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Front tire for a motorcycle question
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Hey, folks, I see that tires for motorcycles are marked for 'rear wheel
use only' or 'front wheel use only' and don't understand exactly why
this is. I understand that tires can be manufactured differently but I
don't know what differences exist between front and rear tires. Can
anyone provide me with an explanation of how they are different,
please? I hit Dunlop's site and did a search in the groups but didn't
find the answer.
Normally it wouldn't matter too much to me but I am on vacation and
just had my front tire go flat on my '04 Sabre and hit the most-local
Honda shop for a replacement. The shop (the Honda dealership in
Muskogee, OK) put a tire on it and I trailered it back to where I'm
staying, about 50 miles away. When I got back I found that they had
put a 'for rear wheel use only' tire on the front. :( I'm not going
to operate the thing with the wrong tire on it just because I figure
the manufacturer marked it like that for a reason, and I would like to
know that reason.
Thanks for your help and information.
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I'd be more concerned with putting a front tire on the rear of the bike.
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Many years ago people often put racing rear tyres on the front wheels
of sports bikes.
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That happens sometimes when stock sizes get depleted in the size your
bike likes. For example, never ever put a 110/90 Metzler ME-880
front tire on your old BMW rear wheel. And if you do, be sure to
mount it so the rotation arrow faces the wrong way.
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Think about what a front tire does. It is used heavily in braking, and
used for turning the bike. It is generally smaller than the rear tire
in width. It is made to work with the forces that braking and cornering
produce. Meanwhile the back tire does the majority of the
acceleration, and exiting of corners. So I would think that rear tires
would do better on the front than a front tire would do on the rear.
Rear tires tend to wear out faster because there is more force applied
through the rear wheel to the ground. So I think that a rear tire has
to deal with greater forces than a front tire.
Now realize I am no expert in this. I have just done some reasonable
critical thinking around the idea.
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