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Tire Warmers Question

Hooli said:
:applause

I've been thinking of tire warmers (used), and a lap timer. Love the BT-002's as well. And, personally, if someone gets "pissed off" at a noisy generator they can kiss my ass. This is a track, not a church. :hand
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You might want to reconsider that thought. There are 2 types of generators and the cheap ass ones sound and feel like jackhammers. The good ones make some noise but are very tolerable.
 
Hooli said:
:applause

I've been thinking of tire warmers (used), and a lap timer. Love the BT-002's as well. And, personally, if someone gets "pissed off" at a noisy generator they can kiss my ass. This is a track, not a church. :hand
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be nice to your fellow riders...one day we may have to pick up after ur spills or worse.....;)
 
s-girl said:
I like them because I can go out without worrying about traction and wasting a lap every session to warm my tires. That's one less thing I have to concern myself with.
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Food for thought. I use my out lap to doublecheck the track's condition. Make sure my reference points are still there, that there's not any new fluid/cleanup/dead animals anywhere and get myself back into the groove. It's not so much about warming up my tires as it is warming up myself.

Having said that , I still go pretty quick on my outlap without tire warmers and I never feel I've "Lost" a lap. By the time I go by the start/finish line the first time, I'm at full pace.
 
Races aside, guys like Doug Chandler (no tire warmers at trackdays for him) and World Champ Freddy Spencer will all say the same thing. Start out slow and pick your pace up. For some riders that might be a half day, for a select few it might be a half lap. But if you are going out full bore first lap, I suspect that you have found a plateau you are stuck at and will be stuck at for some time. Go out slow, pick up your pace, don't worry about your tires, and look at the track. By the time you have done a lap or two your tires will be warm and you will see the track and remember what is what.


That is not aimed at Vic, he knows what he is doing and picks up pace quickly.
 
eeeeek said:
Well said, Ernie, and I agree with you.
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I am a convert from the full bore school. I used to go out full bore, and when you go out full bore there is nothing you can learn and nothing more you can do. It's pretty much a dead end street.
 
This thread is a crack-up! I love reading some BARF threads... mucho entertainment.

It's a friggin race track, there are loud noises everwhere. Always has been, always will be. Scheeesh...

As for the op, go try tire warmers and form your own conclusion. You can find used ones for half the price of new retail all over the place. If they weren't valuable they wouldn't exist and people wouldn't use them. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Roll on...
 
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man, i wanted to use tire warmers to preserve tires, but after this it seems like im going to get the shit kicked out of me cause i run b- if im lucky. i have a set of power race medium's and was recommeneded by a few people that i should use them on these tires. i know for a fact ill hvae tread left but after so many sessions at my first school im afraid the heat cycles will kill them. any advice?
 
Daredevil said:
man, i wanted to use tire warmers to preserve tires, but after this it seems like im going to get the shit kicked out of me cause i run b- if im lucky. i have a set of power race medium's and was recommeneded by a few people that i should use them on these tires. i know for a fact ill hvae tread left but after so many sessions at my first school im afraid the heat cycles will kill them. any advice?
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Sure, at a B- pace you will never know they heat cycled out. And people are generally full of crap about heat cycles, and if they experience one slide, the tire is "heat cycled out".

today's tires heat cycle SO SLOWLY ( at a B or C pace or maybe 2:05 up pace at Thill) If you are spending a lot of time sliding the rear and pushing the front and running 2 flat at Thill, you need to worry about heat cycles. If you are not, ride the tires till they start to slidddeeeee. They will do so very gradually. I suspect half the riders out there chuck their tires half way through their life cycle because someone who has never race a tire told them about heat cycles. I have ridden tires 5-6-7 trackdays with zero problems at a slow A pace. I change fronts when I feel guilty, not when they heat cycle out.

The old tires used to heat cycle. When they went off they got slippery as shit and stayed that way. Today's tires don't unless you are really pushing them.
 
thanks, so im good to go? i shouldn't hvae a problem with these?


thansk, that saves me some dough :)
 
afm199 said:
Sure, at a B- pace you will never know they heat cycled out. And people are generally full of crap about heat cycles, and if they experience one slide, the tire is "heat cycled out".

today's tires heat cycle SO SLOWLY ( at a B or C pace or maybe 2:05 up pace at Thill) If you are spending a lot of time sliding the rear and pushing the front and running 2 flat at Thill, you need to worry about heat cycles. If you are not, ride the tires till they start to slidddeeeee. They will do so very gradually. I suspect half the riders out there chuck their tires half way through their life cycle because someone who has never race a tire told them about heat cycles. I have ridden tires 5-6-7 trackdays with zero problems at a slow A pace. I change fronts when I feel guilty, not when they heat cycle out.

The old tires used to heat cycle. When they went off they got slippery as shit and stayed that way. Today's tires don't unless you are really pushing them.
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While I agree with you on most of your points in this post and others. I think you are leaving out important information. Correct me if I'm wrong but you ride an SV650 a bike known to be easy on tires. I'm sorry but even on my F4I which is not very fast compared to newer bikes. I'm chewing through tires after 4 trackdays. For the most part my tires wear very nicely, but after 4 trackdays I'm just plain down to the wear bars. And this has been with both Pirellis and Dunlops
 
Sure, if you get four trackdays, that is what you get. That sounds right. I have gotten four trackdays on a literbike. Barely.

Nothing wrong there, you are getting good tire usage.


And yes, I get mucho tire length on the SV. Four days for a 600 sounds good. I have more than once ridden way past the wear bars, there is a shit load of rubber under them. Somewhere there is a great pic of Zoran at an enduro race with two inches of cord showing. (Meaning that he finished and won on tires that were, well, worn.)

Actually your post kinda supports my post, which is stop worrying so much about " heat cycling" and ride the tires till they need to be replaced.
 
I agree with everything you're saying, just thought you should mention that you have a SV after mentioning 5-7 TD's.
 
eeeeek said:
Food for thought. I use my out lap to doublecheck the track's condition. Make sure my reference points are still there, that there's not any new fluid/cleanup/dead animals anywhere and get myself back into the groove. It's not so much about warming up my tires as it is warming up myself.

Having said that , I still go pretty quick on my outlap without tire warmers and I never feel I've "Lost" a lap. By the time I go by the start/finish line the first time, I'm at full pace.
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Whatever works for you...
 
afm199 said:
Races aside, guys like Doug Chandler (no tire warmers at trackdays for him)
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This is an interesting observation? I have pitted near DC (and just did his class this weekend) for the last 10 trackdays or so, and have noticed that he always, 100% of the time (even when we were at BW and it was 110 degrees) had tire warmers on ALL of his bikes. Hmmm...:confused

Even had Jason Chism comment to me at Thill when it was pretty warm, that he only runs them in the morning when it's hot, but Doug likes to run them all day (this was the first day I was running them and asking him about when to use, etc).

Anyways, it doesn't matter. You should do what works for you, whether it's cruising around the track at 60% to check out where the dead animals are, or using tire warmers in the B- group. Who gives a rats ass? Is it going to make you a better/worse rider if some guy in B- is using tie warmers?
 
Tirewarmers have two rewards. The question is: Can you reap them?

1. When a brand new set of real race tires is mounted, warmed and kept at race temp ALL DAY LONG, they CAN provide absolute peak traction for that entire period providing they never cool off and harden. Once they have cooled and hardened, they will operate at a very slightly lower stiction range from then on.

2. They allow you to go into turns hard from the git-go.


The only questions that need to be asked here are:

1. Can you tell tell the difference between tires that have had a heat/cool cycle and ones that have not?

2. Do you need to worry about hitting the first turn at a "real" race pace?

If yes on both, buy em'. If no on both, buy em' anyway, especially if you really want them.

Ernie did mention a very good point about just what pace are you capable of anyway? ;)


Just for the record, I have Battle Factory (Suzuka) warmers. I also have a true GP bike, will be racing and have too much money for my own good so I spent some on tire warmers ;)
 
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That may be. When I did Doug's school neither he nor Jett nor Jason were using warmers. Things change.

If anyone wants to use tire warmers, more power to them. My point is that they are not really necessary most of the time.

It's your money. I prefer to spend it on tires and tracktime.
 
Vik means that he is a pretty good racer and a trackday instructor, and by a coincidence I happen to have a bit of race experience and am also a trackday instructor.
 
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