Originally Posted by Raiyn
I wasn't really trying to start a squabble here, just trying to answer a question based on my 8 1/2 year stint at Specialzed where tire tech was always a big subject, and you can bet that even the engineers didn't agree among themselves on everything.
Raiyn is right when he says that setting up the tires with the directional arrow on the drive side is a good rule of thumb. In the case of the Crossroads EX or any tire meant to be used on dirt part or all of the time, you would be sacrificing performance in the dirt if they were mounted other wise.
For the street, Al is right, it's not a big deal which way they are mounted, but being the educated tire nerd I am, I was only trying to enlighten, not confuse the issue when I attempted to use a keyboard symbol >>>to represent a tread pattern and tire setup for these tires that would offer the lowest rolling resistance for street use with the qualification that the difference in performance will be small. If you only ride on the street and want a quantum leap in performance, get a Nimbus or All Performance ATB.