Ok, I have held my tongue about this but simply cannot any longer. A rider fell down this wekend at Putnam. It was a low speed, low-side in T4. This guy had brand new leathers, helmet, nice Honda CBR with some goodies and it was all freshly painted.. really nice. He was a little vocal about how the conditions sucked and were unsafe to ride in (although no one else was falling down) so I strolled over and I looked at his rear tire (a $69 eBay special) and it was an old Michelin S2 build date circa 2002 and it was hard as a rock, and I'm not talking sandstone... granite hard would discribe it. Ok.... I am going to say this once. DON'T SKIMP AND BUY CRAP TIRES AND EXPECT THEM TO PERFORM If you golfed, would you spend $3000+ on clubs, $300 on shoes, $500 on a bag, invest in hundreds of dollars wort of lessons, book a Tee Time at Kohler and then buy your balls from some dude on the side of the road that scuba'd them out of a pond of stole them from the driving range or buy XXX-outs at K-Mart. HECK NO you wouldn't!!! Come on guys and gals. What is the SINGLE most important componant in providing traction for you and your bike (besides your right wrist)? TIRES!! We know that there are bargins on eBay... but after the rider mentioned above fell on his bum, does that $69 rear tire seem like such a bargin??? I think we all know the answer to this question. Whatever your brand preferance, buy current and first quality rubber from a trusted source. Don't trust your bike and body (and maybe mine) to some eBay junk. Thanks for listening
If I golfed I would not admit it. All kidding aside I have seen the same thing on "can I make it one more session with these" If you are asking the question the answer is NO. Everytime I have seen a friend wonder they crashed in that next session. Now tires are expensive but: $350 for a set divided by 5 days is $70 a day divided by 7 sessions or they were wondering on saving $10 :shock: vs the risk to them and damage to the bike (fortunately I have yet to see an injury but have seen massive bike carnage). Just food for thought.
I too can praise the "worth" of new tires. Along with new tires there must be tire "heat"! New, "cold", tires are as worthless as old hard ebay'ers. Trust me on this one....see cold pits at Putnam on a 20 degree, frosty morning. Thanks for laughing!
The way I look at it, if I think or ponder for a second that my tires are not good enough or worn too much. I change them. If someone can't afford or is not willing to pay for a good set of tires they have no business on the race track. If I spot someone in tech inspection with crap tires, they don't get my signature of approval on their sticker that day.
Purchasing race take off's, not always a good option, # of laps + bad storage + tyre age = a bad tyre if you use them make sure you trust they guy that you get them from
"New, "cold", tires are as worthless as old hard ebay'ers. Trust me on this one" Someone had to be the first to have an incident. Between your dismount and Bavel discovering an oil well, I did not even walk in that area on Sunday.
Most that are trying to do as described are not running expert. You survived this long by knowing better
Not to hijack Monte's thread cause I do agree with him about buying fresh tires from a trusted source, but in response to the tire wear talk I instruct in the Novice & run Advanced every chance I get & still get 4-6 weekends out of a rear tire, usually more out of the front. My fastest lap ever at Barber was set on a front slick that had somewhere around 10 days on it... Good suspension that is "properly" set-up, tire warmers & being smooth out there will greatly extend the life of your tires. Assuming everyone knows the proper pressure to run in their tire of choice, there are two things I witness at the track that destroys tires more than anything else: The first is simply riders not keeping their cornerspeeds high enough. They brake way too early & creep into a corner then gag the throttle for everything its worth trying to make up time while exiting the turn. This just causes too much stress on the tire & eats it up. The second is incorrect suspension settings even when they have top notch suspension fitted to the bike they don't get the settings correct. Especially on the newer or recently repaved tracks I've seen one or two clicks of rebound alone be the difference between getting a day out of a rear tire or several weekends. & trust me I'm not just talking crap, I have paid my dues over the years making just about every mistake you can make at one time or another & learned almost everything I know the hard way. This is the result of 13 laps at Barber after the first repave with too much rebound & a couple pounds too much air in the tire.
I have no dispute whatsoever that you can tear up a tire in one day of racing. Balls to the wall from the drop of the flag wheel to wheel action will abuse a tire every time, but that isn't a Track Day... Nobody is doing race pace even in the Advanced group lap after lap after lap. There is just too much traffic to get those kinds of times consistently nor is there any reason to abuse your tires at a track day by pushing them before they are up to temp or continuing to ride them hard with a bad setting that is causing them to degrade. You can always pit-in & make changes. At any given Barber event there are only a handful of us guys turning sub 1:40 lap times anyway & most of us are STT STAFF that wait it out & pick our fast laps carefully so it's not like we are turning AMA Qualifying times every single lap.
Boy oh boy you toasted that tire. LOL!!! Last year I got 2 full race weekends on my SV out of a set of Pilot Powers (PR1 front, Regular PP Rear). I raced 4 to 5 races both weekends and won all the races except 2. Plus a full track day before that and I rode on the same set of tires at Putnam last weekend. The still look good, but they will be for street use only now. Smooth on the throttle boys and girls.... SMOOOOOTH. :wink:
That freaking tire is rad as hell dude ! Can you ebay that tire with a Buy it Now cause it would look totally sano on my pimped out busa . Can you possibly get me a 190 looking like that cause a 180 would probably make the busa a little too twitchy for my taste now that I think about it ? I could get the stock tires to look that good easy but don't want to risk scraping up my AStars doing that snit on the street . Help a brotha out ....
I put fresh tires on so often people tease me. But I have ben racing and riding track days for 8 years now. At least 15-20 weekends per year. I have won 7 championships and at least 75 races, and I have only gone down 5 times. Looks like the fresh tire thing works out great! I can't imagine howe much I would have spent in bodywork, tanks, wheels, leathers, helmets, etc if I was only going down three times a year. The new tires are worth the money hands down $.02 OK Monte, Now where is that check for some of the tire pofits? Doh, did I say that out loud? :shock:
For those of us who are riding faster and harder than we ever thought we would, a tire FAQ would be really handy. Especially those of us who got into the game rather late in life. I can generally tell when my street tires are shot - I can see cord down the center. I'm not quite as adept at reading track tires, unless they are really shot. Some examples or comparison pics would go a long way toward explaning tire wear and life. Especially tread wear and life at the tire edges. Also, heat cycles vs tire life, for those who haven't invested in tire warmers yet. Along with general starting and hot target tire pressures for generally used tires. I know I shouldn't try running street tires on the track. At least the rumour I heard was street tires work fine until a certain temp, then suddenly get rather greasy - and that sure seems to fit the symptoms I had a couple years ago. And I probably should invest in tire warmers too. That idea is a bit more feasable now that I have my own trailer instead of borrowing someone elses. Of course, I'm assuming I'm just ignorant and not stupid, cause you can't fix stupid.... In any case, thanks to the Tire Bros and others who have tried to educate me over the last several years! Code Toade