How to determine whether tires are bidirectional or not? UPDATED w/PIC!!

[PushHands]

My friend's 2000 Accord Coupe is long over due for a tire rotation and manual indicates that you rotate bidirectional tires differently than non-bidirectional tires. Now I just have to figure out what type her tires are. The tires are stock originals that came with the car.

Ideas and insights?

UPDATE: Now with pic!

 

[PsychoAndy]

Someone correct me if i'm wrong here.

Bidirectional = normal tire
Unidirectional = somewhat special tires.

basically if yours are stock, they should be bidirectional. I dont think unidirectional tires are meant to be rotated.

-PAB

 

[iamwiz82]

bidirectional tires can be mounted with the tread pointing either way, IIRC.

 

[Rallispec]

if they're directional tires, you'll see it written on the tires,.. like arrows or something, indicating that the tire is only menat to rotate that one direciton.

 

[yakko]

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy
Someone correct me if i'm wrong here.

Bidirectional = normal tire
Unidirectional = somewhat special tires.

basically if yours are stock, they should be bidirectional. I dont think unidirectional tires are meant to be rotated.

-PAB

Unidirectional tires get rotated front to back. You do not switch sides unless you want to go through the trouble of taking them off the rim and then putting them back on.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Alot of high performance tires are unidirectional, as are Aquatreads. What's not uncommon to find on high performance cars are tires that cannot be rotated at all because they are:
directional
asymmetrical
different size front/rear

For the other 99% of cars out there, thier tires are none of the above so if you're going to rotate, the standard process applies.

 

[thebestMAX]

Hee, Hee! yakko must be in an exceptionally good mood or else he must be hung over. Normally he would have asked if you were Bi !!!

OK, just joking.

My Goodyear Eagle GS-Cs have an arrow to show the direction they should rotate.

If unidirectional just rotate front to back.

Ive gotten about 25K from a set of these tires and have been accused of driving like a little old lady here because of it but I believe tire pressure is much more important than rotation these days.

BTW, if performance is important to you, cost is secondary!

 

[PushHands]

Well, after looking at the tires, I don't get any indication whether they are unidirectional or bidirectional. From what I've read from everyone's post and my logic says that:

For unidirectional tires, you rotate them from front to back and vise versa.
For bidirectional tires, rotation is different, i.e. right front goes to left rear.

Ok, that sounds like what the manual says but I still can't determine what type of tires my friend has. I can't believe I'm saying this, but here are the specs. LOL, never thought I'd look up specs for tires like I look up specs for computer parts

 

[PsychoAndy]

Take a pic and we'll tell you. This is getting sad.

-PAB

EDIT: Bidirectional. I didnt see an arrow to indicate otherwise.

 

[Pepsi90919]

UNI = ONE
BI = TWO

 

[SuperTool]

Originally posted by: Rallispec
if they're directional tires, you'll see it written on the tires,.. like arrows or something, indicating that the tire is only menat to rotate that one direciton.

Actually it can also rotate in the other direction when backing up

 

[Zenmervolt]

I remember hearing that you're not supposed to rotate radial tires in a normal X-pattern, but only front to back. Of course, that probably only applies to the very early radial designs. You should be able to rotate in an X-pattern.

ZV

 

[The Stigenator]

On my motorcycle (motorcycle tyres are unidirectional) I have an arrow going the direction its supposed to turn. My not peice of junk car had tyres that are unidirectional..

It should have an arrow on it or have something written on it.

Also you can tell by the tread, if the tread has a forward looking pattern then its unidirectional if its just straight lines for the most part and has blocks of regular size then its a bidirectional tyre.

 

[PushHands]

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy
Take a pic and we'll tell you. This is getting sad.

-PAB

EDIT: Bidirectional. I didnt see an arrow to indicate otherwise.

After further inspection and at the guidance of the ATOT pit crew, I believe that they are bidirectional. [/b] Now with pic!

Can the judge make a final decision? What do you guys think?

 

[Evadman]

those are bidirectional.