Stock Tires Good Enough?

Depends how good you are, if you can feel your bike and tire very well, you can roll pretty good on a street tire. Now, a 3 year old street tire is another story, there is an important difference here. Street tires (new) vs Street tires (old). I would never run an old tire.

 

Also, since you are asking this I'm going to assume you don't have a lot of track experience and not much ability to feel what the tire is saying to you, so I would recomend going with a trackday tire that gives better (more clear) feedback, offers more grip, and is more forgiving of mistakes.

 

I have run the Q2s and they are a great tire. I ran a solid advanced pace for a while on them. If your going to be at Gingerman, I would see about trying the NEW Michelin Power SuperSport Tire. It was designed for the track and street riding.

 

Yes, you can run street tires, they're just fine until you get to a pretty decent advanced pace.

As a matter of fact, I would encourage everyone to run a good street tire for as long as possible, you don't need tire warmers and race tires until you're well into the Advanced pace. Spend your money on doing more track days and having good gear, not on a tire that is more than what you need for your riding level. You will know when you get to that point where they're needed, you will have a very good feel for the bike by then

 

Great advice Zepp, thank you, pretty much sums up my outlook at the moment.

 

We run the crap out of Q2's and love them. Recently 'on sale' at Bikebandit (but a year ago you could be them for $210 a set grrr). STT's tire service sells Michelins at the site.

P.S. My first crash was on my Gixxer, trying to ride on a 2YO set of OEM tires (BT015's); take my word for it, that $300 you are gonna spend on fresh, good quality tires is WAAAAY CHEAPER than new parts/plastics/gear/embarrassment because you tried to stretch out your OEM street tires just a few more laps....irony was I had a brand new set of Q2's in my truck waiting to be put on when I did it...

 

Whoa. I was debating running last year's Power Pures or mounting a set of new Q2's I've been sitting on. I went ahead and mounted the Q2's... before seeing this!

 

Everyone here has given you great advice about not jumping straight to DOT Race tires. There is no reason to spend the extra money, nor have to worry about warmers, heat cycles, hot/cold pressure, etc, until you get to a consistently fast pace.

As well, you may notice almost everyone has said Q2s - also sage advice.

 

Have any of you ran Pirelli's on the track? I've used Pirelli Diablos on the street for the past 8 years and have always had great results with them.

 

Sorry to answer a question with a question, but what specific feedback are you looking for?

And are you referring to Pirelli DOT Street, or DOT Race?

 

DOT Street. Everyone seems to only comment on Dunlop or Michelin. Just wondering if the Pirelli street tires are a worthy track tire for a novice? Or if I should ditch em and go buy some Q2's

 

Yeah, I figured that might be what you were asking. I have only ridden the DOT Race, so I cannot weight in on the street.

That being said, Pirelli makes a good tire - I have a hard time thinking their tire would not work fine for your trackday.

 

I ran my stock diablo supercorsa sp last year in novice. There was also another guy next to me that replaced his with a second set because he liked them (in intermediate).

My opinion: I liked them, but I'm going to replace them with Michelins just because of price and availability at the track. I got 3500 miles out of them, including 5 novice days. There is still some life left in them for the street, but I got my money out of them on the track. They are pretty hard now.

If the Michelins work well and last as good as the supercorsas did at a cheaper price, I'll be happy.

 

If I may add something, I am actually a Michelin guy - but for a street tire on the racetrack (or even the street) I actually prefer the Dunlop Q2. Bar none the best non-race tire I have found. I ran 27s on them at Jennings with no issues... others have gone faster.

 

+1

FWIW, Last year was my first season on track. I ran stock Michelin Pilot Powers on my R1 for over 10 track days mostly in N but I moved up to I later in the year. I don't think I yet have the experience nor skill to get everything out of the stockers. I upgraded to a set of Pures at the end of the season but have not yet run them. Maybe later this year.

I did not like my Dunlop Sportmax circa 2005 so i switched to Michelin and never looked back. I have run Q2's in the mtns of Cali, and was impressed with their stickiness but I got longer wear from the PPowers. But I did not run the Q2s at track pace on the street.

 

The Q2s are a fantastic street / track tire. We've had good success with the Bridgestone S20s as well for street / track.

 

Another thing to consider it pricing. Make sure you compare...tires add up quick.