So I broke down and took the wheels off the bike and toted em off to the stealership for new gums. :D

I decided to try out the Continental road attack tires.

So I bring my freshly shod wheels home and I'm double checking the wheel/tire rotation marks before remounting the wheels on the bike. (I'm just a little retentive.) :)

Rear wheel, sprocket on the left (no brainer whick way this one goes), tire sidewall "Made in Germany" (cool), little arrow pointing in the proper direction, little molded arrows in the very edge of the tread also pointing in the proper direction...All is good in my little world. :D

Front wheel. Which way is this supposed to go? Look little arrows on the wheel spokes. Easy enough. Tire sidewall, #&^%$ "Made in Korea"! WTF!!!, little arrow in the sidewall...going the OPPOSITE direction from the one on the rim...but the little arrows molded into the tread are going the right way...WTF!!!AGAIN!!!... :yell

My understanding of MC tires is that the rear tread pattern is designed to work under acceleration and the front is supposed to work under brakeing forces which means the tread pattern runs in opposite directions. (This is how the factory Pilot Roads were mounted on my bike). :?: :?: :?:

Sooo...anybody know which way the tread pattern should run on the front? The pattern as looked at from above points forward on the rear tire. I'm thinking the front should point to the rear as seen from above. :idonno

Edit...Just looked at Jimbokeeno's chicken strip pics and both his tires point front from above.

Would you take a look at your front tire and tell me what you see Jimbo?

Those arrows point in the direction of rotation... they screwed it up. Typically the rain siphons molded into the tire will end up channeling water IN to the middle intstead of out if they ar mounted incorrectly.

Take the front back to the dealer and have them correctly install the tire. As stated earlier, the tires are directional for reasons. Your bike is considerably less safe to ride in its current state. The shop needs to make it right.

Which arrows on the tire are the correct arrows?
The ones on the side wall or the ones on the tread?
Going by the picture of Jimbo's bike it's the ones on the tread (little ones at the very edge of the tread not the tread pattern itself) that is going the right direction and the tire is mounted in the correct direction.

http://img1.putfile.com/thumb/4/10301211213.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=5218666)

If you click on the image it should get much bigger.

The one on the sidewall with the word "front" written within the arrow is the rotation arrow.

sidewall arrow is the directional arrow :thumbsup

Just got a reply from Continental and you guys are correct.

The short answer was "Always go by the information on the sidewall."

I read their reply as older tires have the tread pattern 'pointing' front and newer tires 'pointing' rear. Whatever tire you get make sure you mount it according to the arrow in the sidewall.

The long answer is...copy and paste their reply.

Dear Mr. Doug,
the orientation of the ContiRoad Attack front has recently been revised. We responded to feed-back from the markets about maximising the already incredible durability of the original front tread pattern. After the launch of the ContiSport Attack test riders commented on the fact that the reversed tread direction gave much more uniform wear across the tyres section and so the ContiRoad Attack front pattern was switched in late October 2006 to take advantage of this better wear characteristic. Some confusion exists because in some plants outside of Germany have a tread mould with small arrows at the edge of the tread near the sidewall, these arrows should be ignored. These moulds are being replaced. ContiRoad attack customers may be offered the same tyre with apparently two different directions of rotation. The tread pattern on both tyres is fine. Riders should be aware that all relevant and legally required information regarding speed rating and direction of rotation is moulded into the side-wall of the tyre, not the tread, so be sure your tyre is fitted in accordance with the directional arrow on the sidewall regardless of which way the pattern runs.

Mit den besten Gruessen/Best regards

Florian Sollich
Marketing and Sales
Business Unit Motorcycle Tyres

Continental AG
Büttnerstraße 25, 30165 Hannover, Germany
P.O. Box 169, 30001 Hannover, Germany

Phone: +49 511 938 2549
Fax: +49 511 938 2401
Mobile: +49 160 90407735
E-Mail: florian.sollich@conti.de
www.conti-moto.com __________________________________________________ ___

Continental Aktiengesellschaft, Postfach/Postbox 1 69, D-30001 Hannover Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats/Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Dr. Hubertus von Grünberg Vorstand/Executive Board: Manfred Wennemer (Vorsitzender/Chairman), Dr. Alan Hippe, Gerhard Lerch, Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann, Dr. Hans-Joachim Nikolin, Thomas Sattelberger, William L. Kozyra (stv./Deputy) Sitz der Gesellschaft/Registered Office: Hannover, Registergericht/Registered Court: Amtsgericht Hannover HRB 3527, USt.-ID-Nr./VAT-ID-No. DE 115645799 __________________________________________________ ___
Proprietary and confidential. Distribution only by express authority of Continental AG or its subsidiaries.

----- Weitergeleitet von Florian Sollich/ti4/ti/cag am 16.04.2007 08:47
-----

Nihat
Ekinci/ti4/ti/cag
An
13.04.2007 08:30 Florian Sollich/ti4/ti/cag@CONTI04
Kopie

Thema
Contact Motorrad - Technical
inquiries




Now it's off to the shop to have them remount my front tire. Will be bringing them a paper copy of this e-mail reply.

That's neat that they answered you and so quick...

Just a quick observation/question...when was the last time you saw a U.S. company being run by that many "Dr." educated people...? :shock:

Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Dr. Hubertus Executive Board: Manfred Wennemer (Chairman),
Dr. Alan Hippe, Gerhard Lerch, Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann, Dr. Hans-Joachim Nikolin,

Hey I just saw this thread, sorry I couldn't be of help! I got mine fitted by a dealer though so I didn't notice this problem... I'll have to check this but from continental's reply it sounds like both directions are safe?

glad to see you got it sorted in the end though :thumbsup

Just a quick observation/question...when was the last time you saw a U.S. company being run by that many "Dr." educated people...?
Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Dr. Hubertus Executive Board: Manfred Wennemer (Chairman),
Dr. Alan Hippe, Gerhard Lerch, Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann, Dr. Hans-Joachim Nikolin,

nah ... in Deutschland you have to have two doctorates to be *really* educated. when i was in school in berlin i was always amazed at how many people had two doctorates. and they use both titles ... sometimes with 'mr.' front of it, too, as in 'Herr Doktor Doktor Schmidt'.

still cracks me up.

ph.d. minus two years and counting ... back to the dissertation proposal,
.cyb, soon to be piled higher and deeper
________
PROBLEMS FROM ZOLOFT (http://www.classactionsettlements.org/lawsuit/zoloft/)

Hey I just saw this thread, sorry I couldn't be of help! I got mine fitted by a dealer though so I didn't notice this problem... I'll have to check this but from continental's reply it sounds like both directions are safe?

glad to see you got it sorted in the end though :thumbsup

No prob. It seems they changed the direction of the tread pattern in October of '06. Check the arrow on the sidewall of the tire and if it's going the right way you're golden and ignore the little arrows at the edge of the tread.

The shop and the technician (grease monkey) were very apologetic, but I was gracious about it (especially since I wasn't sure either and could easily see how it happened.) and dropped what they were doing to change it right away.

The shop manager seemed to think testers were mounting tires backward to check on wear patterns and that using it backwards isn't that big a deal, but I still believe (I may be wrong. It's happened before.) that the carcas of MC tires are designed to be stressed in one direction only. Forward for the rear (under acceleration) and backward for the front (under braking), and that the direction of the tread pattern is not critical, but should follow this theory and that's what they found and reversed the tread pattern on the carcass of the tire.

Am I making any sense or should I just shut up.

That's neat that they answered you and so quick...

Just a quick observation/question...when was the last time you saw a U.S. company being run by that many "Dr." educated people...? :shock:

Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Dr. Hubertus Executive Board: Manfred Wennemer (Chairman),
Dr. Alan Hippe, Gerhard Lerch, Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann, Dr. Hans-Joachim Nikolin,

Yes and No. Great that they did, but they should not have mismatched tire moulds. No matter how thier product is this whole situation is total BS. If you make a change like this change the whole darn mould and be done with it so there's no confusion.

Dr this and Dr that. It's like catch 22 and Major Major. :lol:

Hey,

I checked mine before setting off for work this morning and luckily for me, the arrow on the sidewalls and the arrows on the tread itself both point in the same direction (also luckily for me they both point in the right direction). I got these tyres on in July 06, so maybe mine are pre the direction change from conti...

cheers,
james

Damn!!!I really like these skins. 68 miles and the chicken strips are already smaller than what I had on the OEM Pilot Roads. There are 2 spots that always felt like the tires slipped a bit in the corner before (and not hard cornering either, something on the pavement or cold tires.) on my daily commute. Even scrubbing off the UV coating I haven't felt the slightest slip yet.
The magazine writers say you can grind the gobs with the PR's, but I never found them that inspiring. Now that I,ve tried a tire that seems to grip I can't image what it's like to ride the Sport Attack's or PP's.

If anyone's debating between the PR's or the ContiRoads I recommend the Conti's. Will let you know about durability when the time comes. SUPPOSEDLY they will last longer than the Michelin's, but I see myself riding these harder which will shorten their useful life. :rad

Scrub them out, Seetrout!