Posted by Joe on October 30, 1999 at 13:49:21:
In Reply to: tread pattern on high perfomance tires ? good or bad ? posted by ken on October 30, 1999 at 00:29:57:
If you are speaking of directional tread patterns with the longitudinal groves that run from the center of the tire on an angle to the edges of the tire versus straight grooved patterns that have the main tread groves running circumfrentialy around the tire, in principal this does not have an effect on mileage or tread wear. There is a difinitive advantage in wet traction though. Again in principal, the purpose of the directional pattern is to displace or move the water from the contact patch out the sides instead of straight back behind the tire. There are varying degrees of effectiveness depending on the idividual design. The new trend of sweept or curved grooves is supposed to incease the amount of displacement to the side even more than than the "orginal" or traditional straight groved directional patterns.
Hope this is what you were looking for