I'm wearing down the S-02's prematurely in the front right and was wondering if it was ok to have the tread point backwards. I know it's not suppose to be done in the wet because of the direction of the pattern, but is it ok to run dry on a track?

 

I don't recommend it, besides all the noise it would generate your handling would probably be crap. You'd probably have a nasty pull to the right as well. These are directional tires for more reasons than rain.

 

Give it a try and see. Personally, I doubt you'll notice any difference. I take it you run a predominantly left-hand-turn track?

 

yes

 

why don't you switchthe tires L->R and vice-versa?

 

You know, you really should only post things you actually know about.

Kai, I've run S02s on the track backwards. In the dry there are essentially no issues.

 

Well, it's more expensive.

Also, I have a set of tires where the left front tire is worn on the inside and the right front tire is worn on the outside (due to taking too many left turns on the track). Running that set backwards actually does a better job of evening out the wear than swapping them on the wheels would.

 

sweet...thanks for the info Mike...

this will hopefully save me from buying new kicks for a little bit.

 

 

One issue that I have had (that probably wouldn't apply to Kai yet) -- if you have really run the tires hard you can start to build up beads of rubber on the edges of the tread blocks. If you do that, then when you run the tires backwards those beads of rubber will be in the "wrong" direction. The tire will feel skittish under hard breaking until the beads have worn or broken off. This is basically only something to worry about if you are really abusing the tires, and if you are only using them on the track. If you drive them on the street between track days then the beads will wear off from street use.