I’ve got Wildlife Duro tyre on my QU-AX. I think I put it on the wrong way around, because the arrow on the tyre points back. Does it matter? Does it mean the tyre will wear faster? Should I put it on the right way?
i changed my tyres around once, and accidentally put the tyre on backwards.
the tread wore out more in 2 weeks with little riding than it did with 3 months of lots of riding.
change it over ASAP. i wish i had
i know people, contrary to the previous post, who run their tires backwards on purpose, because it supposedly gives ‘more traction’ on one wheel.
I have no evidence to support that, as i really don’t check to see if my tires on backwards or not.
i just ride it.
Well, more traction would mean it would wear faster, wouldn’t it?
I’m just thinking if it’s worth it taking it off and putting it on again, as it is a 3" tyre and when I was putting it on I bent a spoon. I’m afraid I’ll bend my rim if I take it off.
it will wear the same no matter wich way you put it on. putting it on the recomended way will give better grip under decell (braking), running it backwards will give you more grip under power (uphill).
Tires are designed to shed mud out of the tread while, rolling unis don’t go fast enough for this to work. Most biketrials riders, will run the tires backwards for better grip against sliding backwards down obstacles. The same applies to muni.
edit: you won’t bend your rim. Buy good tire levers anyway, michelin’s are my fav.
So it doesn’t really matter which way for street/trials and casual riding, does it?
running the tyre backwards will wear it down faster. i’m not gunna go off all the technical stuff that it gives more grip uphill backwards and what they’re designed to do and all that rubbish.
i know from experience, it wore down more in 2 weeks when it was backwards than 3 months when it was forwards.
Was it the same tyre as you normally use and were you riding the normal amount and doing the usual tricks?
I’ve had it like that for about 5 weeks and it’s only worn out in places where I hop. And I ride about 4 hours a day on the average.(and half of that time I hop). I’m kind of afraid to take it off, cause I might damage the rim. Maybe it’s just for your tyre? What tyre do you have?
When I first read your post I was like “OOOOOOHHHHH” and ran to take off the tyre, but only got as far as taking off the frame.
10+ years of unicycling experience (8+ muni) tells me you don’t know what you’re talking about. tire pressure and ruber compound, and terrain make way more difference in tire life than direction.
Ivan leave your tire alone unless you find you need to maximze downhill grip. you want it backwards for trials/street you’ll get more grip when you up/gap to something and just catch the edge.
10 seconds to read a post tells me you’re a jerk.
i know what i’m talking about, i build bikes and unicycles as a hobby.
you can have all the experience you want mucking about on a unicycle, but when i’ve lost 1.5mm of tread in 3 months of riding, which included learning on it, riding muni and mainly road for loads of km’s, and then when i accidentally put the tyre on backwards one day, and less than 3 weeks later i’ve worn down 2mm of tread, i think i know what’s going on. in that time period i rode it a lot, lot less and kept the tyre pressure the usual.
now, i know you’re not a rocket scientist (it’s pretty damn obvious), but if i lose 1.5mm in 3 months with it forwards, and 2mm in 3 weeks with it backwards, one could pretty accuratly say that it was because of tyre rotation.
second point.
do you think they put the arrow there just for the heck of it? it must have some advantage in going the way it was design for. Sure it may give you more traction going up a hill with it backwards, but what about when you go down the hill? Uni’s need grip to go forward, but at some point they slow down and need grip there too.
well, i think we’ve now firmly established that my tread has worn down due to it being backwards. unless of course your 10 years of unicycling experience (which no doubt is much more impressive than any of the experiences i’ve had in my lifetime) can haul it’s arse over to my garage, and show me why my tread wore down not because it was backwards.
woah, calm down man
ORLY!. I’ve been doing that since you where 6 years old. Plus i’ve been doing custom fabrication on rally cars professionally for a few years now.
uh yeah dude, i don’t know if you realize but these tires where built for downhill bikes. they are built to grip when the bike is leaned out on corners. they are designed to shed mud so they stay gripy. unicycles put different stresses on tires than a bike, much slower (duh) and no leaning over (duh). the arrow is totally irrelevant to unicyclists.
loads of road km’s on your dh tire is the dumbest thing i’ve ever heard. You’re worried about tread life?
I have enough tires in my garage thanks
I put my CC on backwards, from the original direction it was at when I got it, and this was probably caused by the really thick tube that I used, I dont think it fully expanded to fit the tire.
Anyways, after I got the tire on, I noticed it to be hard to ride, I got that one thing I hear everyone talk about, mainly on 28 and 29ers, where the uni pulls to the left or right, and it really sucked, but after riding on the tire for about an hour, it goes away, but its always showed up when I rode it for the first 3 days, now I am pretty sure its gone, and I am used to it.
I do know on some, actually, most tires, the tread faces a direction, which makes it easier to roll with that direction, having it on backwards adds more traction and pulling issues on pavement, but when jumping and on dirt, it will help.
I am not sure about it wearing out more, I guess it could happen on some tires, guess you gotta get lucky, or unlucky. one of those works.
Maybe I should just put the whole wheel on backwards. That way I wouldn’t have to actually take the tyre off. I would tighten the pedals once a week or so to make sure they stay tight. That’d be much easier than messing with the tyre.
i’ll calm down in my own time thankyou, i don’t need somebody who i don’t know who lives on the ohter side of the world to tell me what to do with my emotions.
wow you’ve been doing custom fabrication on rally cars professionally for a few years? that’s just so relevant to the topic.
loads of road km’s on my dh tire is the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard?
you musn’t hear much.
dumb would be me every time i want to ride on the road changing my tyre. i’d have to change it every 2 days. i’d rather ride my dh tyre than spend all that time switchting tyres thankyou.
what do you mean unicycles don’t lean over? i lean over on my unicycle for turns all the time.
i originally said that from my experience, that riding with the tyre on backwards wears down the tread faster.
you disagreed and said that because you’ve been such a hot-shot unicycle rider for so long that i don’t know what i’m talking about.
i don’t know what you’re on about, like seriously?
are you trying to impress me with all these figures and job’s you’ve told me about?
when i ride a tyre for 3 months and get 1.5mm of tread worn off, and when i ride that same tyre backwards for 3 weeks and get 2mm of tread wear, i think it’s fair enough to say that it was because it was backwards. surely, you don’t need experience to tell you that?
Putting the wheel in backwards will mean the pedals will come loose despite regular tightening and will try to fall out at the worst moment also riding with the pedals the slightest bit loose totally kills cranks and rips out the thread.
If you want to put the wheel in backwards you will have to pull off the cranks and swap them round, which is probably more work than just pulling the tire off
jim
I’d disagree with what you’re saying here completely, faster riders do ride fast enough for the mud shedding properties of the tyre to be useful. They also lean over to rail corners on downhills in a similar way to bike riders. If you’re just doing trials, then maybe not, but muni riding certainly uses the tyres in a much more similar way to a bike than you’re suggesting.
Also, different tyres have very different tread designs, so you can’t make sweeping generalisations about running them backwards. For example some tyres (IRC make some like this) are designed to be run one direction on the front for braking, and one direction on the back for acceleration. With tyres with a single direction on them, what you get or lose by running them backwards basically depends on what they’re designed for primarily.
It’s also pretty obvious that if running the tyre backwards affects the way in which the tyre rides, it must be affecting the way in which it contacts the ground, making it grip more in some situations and less in others. Depending on your riding style this will clearly make a difference to the wear rate, although it might not be significant.
To be honest though, all this stuff about more traction, or more protection against slipping backwards by running the tyre the wrong way is all the sort of stuff that only people who’d be better off just practicing more care about. I’ve ridden a brand new gazz with it on backwards until it wore out, and several the right way round and it made no difference to the ride.
Joe
Can you swap the cranks around?
That’s good, cause I was gonna take them off anyway to grease them. Maybe I should do that. I have splined hub. That seems to solve both my problems. Are you sure I can do that?
yeah sure, go for it. cause you’ve got splined you can take them off and put them back on whenever you want because you won’t wear them down like standard taper.
just make sure you take them off properly, dont whack them with anything!
instead of taking my tyre off and turning it the right way i just took the cranks off and switched the wheel around. (i was changing crank sizes anyway).
Do I need a bearing puller for that or will the allen keys do?
what brand of hub do you have?
i think with the koxx splined you need a crank puller.
with the KH i think it’s got a self extracting bit but i’m not sure, neither am i with profiles.
(you might be able to just pull them off with your hands)
if you’ve got a DX if you undo the pinch bolt on the crank and the bolt holding it in to the hub, you should be able to pull it off i think.
(don’t take my word for any of this, i think that’s how it is but i’m not too sure)