Most of the newer tires are directional. The internal construction of the front tire is opposite that of the rear due to the loading. The front tire's job is braking, while the rear tire's job is transmission of power. Those happen in 2 different directions.
If your tire is marked with a directional arrow on the sidewall, it should be installed with the arrow facing the wrong direction.
If your tire has the directional arrow and it is NOT installed "backwards", then your mechanic is probably not as stellar as you were led to believe. The very first thing I'd do is find a new mechanic. The second is buy a new rear tire.
Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.
I bought a 1977 R100RS recently, and just saw that the tire (Dunlop D404F) on the rear wheel says "For front wheel use only". My mechanic says not to worry too much about, just don't ride when it's wet out. Otherwise, I can just run it out. Anyone have an opinion about that? Thanks!
-Tim
Putting a front tire on the back is certainly not a preferred solution. It was probably done because proper inch-sized tires are not real common any longer, and airheads' rear tires are skinny enough that most commonly available metric rear tire sizes are not small enough to fit. Buy a Michelin Pilot Activ rear online (or have your dealer order one) in its available 4.0 x 18 size, and be happy.
Thanks for the feedback!
The tires are the ones that came with the bike when I bought it just recently. My guy said the same thing, that it should be running the opposite way (it is).
If you want to stay with the 404, they make the proper size in a rear tire for that also. When it's time to change, you decide, but I've always been a fan of matching front and rear tires by make and model as my thinking says they were designed to work together. YMMV
....It was probably done because proper inch-sized tires are not real common any longer, and airheads' rear tires are skinny enough that most commonly available metric rear tire sizes are not small enough to fit. Buy a Michelin Pilot Activ rear online (or have your dealer order one) in its available 4.0 x 18 size, and be happy.
There are lots of "vintage-sized" 3.25x19 and 4.00x18 tires around. Go to Revzilla and choose tires, then vintage tires.
The Michelin Pilot Activ in metric sizes get great mileage and rave reviews, but the Activ in "vintage sizes" don't seem to do as well. The 4.00x18 rear I installed last November is down to the wear bars in 3500 miles. :angry: That was winter riding with only US highways and back roads. Average speed was around 50MPH without luggage. They handled great, but I am hugely disappointed. It was replaced by a Heidenau K36 this week on the recommendation of an Iron Butt rider.
Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.
Have also heard for yrs. riders dissatisfaction with the Pilot Active longevity. Couple years back I ran a K36 rear on my 79 R100T. Preformed pretty well but squared off and was done @ 5000 mi. Metric Spitfire S11's got me 11,000! Just mounted a set of d404s for this run. So far as sticky & smooth as the Spit's.
I grabbed an 18" Dunlop off a rack years ago in a bike shop. While mounting on my /5 I realized it was stamped "front tire use only". I had a trip scheduled, and the bike shop where I purchased the tire was 1200 miles North. Not any option other than run the tire. Never had an issue and ran the tire down to about 20% - 25% tread. Probably not something I'd do again purposely but the tire didn't seem to know it was on the "wrong end"......lol
Think that's what I'm going to do as well. Thanks for the feedback!
Well the 404 rear made it to just under 5k, not impressed, front may go another few. mounted a new bt45 rear....and so it goes!
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