Tire wear & understanding it

(posted this on PH as well, but also here for those who don't use that forum)

I guess one could spend hours reading into this kinda stuff. But I've been trying to understand what my tires are telling me.

Ideally looking for some advise, links on what is good tire wear for track usage. I understand what a cold tear is. So technical gurus get talking.

Can anyone give some tips, notes or pointers on these:





These Supercorsa SC2's did circa 70-80 laps at Sepang.

 

Tyres tires tyres! Some people need to get out more!!

No warmers mate.

I'm in the A grp (low to mid pack), 20 min sessions. it's tropical weather so hot hot. Pressures are 26/27 cold.

 

Did a session at The California Superbike School were I was told that if you're riding smoothly and your suspension is set up correctly then the surface of the tyre should resemble orange peel......looks pretty much like a jaffa to me

 

From looking quite hard at those tyres and trying to asses the wear on them i can confirm that... you are a nutter.

And thats about the limit of my understanding of tyre wear

 

well,it's hard to say about the 1st pic as cant really see it properly,however,the next 2 pictures show a tyre that runs at the perfect pressure+suspension set up for that rider.**

theres no uneven wear,no cold or hot tearing and as has been said,a tyre should have (exactly opposite to a good paint job) an orange peel effect.

**this does change/need changing as your general speed increaces,but then so should your settings.

 

I'll say one thing rich, your Running your tyres at fairly high pressures. The optimum setting for the condition you describe are 29f-27r set HOT.

It's the way I was taught at Honda, and complog (tyre supplier for BSB) confirmed it. If it gets really hot I've known folk drop pressures to 28-26.

Otherwise the tyres don't look too bad.

PS Rich GET SOME TYRE WARMERS!! It's not the use that will kill the tyres, it's the heat cycle, supercorsas & racetecs will be good for around 3-4 heat cycles, so if your having typical 20 mins on 40 mins off trackdays then your putting too many heat cycles through them in one day!!

 

As has said above defo need tyre warmers, plus if i had done 70-80 laps i would say that is normal wear?? i have none people to use a set of tyres in one day at a uk track, IMO you have nothing to worry about other than a set of warmers to save your tyres a bit.

 

Here's my rear SC2 after 1 day at Lydden Hill;





I use tyre warmers but Lydden is a very abrasive circuit.

 

First of all, get warmers. You're wasting a session per trackday getting heat into your tyres. Also, lower your pressures.

Hot pressures (that is on track pressures, not tyre warmer pressures) should be 28 rear, 31 front. Whether you're on SC1 or SC2 compounds on your Pirelli Supercorsa tyres. If you get Metzeler Racetec Interacts (which you can, without any difference in feel) same front pressure, but drop another in the rear to 27psi.

Set them something like right, then go out and on your return, immediately check pressures and adjust to your on track pressures.

Never measure your cold pressures, as they're not what you're riding at, and your pace and weather conditions can change the actual riding pressure, so always adjust to your on track pressures so you are always bang on where you ant to be.

The wear doesn't look bad, although i'd be looking for a little more (or some!) used rubber to be balling up at the edge. When this happens you know that the old rubber on the surface is getting out of the way to alow fresh rubber beneath to be used. Yours reminds me of a tyre that may be a few years old, that had 'dried out' and instead of the rubber coming off, it just wears and wears, getting drier and drier.

If the tyre isn't old (whats the date on the side? - eg. 2711 = 27th week 2011) then you most likely have exceptionally good rear tyre wear. Usually though, the best tyre wear isn't the best grip, so there will be improvements to be made to increase rear grip. It's always a stand off between the two.

The next thing to do is correct your pressures and see if you maintain the wear, AND GET SOME WARMERS!!!!!


Bongo

 

Like someone has already said, i was told a long time ago that if your suspension is set up correctly you should have an "orange peel" effect across the whole surface.

 

Did someone say tyre warmers?!

Unfortunately most times I ride to the track, so warmers are not really an option. I will at some point get some and I agree they are the way forward.

Noted the pressures, I'll have a play around this weekend (I'm back at the track)

The tyres are new stock (the new 200/55 ones).

Thanks for the input guys, appreciated.

 

Small update for those intereted:

This is the tyre wear from the weekends trackday. pressures around 28 psi hot rear, 30/31 psi hot front. These are after 9 x 20 sessions.






Front wear seems better for sure. In terms of pace.. well I'm doing ok in the fast group, I'm not the slowest at least

 

That wear looks spot on matey, the rear looks very smooth