Also, all wheels are braked on a standard bicycle, which would subject them all to the same torque, which should exceed acceleration torque when adjusted properly.
This answer is correct, I'm not going to put my brain through the hoops of which way is which from the pics, but roll the bike forward and double check that the front and rear are rotating the appropriate direction, if not flip them. Although I doubt you'd ever actually notice it the rear would be positioned for best traction and the front for least resistance hence the opposite directions
No body really confidently said. Yes, the direction matters, the arrow should point in the forward direction, if situated at the top of the tire. If there is a front/rear labeling, their respective arrows differ based on being mounted on the front or rear wheel.
That said, if you're not an avid cyclist, you'll likely not notice incorrect mounting. I wanted to find a lil something to help me better explain, but this post goes into pretty much all major aspects of tire direction all by itself. Here on MTBR
Great thread, thank you that makes a lot of sense. If I were more motivated I might do the test they mentioned but I honestly doubt I'd see much difference on a 25c tire rather than a fat MTB tire. My guess then is that the reversed front deals with turning better than the other way around and that the "tread" is basically cosmetic.
I think it’s literally just pointing at which way to install the tire.
Like it’s just an arrow pointing to the literal front of the bike, not indicating rotation. It’s just an unintuitive design.
Also Jesus, nice CAAD12 lol. Enjoy!
you don't need those symbols. Looking at the pattern, which is supposed to push water towards the sides and away (like you wrote) it looks like they're mounted correctly. With a tire this thin, threads probably don't matter much (?)
what a confusing mark though! It should go on this community ☞ !crappydesign@sh.itjust.works