long story short. I'm having trouble generating enough heat in the front tire on my mini motard. I bought a set of rains for flat track use but am thinking about running them on the kart track. Anyone run rains in the dry on a light weight bike?
Kx100, fox sealed cartridges and shock, don't recall actual spring rates but they are correct for my weight. Forks are as high in the clamps as I can get them (they are hitting the bars). 17" 2.5,3.5" wheels with tubes. I ran pressures down to 14psi to get heat. Below 14psi the edge would roll over the rim.
Honestly for as long as you've been chasing this problem, I would spend the 200$ and get a set of forks for just supermoto and flat track, and have them set up. Then I f you use the bike for off road or mx just swap the forks when you swap the wheels.
I haven't been riding it much so I haven't been working on it. I think the problem is the track layout/surface and bike weight. There just isn't enough heavy breaking to generate heat.
I tried that years ago with a YZ 80 motard. It sure heated up faster than the slick, but wore badly and really sucked on the brakes.
It ended with a first place trophy if I recall! But not without a trip sliding through the mud out of 13. The tires are probably still on the tire wall by pit-in...
Bt45 in 17" are 110/80 which seems big. Plus they are more expensive than the Sava/mitas tires which are supposed to be really good. They also have a mini motard specific tire as opposed to GP tires which are just a different performance envelope.
I haven't tried the Sava / Mitas 17s so I can't comment on them. I do run the BT45s in 110/80R17 front and 110/90R16 rear (V compounds) and they've worked well for me. I race against other minis running 125GP rubber and I'm not short on traction to them. I actually prefer the BT45 up front compared to the 125GP rubber when I tried it on my machine, I had the same issue that I couldn't get enough heat in that GP rubber to make it work. The BT45s are absolutely larger OD and heavier, but not enough to erase the improved perf I get with them. If you do try the Savas / Mitas tires, post up what you think of them.