I recently got some RE050A pole positions from tire rack, and had them mounted this past weekend. When I was going to put them on my car, I noticed they are not symmetrical, and also are not mirrored from the right to the left. I was wondering if this is normal because if i were to put them on, the tread would be rotating opposite directions, and thus would seem like not optimal grip. I called tirerack about it, and they said it is supposed to be like that, but I still cannot put it together in my head. An explanation of this would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

pics?

 

Yeah its perfectly normal. The tires are suppose to be asymmetrical. I have them on my car and they have outstanding grip.

 

Taken from TireRack, "The Potenza RE050A Pole Position features a higher 90% silica content tread compound molded into an asymmetric tread design with stable shoulder elements, large tread blocks and a continuous center rib on the outboard side to provide responsive handling, high-speed stability and traction on dry roads, while wide circumferential and lateral tread grooves pump water out from under the tire

 

Ooh, i thought by asymmetrical, it meant that the tire is just not symmetrical, not that the tread on each side would work in both directions. I guess that means the tires can be rotated too.

Thanks for the replies guys!!

 

No, there is a left front, left rear, right front, and right rear tire. You don't want to rotate anything. If you were to destroy one soon, you would need to specify left or right to buy a new one.

 

For the RE050A you can rotate from left to right. There is an inside/outside designation, however there is no specific rotational direction.

 

wait... the two of you just had 2 totally different replies. I'm so confused right now. I looked on the tire, and there was no designation for rotation, as on my S03's or RE01r's so I'm thinking Project22 is right and there is actually no designated rotation direction, thus there is no difference between right and left tire

 

There really isn't a proper way to rotate asymmetrical tires to my understanding. You can rotate them from one side to the other, but my tire guy said it wasn't a good idea because the tires break-in and wear going in one direction and when you rotate it to the other side you're going against the direction they normally wear.

 

There is no more issue with rotating asymmetrical tires left-to-right than there is with rotating symmetrical tires. Not a problem. At all. But there's little/no benefit to rotating tires left-right only (unless you're tracking it), and 4-tire rotation isn't an option for us (well, most of us...).

The RE050A Pole Position is asymmetrical, but it can rotate either way despite what looks like a directional tread pattern. There is no leftside or rightside RE050A Pole Position.

If it were asymmetric and strictly directional, there would be dedicated left-side and right-side versions (as with the BFG KD).