REAR TIRE ON FRONT

I JUST READ A POST TO THIS QUESTION of about a yr ago. I have a little more to be answered if any one knows. I have a Honda VTX 1800 an am trying to find a way to get a little fatter tire in the front. I can use a metz 160/60/17 z6.........but as all rear tires the middle is smooth ,no water removal line in the center as most front tires have ,or overlapping v tread to remove the water. will the smooth center of the rear tire up front cause a hydroplane situation? I ride every day in the FL rainy season.
thanks
Jim  

Look at Avon Venom tires. They are a little more sport tread, and may work.

But, beware, the sidewalls are a little thinner so, you will want a couple extra psi over manufacturers recommended, and if your suspension is aging, you still will not like the effect. Been there, done that, bought front springs, and new rear shock (loved it after).  

Hydroplaning is not as simple as many people would like to believe. While bike tires have a curved face, which doesn't trap water the way a flat faced car tire will, the reduced weight on the tire makes it easier to hydroplane even a curved face tire. This is more likely to happen on a cruiser front tire, because most of the bike's weight is on the rear tire. Sport bikes can get away with narrower rain grooves on the front tire than cruisers can, simply because of the bike's weight distribution, making a sport tread a poor choice for all weather riding on the front end of a cruiser.

If you just have to have a wider tire on the front, it would probably be better to select a rear tire that has a more classic tread style instead of a sport tread. Keep in mind, in addition to being wider, rear tires have less curve to the face and require even more weight to push down through standing water, than front tires do. Also keep in mind, a wider front tire, with less curve to the face, means an increased tendency to wobble.

I've run rear tires on the front of heavy standard bikes, back in the 70's and 80's, but I never put one on the front of a cruiser. I've also never experienced a front tire hydroplaning on any of my bikes and I've always kept riding when everyone else pulled off the road because of extremely heavy rain.

regards,
Joe  

JOE,
your thread was the one I was talking about when I posted last night .Thanks for the reply. OVER on the( VTXOA board ) http://www.vtxoa.com/  there is quite a stir going on over the rear to front. IM 67 yrs old, ridden a million miles I would guess sense I was 13 yrs old. Never to old to learn something new. Dident think about the wobble. I have replaced the front tube springs with heavy duty over size, the rear are 412 progressive shocks. With my weight at 6' 290 lbs .......and the way my bike is set up , I have a combined weight of 1220 lbs. I just want , or think I want ........( LOL )  a wider tire up front to fill in the fender more , I have a 240/40/ wide kit on the rear. Every one on the VTXOA site keep saying to reverse rotation if one goes to the front with a rear tire. I just cant get that thru my old mind, besides a chance of improving from hydroplaning, by keeping it in the same rotation as the rear they are inferring that the tire will come apart( explode ) if not reversed rotation.  I look at it this way.....NO there in no acceleration, or pulling power on the "tire belts" up front, as would be on the rear. But the braking is in the same direction , if on the back or front. So Joe help me out here......what is you thinking for what the purpose of me wanting the tire up front?....especial , safety factor. I have been down twice in my 54 yr of riding ,and I don't want to go down again for doing something stupid.
thanks again
JIM

***
Just came from the VTXOA and this pretty much proves what you have been saying.
Originally Posted by mark_1bx  
FWIW!

http://www.unece.org/trans/doc/2005/...-58-inf20e.doc

ETRTO Position on Directional Tires  

I can tell I picked my words inexactly when I said "sport", which gave rise to images of sport bike tires. Perhaps I should have said "performance". I found a link with pics of them (know nothing about the site, other than it's a good pic of a front, and rear tire, and the 1st good pic I found).
http://www.bikernet.com/avon/avon_news.asp

As you can see on the front tire, they're down to 1 center groove, and it doesn't go all the way around. The channels are pretty substantial, and frequent. I've ridden them in a tropical storm at up to highway speeds, and the only problem I had was at 5 mph trying to brake in a pool of antifreeze.  

AVON TYRE QUESTION OF THE WEEK--Why do tires have a directional arrow on the sidewall?

The arrow indicates the direction in which the tire should be mounted on the wheel. When the tire is built the tread is joined with the tread overlapping in so that when the tire is mounted on the front wheel the braking forces acting on the tire keep the tread splice together and when it is on the rear wheel is it overlapped to work with the acceleration forces acting on the rear tire. See photo.

If a tire is mounted incorrectly a tread splice can result.

Sukoshi Fahey (Ms.)
Sales Manager, North America
www.avonmotorcycle.com
thank you for the link, the faq was very good.......told me to keep the tires where there at
thanks
jim  

As gettyupgodaddy pointed out, some tires are designed to handle more stress in one direction than the other. While the braking stress is in the same direction, no matter where the tire is installed, a rear tire has continuous stress on it during riding, from pushing the machine against the wind resistance on the highway. That's why front tires last so much longer for long distance riders. The rear tire is under constant acceleration stress, while the front tire is just coasting along. The theory is, since the rear tire is constructed to withstand constant acceleration stress and front tires are not, turning it backwards before mounting it on the front will enable the rear tire to withstand the braking stress better. This theory comes from back when all bikes were standard bikes and had more weight on the front tire than today's cruisers do.

When you get hard on the front brake on a standard bike, the weight shift will probably not be enough to do a 'stoppie', but it will put much more weight on the front tire during braking than even the heaviest cruiser bike will. That extra weight is what allows the braking stress to be increased far beyond what a cruiser front tire experiences. The braking stress on a cruiser's front tire is unlikely to unravel any rear tire, no matter which way it is mounted. After all, the rear tire is made to be able to handle constant acceleration stress and braking stress, which are in opposite directions, and under much more weight than the cruiser's front wheel experiences during braking.

Consequently, it would seem to be best when mounting a rear tire on the front of a cruiser, to mount the tire in the normal direction if it has angled rain grooves. The angled rain grooves would tend to pull water into the center of the tire, if mounted backwards. With the classic tread patterns of vertical grooves or squared blocks, it doesn't matter which way the tire rotates in the rain.

All theory aside, I have looked at the front tires on many cruisers ridden by people like me, who ride long distances routinely and never let rain stop them from riding, no matter how bad the storm is. I find rain grooves running in all directions and tires mounted both with and against the arrows. Since everyone slows down in heavy rain because of reduced visibility, it doesn't seem to make any difference. The only time I have ever known a front tire on a bike to hydroplane is when I saw someone hit standing water doing 60 mph on a clear sunny day.

regards,
Joe