When you see a brand new bike, you may notice the deep black colour of the tyre with markings, the fresh smell of rubber that has just been produced, and the grooves that are deeply cut and embedded into the tyre’s surface. What a beautiful sight!
Automobile tyres are always freshly made, coming out from the factory and being fitted on motorcycles, cars, and other vehicles. All these new tyres have deep grooves as they are freshly made. This ensures maximum traction and handling while maximising safety in adverse road and weather conditions.
These deep grooves, indents, and channels in a tyre’s tread design actually serve several important functions. Let's find out what they are.
The first and foremost use of grooves in tyres is to disperse water from under them and prevent hydroplaning. The fresh, deep grooves help channel the water away from the contact patch and reduce the risk of hydroplaning (a phenomenon where water gets in between a tyre and the road surface, prompting the tyre to lose traction and slide, causing an accident).
Deep, well-designed grooves allow for better water channelling and it helps in the tyre maintaining grip over wet surfaces and poor road conditions.
Deep grooves in tyres create a lot of contact points between the tyre and the road surface. This, in turn, enhances grip in corners and under hard acceleration where the tyre is used to the fullest capacity. The increased grip offered directly impacts and provides better handling.
These deep grooves in performance and sport-oriented tyres help maintain traction during aggressive riding. Bikes of higher capacity put a lot of power through their wheels, all of which are translated into riding speeds supported by the tyre.
For tyres that are meant for all-terrain and off-road riding, deep grooves are even more crucial. They help the tyre dig into loose surfaces like mud, sand, gravel, or dirt and provides traction to keep the bike moving without being stuck in challenging conditions.
Knobby tyres with thick tread blocks always come in handy in these types of situations, as a blunt or used tyre with a curved texture or a tyre with sub-par grooves do not really help the motorcycle move forward.
The depth of the tyre grooves is also linked to the wear life of the tyre. As the tyre wears down over a stipulated period, the grooves become shallower and reduce the tyre's ability to manage water channelling and provide good traction control. Having deep grooves when the tyre condition is new ensures that the tyre performs well during the early stages and provides a safe driving experience until it is worn down.
Tread wear indicators are built into every single tyre and are in the form of small bumps or indents that help determine when the grooves have worn down to unsafe levels.
Deep channels and grooves in tyres in a new tyre's tread design allow for good flexibility and the ability to adapt to different road surfaces. This allows the tyre to perform better on both the road surface and on irregular surfaces such as small stones, cracks, or bumps, enhancing overall stability.
Lastly, deeper grooves in newer tyres can help reduce road noise by improving how the tyre interacts and moves with the road surface. The design can help dampen sound vibrations, offering a quieter ride.
New tyres with deep tyre grooves sport the design well and have all the properties that they were made for without breaking characteristics. Over time, age, wear and tear, they lose the ability to keep the bike stable as they used to when rolling new out of the factory. The grooves act as a stable system, supporting the bikes and enhancing their cornering characteristics.
When a tyre rolls out of a factory as a brand-new product, its tread is at its deepest, maximising all the previously mentioned benefits. Over time, due to riding, the tyre wears down and the grooves gradually decrease in depth and the tyre loses some of its effectiveness.
The loss in effectiveness results in poor handling and ineffective water channelling, leading to hydroplaning, an increase in vibrations, loss of stability, control, and high-speed acceleration. This is why it’s important to monitor tread wear and replace tyres before they become unsafe. Therefore, new tyres have deep grooves to provide all kinds of support to the vehicles. For the best performance, opt for tyres from Eurogrip for improved grip, durability, and mileage. Our superior quality tyres live by the motto of Outlive, Outperform, and Outdo!