Tyres - Asymmetrical vs Directional etc

[zorruno]

They are more than directional - asymmetrical tyres have to go on the correct side... and mount the correct way around.

Which is a bummer... as there are fewer options for rotating them if they wear unevenly (my fronts wear on the insides, so I flip them over and swap sides after each few 1000 kms). Yes, I know I could fix the wear, but I like my current alignment....

[simple]

On Tue, May 22, 2007 at 04:30:18AM -0500, zorruno wrote:

They are more than directional - asymmetrical tyres have to go on the correct side... and mount the correct way around.

Close, but no cigar (as I understand it). Asymmetric tyres are not
necessarily directional. eg. Yokohama A539
http://www.yokohama.co.nz/a539.html

Which is a bummer... as there are fewer options for rotating them if they wear unevenly...

The A539 is actually just as 'rotatable' as any 'old-fashioned' tyre.
Once they have been mounted correctly on a rim (ie. with the outside of
the tread pattern toward the outside of the rim) then you can stick them
on any corner of the car. The tyres are (supposedly) equally happy
rotating in either direction, and they don't make lefts and rights.

You are presumably thinking of tyres which are asymmetric *and*
directional. The two aspects do not necessarily go together (even if
'common-sense' suggests they should).

Asymmetric tyres do limit your options if you're the sort of freak that
demounts the tyres from the rim and remounts them to swap the
inside/outside of the tread. Are you *that* sort of freak, zorruno?


Karl.

(PS. I've not done an exhaustive check of assymetric vs directional - it
really wouldn't suprise me if 99% of assymetric tyes were also
directional)

[Posted via external email]

[Shermio]

Asymmetric tyres do limit your options if you're the sort of freak that
demounts the tyres from the rim and remounts them to swap the
inside/outside of the tread. Are you *that* sort of freak, zorruno?

Well I personally would not go as far as removing the tyres from the rim to rotate them cause that means I have to rebead them in... Im only a freak in that I wash the wheel wells...

[zorruno]

On Tue, May 22, 2007 at 04:30:18AM -0500, zorruno wrote:

They are more than directional - asymmetrical tyres have to go on the correct side... and mount the correct way around.

Close, but no cigar (as I understand it). Asymmetric tyres are not
necessarily directional. eg. Yokohama A539
http://www.yokohama.co.nz/a539.html

Yes, you are quite right, and looking further I see there are some other asymmetric tyres around that are not directional. They are also not as new a concept as I understood either. Asymmetric + Directional is what I suppose I was really meaning.

Which is a bummer... as there are fewer options for rotating them if they wear unevenly...

Asymmetric tyres do limit your options if you're the sort of freak that
demounts the tyres from the rim and remounts them to swap the
inside/outside of the tread. Are you *that* sort of freak, zorruno?

You know I am It helps knowing people with tyre machines though - and there is the fact that I don't do too many kms these days so I don't have to swap them often.

With the uneven wear, I do have to swap them over as regularly as possible to get a decent life out of them.

[zorruno]

OK, some useful info on tyre selection and asymmetrical tyre treads (including from the ltsa...);

http://www.etyres.co.uk/glossary-tyre-t ... ymmetrical
http://www.tyres-online.co.uk/techinfo/patterns.asp
http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/factsheets/32.html

I'll move the last few posts to its own topic.