tyre pressures

[Rubberman]

Grab yourself a good quality tyre gage set your pressures where YOU feel comfortable go out on one of your average rides once you have stopped check your pressures again to see what increase in tyre pressure you have, for me as an example ( i'm currently riding a TL1000R ) i set my tyre pressure at 36psi front/rear ( Street riding ) and generally the tyre pressure increases by 4 pound using pilots 2ct, track day at Phillip Island i'll run on a warm day ( yeh i know i said warm believe it or not it does happen ) Pirelli sc1 front & rear running the rear cold @ 24psi come in and they are up to 30/32 psi front 26 cold come in 30/32. Tyres have come a long way with technology so it would pay to check with the manufactures ratings/ compounds. As mentioned above its a personal thing but as long as it has YOU riding with confidence run what you FEEL is right.

[Buhjones]

Ok so what do people think it the difference between road and track riding???
Same pressure?


I always though 40 rear 35 front

The advice I have recieved for track riding is to drop the pressure by 3-5psi. The logic is a) That you want a bit more deformation of the rubber for better grip and b) that you run the tyres much hotter on a track day so the pressure increases.

I run 42 F/R and notice the difference if it drops under 40.

[bRoWnEyE]

I run 25 F / 28 R on my Motard but that's a lot lighter bike .
Tyres heat up quick

Hayabusa 36 F / 38 R or 38 F / 40 R

[sutur]

42/42 - the bike feels heavy enough when you weigh 70Kg without the tyres feeling sloppy.

[Shifu]

The advice I have recieved for track riding is to drop the pressure by 3-5psi. The logic is a) That you want a bit more deformation of the rubber for better grip and b) that you run the tyres much hotter on a track day so the pressure increases.

I run 42 F/R and notice the difference if it drops under 40.

The lower pressures increase the size of the contact patch and that influences only your tyre wear (and can affect handling in the extremes). There is no more grip as it is independent of the area that is contacting the asphalt. For the track the main concern should be a tyre temperature (as it affects the traction) that the given pressure produces. The lowewr the pressure the more flex in the tyre and more heat gets generated. Optimum temperature will vary between brands but generally 70 - 90 deg C. So the correct pressure is the one that gets your tyres to that temperature and keeps it here without overheating for a given riding conditions track, ambient temperatures etc. For the normal street riding normally there is no need to complicate it that much and is OK to stick to recommended pressures from TYRE MANUFACTURERS. I run 38 rear and 32 front on my Busa all the time. Having a good quality pressure gauge is massively important.

[BikerBoy]

Optimum temperature will vary between brands but generally 70 - 90 deg C. massively important.

Did you see the infared cam used at the Isle of Man last year?. The average tyre temp was running at 130c.

[Shifu]

Optimum temperature will vary between brands but generally 70 - 90 deg C. massively important.

Did you see the infared cam used at the Isle of Man last year?. The average tyre temp was running at 130c.

Paul, I think the camera was picking up the heat from the brake rotors as well so the reading was very innacurate.
I use the laser temperature gauge and the readings I got from the guys coming off the track at Mallalla were within that range. Over 100 would be definitely too high as the tire would be starting to melt at the contact patch. For slicks maybe it is different as they rely on the temperature for traction I am not sure, but I think in the TT reces they use road tyres.

[BikerBoy]

Optimum temperature will vary between brands but generally 70 - 90 deg C. massively important.

Did you see the infared cam used at the Isle of Man last year?. The average tyre temp was running at 130c.

Paul, I think the camera was picking up the heat from the brake rotors as well so the reading was very innacurate.
I use the laser temperature gauge and the readings I got from the guys coming off the track at Mallalla were within that range. Over 100 would be definitely too high as the tire would be starting to melt at the contact patch.

I'd say you're prob right about the innacuracy of the cam due to picking up other influences, but I would have thought that over 100c would be quite normal for a race situation? .

[Shifu]

Optimum temperature will vary between brands but generally 70 - 90 deg C. massively important.

Did you see the infared cam used at the Isle of Man last year?. The average tyre temp was running at 130c.

Paul, I think the camera was picking up the heat from the brake rotors as well so the reading was very innacurate.
I use the laser temperature gauge and the readings I got from the guys coming off the track at Mallalla were within that range. Over 100 would be definitely too high as the tire would be starting to melt at the contact patch.

I'd say you're prob right about the innacuracy of the cam due to picking up other influences, but I would have thought that over 100c would be quite normal for a race situation? .

Honestly not sure Paul. Slicks would run hotter probably but still the highiest setting on the tyre wormers is about 80 deg. It takes a lot of heat to keep the whole wheel that hot while it is moving through the air at racing speeds. Maybe someone who uses slicks can enlighten us here

[BikerBoy]

you can get 120c tyre warmers but most of them are 80c. MotoGP def. run hotter than 100c but that's the extreme situation - one of the marshalls burnt his hand really bad a few years ago after a crash, he grabbed hold the of tyre/rear wheel to move the bike.

edit: might be 100c tyre warmers not 120c..can't remember. The place I got mine from sell them.

[Shifu]

you can get 120c tyre warmers but most of them are 80c. MotoGP def. run hotter than 100c but that's the extreme situation - one of the marshalls burnt his hand really bad a few years ago after a crash, he grabbed hold the of tyre/rear wheel to move the bike.

You could be right here. That is probably why they sometime dont last the race distance. Out of my league and concern though as I have problem with getting mine to 80 deg.

[Belzybob]

42/42 - the bike feels heavy enough when you weigh 70Kg without the tyres feeling sloppy.

Couldn't agree more. I forgot to check the pressures after a spell away, something didn't feel right and when I checked the tyres next day I found that about 34F/36R. Felt great again once back to 42/42. Note that I'm talking about brisk road riding, not track etc. etc.