Practicing on worn out tires?

[fortyonethirty]

So, obviously I am super wealthy and have never had this problem, just asking for a friend.

I'm just hoping for a little insight from some racers with more experience. Is saving money by practicing on worn out tires worth while?

[stangmx13]

it mostly depends on how fast u are and how much u need to slow down because of the tires.

I used to be able to run a Hard rear for 8 races with one flip, and still turn my fastest laps in the last race. I was a slow novice and it didnt matter. running those tires in practice at my next trackday didnt matter either, as all the laps were still close to my race pace.

now, im a lot faster and using Soft rears. ill usually turn my best lap in the 2nd race and by the 4th race, im a few tenths slower. I still use those tires for the following trackday, but im up to 4s off my race pace. those practice laps are borderline useless. sure, I try to work on specific things and maybe it helps. but the laps are so slow that its difficult for those new techniques to stick in my mind when I get to race pace. things are super ez 4s off, u know. its also takes much longer to get up to speed. I think the main reason Id run my best laps in the 2nd race was because I was using the 1st race to remember how to ride that fast. what a waste of a race.

all this became really apparent once I started racing MotoAmerica. theres no screwing around at MA events. FP1, I ran used tires that had 1 MA race on them, say 15-20laps. by club or trackday standards, thats still new. FP2, I ran new tires. QP, id run the same front from FP2 and put on a new rear halfway through the session. then obviously both races got new tires. all that running on new tires really helped a ton. my skills improved fast, id get up to speed faster, and id make fewer mistakes in the races. it was also amazing to turn PRs in FP2 or QP, then beat them further in the race.

IMO, if u can run <2s off your race pace using old tires, go for it. that lack of speed might be partly because of traffic and not being in a race environment, so its prob not hurting u much. if you are running >2s off, u should use newer tires. maybe flip the rear, or choose a diff compound, or just race less. oh, and all this assume that u are actually trying to go fast.

[fortyonethirty]

Originally Posted by stangmx13

it mostly depends on how fast u are and how much u need to slow down because of the tires.

I used to be able to run a Hard rear for 8 races with one flip, and still turn my fastest laps in the last race. I was a slow novice and it didnt matter. running those tires in practice at my next trackday didnt matter either, as all the laps were still close to my race pace.

now, im a lot faster and using Soft rears. ill usually turn my best lap in the 2nd race and by the 4th race, im a few tenths slower. I still use those tires for the following trackday, but im up to 4s off my race pace. those practice laps are borderline useless. sure, I try to work on specific things and maybe it helps. but the laps are so slow that its difficult for those new techniques to stick in my mind when I get to race pace. things are super ez 4s off, u know. its also takes much longer to get up to speed. I think the main reason Id run my best laps in the 2nd race was because I was using the 1st race to remember how to ride that fast. what a waste of a race.

all this became really apparent once I started racing MotoAmerica. theres no screwing around at MA events. FP1, I ran used tires that had 1 MA race on them, say 15-20laps. by club or trackday standards, thats still new. FP2, I ran new tires. QP, id run the same front from FP2 and put on a new rear halfway through the session. then obviously both races got new tires. all that running on new tires really helped a ton. my skills improved fast, id get up to speed faster, and id make fewer mistakes in the races. it was also amazing to turn PRs in FP2 or QP, then beat them further in the race.

IMO, if u can run <2s off your race pace using old tires, go for it. that lack of speed might be partly because of traffic and not being in a race environment, so its prob not hurting u much. if you are running >2s off, u should use newer tires. maybe flip the rear, or choose a diff compound, or just race less. oh, and all this assume that u are actually trying to go fast.

Yes! This is exactly to type of info i was looking for. Thank you, so much!

[Smitty769]

When I was novice I was relatively scared of used tires so always put on new ones. It was a placebo too - one less thing to worry about

Nothing wrong with this - except you'll never learn what a worn tire feels like, which is an asset in itself.

Just something else to consider depending on your goals in practice/race.

[Honey Badger]

I actually still have an outstanding PB that was done on "worn out" tires LOL.

That being said, at least at AFM, there's way too much traffic to even come close to my race pace (not to mention my own mental thing of having that "switch" - something I need to fix - which reminds me I should bring that up to my coach) so I have historically gone through on my old tires.

When I finally remember how to ride again, I'm not quite sure how I'll handle the qualifying thing....remains to be seen.

[peterfry]

Worrying about having worn out tires is by far worse than riding on worn out tires. I only have one set of wheels right now, so I run the same rear in multiple races with no flip out of necessity. I got faster as soon as I said "screw it" and just rode the things.

My fastest lap this past weekend was the second to last lap of the last race of the day--on a soft tire with 20 laps on it.