Front tire mounted in incorrect rotation direction

2500 miles after having new tires installed and while detailing my R1200R I noted that the direction of rotation of the front tire was incorrect. The BMW dealer who installed the tire has agreed to rectify the situation, however has not agreed at this point to replace the tire. I contacted Michelin customer service who would not comment regarding the need to replace the tire, only stating it was up to the dealer to "correct it." Questions I have are: (1) Has the tire been adversely affected by rotating in the wrong direction for 25% of its life? (2) By merely remounting will there be long term adverse effects to handling, braking, tire life, safety? (3) The dealer has stated they will "inspect" the tire and remount if it is ok...can they really see any internal issues related to cord wear-in, etc.? Automotive tires when being rotated must maintain the same rotational direction, why wouldn't the same apply to motorcycle tires? I appreciate you thoughts, comments.

I'm not a tire expert but I think internal damage won't be an issue. Motorcycle tire plies aren't arranged in a way that rotation direction matters, so it's unlikely there'd be any internal damage to the tire caused by overheating; only the tread is arranged directionally. The damage would be only on the tread, if there is any damage at all, and it would therefore be visible.

You didn't mention which model of tire this is, and that matters as some tires have more direction-biased tread patterns than others. My own Avons would probably roll just fine either way because there's not a lot of sipes across the center strips, but some Michelins with a whole lot of sipes like the older Pilot Road 3 and 4 might conceivably have accelerated wear if their sipe walls were to rub against each other more than intended. That'd be similar to what happens if a tire is not run at a high enough pressure.

Remounting the tire as it's supposed to be shouldn't do a thing if the tread is still in good condition and the wheel is balanced correctly.

Probably your largest concern with a reversed tire is short-term damage to yourself and the bike, not the tire, when riding in the rain because of the risk of crashing. Reversing the tread pattern on any of Michelin's Road series tires would seriously compromise its ability to clear water on wet roads and make it way more likely to lose traction.

I don’t want to be misconstrued as an expert. But I suspect that it has to do with the tread, and the way it is able to move water from the center to the side of the tire, thus preventing hydroplaning. I’m going to suggest that remounting the tires the other direction should probably do the trick. But surely people more knowledgeable than me will chime in.


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What model bike?

My understanding is that even though the tread pattern is unidirectional the carcass is bidirectional. BUT - during manufacture the tread part comes as a long strip that's wrapped around the carcass and vulcanized (with its directional pattern) in place. To avoid a gap between the ends of the strip, they are tapered and overlapped, and the direction of rotation is specified so that the overlap doesn't peel back when loaded. The front tire gets its most severe loads when braking, the rear when accelerating. Maybe manufacturing techniques have changed since I learned this?

I am not a tire engineer and have no opinion on the OP's question. I will mention that way back at the dawn of radial car tires, that there was much discussion about how rotating tires was different between radials and bias-ply tires, because radials "wanted" to always rotate the same direction, to reduce internal damage. So rotating radials was just swapping front and rear on each side, whereas bias had some complicated LF > spare > RR > RF > LR pattern (assuming a full-size spare, remember them?) (also assuming a bidirectional tread pattern, unidirectional treads have to be swapped F/R regardless of carcass construction).

wbrownell9 said:

BUT - during manufacture the tread part comes as a long strip that's wrapped around the carcass and vulcanized (with its directional pattern) in place. To avoid a gap between the ends of the strip, they are tapered and overlapped, and the direction of rotation is specified so that the overlap doesn't peel back when loaded. The front tire gets its most severe loads when braking, the rear when accelerating. Maybe manufacturing techniques have changed since I learned this?

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In addition, most tires have directional tread patterns. My advice would be, unless one knows more than a tire engineer, re-mount your tire.

I once had a directional tire mounted incorrectly on my old Triumph rear wheel. That tire wore out at a extremely high rate. I figure the wear resistance is designed for front on braking and for rears on acceleration, when mounted incorrectly they wear out faster.

Some Airhead guys, myself included, with dual front disc models, used to switch rotational direction to equalize tread wear. I knew about the arguments against this practice, but I did it anyway.

Internet seems to be about 50/50 on this-

Can you put directional tires on backwards?


A: No, you cannot change the rotation of a directional tire. A unidirectional tire has been designed to optimize its wet grip going in one direction. If you reverse the rotation, wet grip will suffer, braking distances will increase and you will lose cornering grip.Sep 11, 2013

https://nomoneymotorsports.com/2019/10/29/run-directional-tire-backwards/


https://www.wheels.ca/news/performance-gap-small-if-running-directional-tire-backwards/

Personally, I don’t think you have a problem other than trying to get by the fact care was not used during your tire change.
Unfortunately, it’s tough to get service satisfaction nowadays.
Good luck.
OM

Jeff Vinton said:

Automotive tires when being rotated must maintain the same rotational direction, why wouldn't the same apply to motorcycle tires?

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That would be incorrect. Car radials in the 70's, yes. But it's been a long while since car radials were able to be swapped side to side, in the familiar "x" pattern that most of us remember.

Car radials stiill have an outside and inside designation when mounted. I have seem manufactures still showing the X pattern when the spare is part of the rotation. But the cost of tires and spares being original keep us doing the front to back rotation. Now with computers monitoring tires they squawk when a slightly different tire diameter is introduced in the mix of 4 on the ground.

Thanks for your reply

The bike is a 2011 R1200R and the tire is a Michelin 5GT. I'm less concerned now about remounting the tire.

Running it backwards will not damage the tire. Might get some funny wear but if you re-scuff them in after having it rotated it should be good to go.

The carcass is not directional. The tread is directional in a sense the front tire is optimized for braking and the rear for acceleration.

Jeff Vinton said:

I contacted Michelin customer service who would not comment regarding the need to replace the tire, only stating it was up to the dealer to "correct it." .

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It's surprising Michelin would not give you a answer. The dealer is not a expert on tire construction.

Lee said:

It's surprising Michelin would not give you a answer. The dealer is not a expert on tire construction.

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Unless and until forced to do so, Michelin probably did not wish to get between the dealer and the customer. If I were the dealer I would contact Michelin and ask them, and then do what they recommend.

I think at this point both the OP and the dealer would be best served by the OP allowing the dealer to inspect, remount, and rebalance the tire and the dealer giving the OP a coupon for a free mount & balance for one wheel on the purchase of the next pair of tires. Getting Michelin or any other outside party involved just creates delay and hard feelings on both sides, especially when one of the outside players is an internet chorus. The tail end of post #9 contains what is likely the core issue here; perhaps the above would resolve it.

IMHO, of course.

Best,
DeVern

Is the rim backwards ?

Jeff Vinton said:

I appreciate you thoughts, comments.

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I wonder if the tire is mounted correctly on the rim, but that the rim is mounted backwards. Check the rim direction of rotation. Maybe the rim is reversed. I've seen it on bikes with two front brake rotors. Just a thought.

maxscycle said:

I wonder if the tire is mounted correctly on the rim, but that the rim is mounted backwards. Check the rim direction of rotation. Maybe the rim is reversed. I've seen it on bikes with two front brake rotors. Just a thought.

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If the wheel is on backwards his ABS light would flash.

Tires

i worked for a tire shop or two in my 70 plus years. Way back when, we were pretty nonchalant about which way the tires were mounted. However, with the advent of steel belted radial tires, notably Pirelli's, we wer told to mount them and not change the direction of rotation because the tires developed a "rolling set" which would cause the plies to separate if rotated side to side instead of just front to back (a big concern for the rocket like performance and sled like handling of cars like MG's and Triumph Spitfires). Now, looking at the tires on my GTL it appears that the tread pattern dictates things like water dispersion and the size of the contact patch in cornering. So, correcting the situation by mounting the tire with the direction of rotation suggested by the manufacturer may cause the tire to handle better, wet or dry, but probably not much else. And to follow up, is there damage done?, probably not. All of this is IMHO and undoubtedly will be subject to fierce criticism by the experts on this forum (or maybe not).

It seems to me the dealer is being really cheap about this and potentially taking a big risk. They should just apologize for the mistake and give him a new tire. How much would it cost to avoid the risk and generate some goodwill?

Ken