Where's Dunlops apology

Like Road Atlanta when Mladin's tire exploded...oh, and Brian Livengoods. Brian's Dunlop slick he had on the rear of his GSXR 1000 exploded and sent him into a concrete wall there in 03....

I do give Dunlop credit for stopping the race though, better safe than sorry

 

We ran the same tires in Supersport and no one had a chunking problem during the races. BTW, the tires were NTecs, not from Buffalo. I didn't hear of anyone having a problem during the entire weekend until the race. Apparently no one ran 20 laps flat out at a 1:50-1:53 lap time in practice on a 100°F track (since the track temps were way cooler in practice).

The tires were way harder than last year and the Dunlop folks told me before the race that they tried to err on the side of safety with the tires they brought. If they would have went even harder, everyone would have been busting their asses due to lack of traction (which happened several times in the warm ups on the cooler track, get well Jake Mormon) and there would be bitching about that (see 2009 SS front spec tire). I think they went above and beyond even bringing enough alternate front tires so they could finish the races.

I heard the new fronts were free, but I can not confirm.

I am interested to hear what some of the arm chair quarterbacks would have done differently (other than bringing a "better" tire).

 

The only front that made the trip home with us was made the third week of 2009. Didn't check the date stamp on the other two that stayed with Dunlop. All of our tires came of looking cherry, it seems like most of the problems were on the Ducati's and new Suzuki's, I'm thinking they were loading the fronts a little more on the banking and heating them more than other bikes were causing them to fail at a higher rate on those bikes.

 

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2011/Mar/110313a.htm

 

Im not bagging on Dunlop at all. I am not making excuses for them either. I am just saying that there is no way that all variables can be taken into account when designing a tire. Like was said, maybe the Ducs and Suzukis were extra hard on the tire. Could be rider style, setup, hell even the way the tire was balanced. I think that motorcycles are probably the hardest thing in the world to design a tire for. So much force and friction must be balanced on a crazy small contact patch. And then factor in that said contact patch is constantly moving across the tread area of the tire. I couldn't imagine trying to design the perfect tire. Actually I don't think that the perfect tire will ever exist. But that is just my 2 cents.

 

No.

 

This is just another reason why I think these guys are beyond human. Tire failures at ultra high speeds, then they go right back out on the same tires and go 110% balls to the wall AGAIN! I can’t figure out how they shake something like that off.

If I had a tire failure, I would be scared to death to go back out on the same tires. I would never be able to get it out of my head. I am guessing I wouldn’t even be able to go at 50% of my pace after that….and even then I would be thinking about the possibility of another failure.

These guys are fearless frickin’ machines!

 

I was referring to more recent history (as in the past couple of years). The late 90's / early 2000's were a train wreck for Dunlop...who can forget B.Boz and Spies' tire failures as well

 

Don't forget Mid-Ohio and Hacking's Yamaha, when it came apart on the back straight.

 

Honestly, with the limited amount of testing + the 90% of the testing that got RAINED OUT, I think Dunlop did what they could. I'd put money on them not having this problem if testing this year wasn't so affected by mother nature.

 

Dunlop had major tire chunking issues at NJMP the last 2 years as well. It seems like they have more issues then what most people actually hear about. We had some separate last year, and were told there is nothing to worry about... something about a line across my tires I don't feel real comfortable about.

 

on a side note...AMA has to have the most red flags out of any professional racing....wonder if there is a count somewhere.

 

I hear tell the AMA isn't happy with the number of red flags this year either.

 

I can't say I saw an unnecessary one either. Just passing along what I heard.

 

Totally agree. I I had a tire failure on any brand for any reason, I'd have a hard time ever going back out there and trusting the tire! Hell, we are preached to from day one...."trust your tires"!

 

we also know it wasn't just a DOT problem since I saw a slick wrecked with chucks all the way around the left side gone in 5 laps

 

"Dunpop"