Continental Road Attack tire question

While installing the Road Attack tires I just purchased, we came
across a question of which way is the correct rotation. The front tire
has the arrow on the sidewall with "front" inside the arrow. Does
"front" refer to the rotation or the actual front of the bike? Because
of the inverted writing, if the tire is mounted with the text
readable, the arrow would be pointed either against the rotation or
towards the rear of the bike. I mounted it as the rotation, but
noticed that it causes the tread pattern of the front to be opposite
of the rear. Which is correct?

 

There are probably some deep physics involved here which are beyond me,
to do with pressures and directions and fluids, but in practice any
arrow when viewed from the left side of the tire, should point forward,
ie in the same direction as the bike's normal direction of motion.
Bicycles are the same even though their tires don't usually have arrows
on the sidewall. If you straddle some tires, assuming the fender
doesn't hide their surface completely, there may be diagonal grooves
which form a sort-of arrow as you look down. That imaginary arrow
should point in the normal direction of motion. Seems counter-intuitive
if one imagines viewing the tire bottom from underneath the road's
surface instead of from above.

 

paul c wrote:
....

Oops,sorry, left or right doesn't matter.

 

Install the tires so they rotate in the direction of the arrows. Don't
worry about the tread pattern.

 

The funny thing is, Continental inverts all of the writing on the Road
Attack so that it is read from the tread side of the tire, not the rim
side, like normal tires. That allows you to see the cool race flag
pattern, but is the cause of the confusion. On a normal tire, you
would read across the top of the tire, where the writing is right side
up. If that were the case, the arrow and writing would be OK. On the
Road Attack, you read across the bottom, where the "front" text inside
the arrow is right side up, but the arrow would point forward, against
the forward rotation. That's why I'm wondering if the text "front"
refers to the rotation or the physical front of the bike.

 

heh, heh, obviously i'm not familiar with Continentals, sounds like
"dot's" answer was much better than mine, just ignore the text and
follow the arrow!

 

Okay. Just to keep everybody on their toes.

The top of the tire travels forward down the road at twice the speed of the
bike. This is the direction the tire must rotate to cause the bike to have
forward motion.
The portion of the tire in contact with the road is stationarary at all
times. Except while sliding, then it too travels in the same direction as
the top of tire, and the bike.

Think: The arrow must somehow get in front of the bike (axle on the
wheel). The arrow must accellerate from zero two twice the bike speed and
back to zero repeatedly for there to be any forward motion.

Since the top of the tire must travel so fast, the tread pattern should not
be such that it would cause turbulence by 'pumping' air in advance of the
bike. The tread on the bottom just sits there and has a cool nmemonic. The
contact patch. (the wide part and the end of the pleasure trail)

Install the tires so they rotate in the direction of the arrows. Don't
worry about the tread pattern.

 

Heh, heh, I guess that might confirm that the physics are over my head,
still it's hard to see how the bottom of the tire can be
stopped/stationary while the top moves, something must give, not the
rider I hope! I would have thought the tread, if there is any any
should be such as to promote a slight flattening of the tire bottom as
it begins to touch the road, ie., good contact.


(Besides, I thought the front wheel is always sliding a little from side
to side even if the bike appears to be going in a straight line.)

 

OK, I get it. But now my head hurts. And we won't even get into road
contact and coefficiant of drag. But here's the response I got from
Continental.

"Dear Mr. Crowder,

The orientation of the ContiRoad Attack front has recently been
revised. We responded to feed-back from the markets about maximising
the already incredible durability of the original front tread pattern.
After the launch of the ContiSport Attack test riders commented on the
fact that the reversed tread direction gave much more uniform wear
across the tyres section and so the ContiRoad Attack front pattern was
switched in late October 2006 to take advantage of this better wear
characteristic. Some confusion exists because in some plants outside
of Germany have a tread mould with small arrows at the edge of the
tread near the sidewall, these arrows should be ignored. These moulds
are being replaced. ContiRoad attack customers may be offered the same
tyre with apparently two different directions of rotation. The tread
pattern on both tyres is fine. Riders should be aware that all
relevant and legally required information regarding speed rating and
direction of rotation is moulded into the side-wall of the tyre, not
the tread, so be sure your tyre is fitted in accordance with the
directional arrow on the sidewall regardless of which way the pattern
runs.

Mit den besten Gruessen/Best regards

Florian Sollich
Sales International
Continental Motorcycle Tyres

Continental AG
P.O. Box 169, 30001 Hannover, Germany"

It's nice to get an actual response from a large company, not a form
letter. Feeling better about my selection already. And the tires feel
great.

 

I went back to the original post which mentioned the word 'front' inside
the 'arrow' on the 'sidewall'. Good for Continental for replying, but
how does the change of arrows on the tread answer your original question?


(My confusion may have to do with lack of pot or that I'm still trying
to understand how the top of a tire accelerates while the bottom is
motionless, whether the bike is accelerating or not!)

 

It seems to me that the directional arrows to notify us which way to
mount the tire, depending if it was going onto the Front or the Rear
of the Bike.
I didn't think they did that anymore.
Bg

 

Not sure that makes any sense as the front and rear wheels rotate in the
same direction if they are on the ground.

Ian Singer


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The reason for mounting the tire differently on back and front was
because on the rear tire was mounted with the treads pointed for
Acceleration and in front it was mounted the opposite direction for
Braking .
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