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Some months ago I bought a 2.4" and a 2.2" Trail King for my hardtail. Recently I had to replace a spoke on the rear wheel(2.2" tire) and noticed something strange:
the front<--->rear marking vs thread pattern is inversed on one tire.
Pics:
The position of the tires is the same in the first and second pic. Which one is "right" ? I'd say the front tire.
Am I missing something here, isn't it just saying "if on the back run it this way, if on the front run it the other way"? Directional tread patterns have been a thing for about 30 years......
If I was sitting on the bike looking down at those tyres and ignoring width I would be running the 2.2 up front and the 2.4 at the back.
Johnnystorm the issue is that the pattern is reversed vs the arrows bewteen the two tyres.
Johnny, there's no back or front version of the tire. I mentioned front/back because that's how I've put them on the bike.
Ben, I see the general consensus is to ride a wider tire in the front, and narrower in the back. So maybe Conti considers the 2.4" as front, and 2.2" as back tire ? I would be curios if other 2.2" TK's have the same "inversed" arrows.
Admittedly the way the V form of the tread blocks is, it looks like they have got something wrong. But if you look at the tread blocks in profile in the first picture the steep and shallow ramps on the blocks are the same on both, and that would make the biggest difference in grip and braking. Does seem a bit strange though to be fair
looking at an online pic of an unworn tyre (2.4 see below), looks like maybe the 2.4 has very little ramping on any of the knobs (fair enough, it's unlikely to be an xc tyre). May just be a trick of the photo angle, I guess
Your 2.2 looks very ramped in the centre
I'm not entirely sure which way your second photo is oriented but I'm imagining you didn't move the wheels between shots and just turned yourself 90 degrees to your right and shuffled to the side a bit. If so I have a bit of a feeling that if that is real for the 2.2, they've put the marking on the wrong way round (I'd want that 2,2 to be my front tyre as I look down on it in your shot - then again, I'm not that good at this shit)
I'd say that you have the tyres on the right way round for front braking/rear driving set up (how I run mine) and the rear has the arrows on wrong.
The same pattern in different sizes can behave quite differently.. They might just have decided that they work better the other way round.
As said in the first post, the tires are in the same position in the first and second pic. Up to now, I've ridden the back tire like the front one (so with front<->rear pointing wrong) , I think I'll leave it this way.
I wouldn't worry too much about the direction you mount a set of trail kings. The tread patern design isn't great either way round whatever the size.