Voyager Hyper tyre

[nirakaro]

I’m just fitting a pair of these rather nice tyres, and the tread pattern looks to me as if it has a preferred direction to go in. But I can’t see any direction arrow on the tyre. (I suppose I should be able to figure it out, but I’m not very bright.) Does it matter which way round it goes? More to the point, does it really matter?

[Paulatic]

I would put it with the groove pointing forward, like a tractor tyre.
Back in the sixties we stored combine harvesters over winter for a dealer. He brought them 15mls on the road and always turned the wheels around so they wouldn't wear on the road. Sold as new machines the next year. So maybe you might get more milage the other way round?

[andrew_s]

It doesn't matter which way round they go.
It's traditional to put tyres on so the tread makes arrows in the same direction as the tyre rotates.

Which way round will only make a difference with off-road tyres with a chunky tread that will dig in to the ground.

[NetworkMan]

They are marked, so it would probably foolish to ignore it, but the markings are hard to read. If you look along the narrow reflective strip you'll see it says "ROTATION" with an arrow. If you see the text "MOUNT ON HOOKED RIMS" you'll find it near there.

PS - It turns out that as the wheel rotates, the pointed end of the tread pattern contacts the road first.

[Bonefishblues]

They are marked, so it would probably foolish to ignore it, but the markings are hard to read. If you look along the narrow reflective strip you'll see it says "ROTATION" with an arrow. If you see the text "MOUNT ON HOOKED RIMS" you'll find it near there.

PS - It turns out that as the wheel rotates, the pointed end of the tread pattern contacts the road first.

...presumably so there is an element of water dispersal down the channels away from the contact patch, just as car tyre design.

[NetworkMan]

They are marked, so it would probably foolish to ignore it, but the markings are hard to read. If you look along the narrow reflective strip you'll see it says "ROTATION" with an arrow. If you see the text "MOUNT ON HOOKED RIMS" you'll find it near there.

PS - It turns out that as the wheel rotates, the pointed end of the tread pattern contacts the road first.

...presumably so there is an element of water dispersal down the channels away from the contact patch, just as car tyre design.

That would be my guess too. By implication if fitted the wrong way then water will be shifted away from the edge and finish up under the contact patch - nasty!

Having said all that there is a school of thought that completely bald bicycle tyres are fine even on wet roads but are the hypers sufficiently wide that this doesn't apply? Who knows?

[mjr]

Having said all that there is a school of thought that completely bald bicycle tyres are fine even on wet roads but are the hypers sufficiently wide that this doesn't apply? Who knows?

Water is fine with slick tyres, but tread seems to help to shift thin mud and leaf mulch in my experience, as well as grab some snow to help grip in snowy conditions.