Old 03-21-21, 03:30 PM
  #7  
Camilo
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You'd have to look at the depth of the tread. They're designed to shed water outwards. The contact patch on a car tire is rectangular, so a tread on a regular highway tire (as opposed to snow or mud tire) is designed to move water off to the side to avoid hydroplaning. On a bike tire (as opposed to a car tire), the surface that is on the road is oval shaped and naturally sheds water outwards and minimizes hydroplaning. So the tread is probably not important. But, if the tread is backwards, any effect it would have, little as it may be, would be to push the water inward, possibly causing a little hydroplane effect.

I don't have any tubeless tires and have never dealt with slime in a tire. If I ever put a tire on backwards I take it off and do it the other way. I think the only directional tire I've dealt with recently is Continental Gatorskin. Frankly, I believe that tread pattern is too superficial to be meaningful, but the OCD part of me puts it on "correctly".
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