Rotating front tire, is it possible

[Stinger02]

Ok this is a real no nonsense question. On my 02 750 Kat, I'm noticing the front tire wearing a tad more on the left then the right ( not because of left turns or warped roads) now my last tire wore extreamly bad on the left due to a leaking fork. That has been repaired but I'm still noticing a bit of wear on the left side on the new tire. Now years ago I bought this bike with a bent front rim so something might be tweaked. I currently ride my bike each and every day to work. 500 miles a week (2000 miles a month) this is a real question. Can I turn (rotate) the front around and run it a few hundred miles the other direction. Yes I know I'm saying go against the directional arrow. Yes I know that its probably not going to be as good in the rain. Can it be done? Can the rim just be turned around, will I get any unwanted vibration? Just the facts. I do ALL interstate driving and I need to squeeze every mike out of these tires. I'm guestimating I'll be changing the tires every three to four months. Thanks guys.

[muffinman]

When I bought my bike the po had the tire mounted in the wrong direction and because it wasn't very old I was able to have it turned around. With as many miles as you have, I think it would cause the tire to get chopped from the reverse rotation. As for the rim I know it can be turned around but I don't know if it's safe.

[B12BAMADUDE]

i work at an auto tire store and i was told it would separate the treads if ran backwards ( not sure if its safe to do on slow speed applications like tractors but seems ok to me) but im not to sure i would chance my life on something like a bike @ higher speeds..

[05RedKat600]

Ok this is a real no nonsense question. On my 02 750 Kat, I'm noticing the front tire wearing a tad more on the left then the right ( not because of left turns or warped roads) now my last tire wore extreamly bad on the left due to a leaking fork. That has been repaired but I'm still noticing a bit of wear on the left side on the new tire. Now years ago I bought this bike with a bent front rim so something might be tweaked. I currently ride my bike each and every day to work. 500 miles a week (2000 miles a month) this is a real question. Can I turn (rotate) the front around and run it a few hundred miles the other direction. Yes I know I'm saying go against the directional arrow. Yes I know that its probably not going to be as good in the rain. Can it be done? Can the rim just be turned around, will I get any unwanted vibration? Just the facts. I do ALL interstate driving and I need to squeeze every mike out of these tires. I'm guestimating I'll be changing the tires every three to four months. Thanks guys.

You can do whatever you want, it's your life. Should you? No. Risking your life for a 100 dollar tire is NOT worth it. Also, you really need to figure out why your tire is wearing like it is. That is the solution, not running it backwards.

If this tire was brand new and mounted backwards, probably not a big deal. Now it's worn funny, AND you want to run it backwards? No. Running just the rim backwards may or may not solve your problem either. I would be examining the height of the forks in the triple clamps, checking fork oil levels, etc, and figuring out why it's doing that.

[mcssls]

i work at an auto tire store and i was told it would separate the treads if ran backwards ( not sure if its safe to do on slow speed applications like tractors but seems ok to me) but im not to sure i would chance my life on something like a bike @ higher speeds..

I busted tires on everything from wheel barrows to heavy mine equipement and was taught not to run against that arrow d/t possibility of the cords separating too.

[Badfaerie]

All front tires wear more on the left than on the right. Make sure your wear is unusual before you jump into stupid unusual corrective actions.

http://www.rattlebars.com/tirewear/index.html

[thetable]

Left turns are longer, hence left sides wear more. Tread and belt separation were issues with bias ply tires, radials don't care, at least from a carcass perspective, look at the standard rotation patterns (modified X), it involves flipping tires so that they run backwards.

Now from a wear perspective, the groves appear to run backwards from what everyone at first thinks is normal because it puts the loads on the tires in a way that minimizes cupping. Yes, you can run them backwards, but they will wear more quickly and more irregularly.

Now back to the first question, NO, you don't want to just flip the whole wheel, you would want to dismount and remount the tire. You won't see much more life, and for the time and energy invested, you might as well put a new tire on.

[steves]

Also the tread pattern is designed to push water in a specific direction during wet. Probably don't want to comprimise that.

[diavolo]

If you decide to change out your rubber, get yourself some PRII's - I've got about 17.5K and getting ready to replace them with PRII's again. Bike Bandit had the cheapest prices.

[Stinger02]

Excellent advice everyone. I was wondering if the tire would separate and that was discussed as a possibility. I didn't realize the left side wears quicker but that does make sence, since we drive on the right side of the road. Maybe the wear isn't unusual like I thought. I just know befor the fork was fixed, it wore out my front and rear on the left side with lots of tread on the right and middle. Thanks again guys and hopefully since that fork issue has been fixed I'll see more then 5000 miles out of a pair of tires!