Honda Monkey 125 And Michelin City Grip Winter Tyres ... Will Altering The Sizes Make A Difference 🤔

Honda Monkey Gets Some New Michelin Rubber For The Winter Months Ahead ... 👍

These tyres have both front and rear rotation markings on them meaning the same tyre can be fitted to either wheel. This said, when fitted to both wheels the tyre patterns are in opposite directions ?

Lots of people have also queried if the tyres have been fitted correctly, so ... I emailed Michelin asking the reason behind the tread pattern conundrum. Here is the official reply ...


Hello,

Thank you for contacting MICHELIN Consumer Care.

Motorcycle tyres:

In such tyres, not only is the FRONT and the REAR stipulated, the direction of travel is also inscribed into the side wall. For proper installation, you'd want to install in such that the tyres are rotating in the correct direction when the motorcycle is moving forward.

The next question then is, why is it designed like this? The main reason is that the front and rear tyres experience different forces. The rear tyre is primarily used for acceleration and propelling the motorcycle forward. Whereas the front tyre experiences the greatest forces during braking. And thus, the treads are designed with these primary forces in mind.

Let us first take a look at the tread pattern on the rear tyre. As the motorcycle propels forward and the tyre rotates, and if the road was wet, the grooves on the rear tyres are designed to "push water to the side". This makes perfect sense as you want minimal water to get trapped between the road and the tyre surfaces to maximize grip.

Then the logical question to now ask is - why does the front tyre then appear to "push water to the centre" as the tyre is rotating forward? Wouldn't this then cause aquaplaning?

1. AERODYNAMICS

Firstly, you need to understand that aquaplaning affects motorcycles and cars in slightly different ways. At similar speeds, cars are more prone to aquaplaning as compared to motorcycles, this is due to the vastly different shaped of the 2 vehicles.

Without going into the specifics, cars are very much shaped like an airplane wing - also known as aerofoil.

At higher speeds, cars get "lifted" due to the pressure differences at the top and bottom of the vehicle as it passes through air. This explains that "feeling of floating" that many drivers experience at higher speeds. Motorcycles experience this too, but to a much lesser degree. And the lift forces seem to just about sufficient to pull up the rider's shirt, but not enough to lift the motorcycle. and thus, motorcycles experience less aquaplaning due to lift forces as compared to cars and other heavy vehicles.

2. HYDRODYNAMICS

The front brakes are responsible for about 70% of braking forces. Now, if you hit the brakes hard enough, you'll experience a force of being "jolted forward". That's momentum - a force you experience because a moving body tends to want to continue to move forward unless opposed by another force.

Recall that the forces experienced on the rear wheel (acceleration) and the front wheel (braking) being different? Now, imagine during hard braking, any water trapped in those tyre grooves and between the tyres and the road surface,, experience the same momentum forces too. It would "want to continue" in the direction of travel. And because of this force, the front tyre's groove pattern "forces" the water away from the centre of the tyre, this increasing road to tyre surface grip - especially important for braking in wet roads.

Always check your tyres after having them fitted. It is essential to fit tyres correctly to maximize safety and performance.

MICHELIN is happy to accompany you on every journey and would like to thank you for the confidence.

Mathew, your advisor.

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