Rains in dry?

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?

 

What bike is this and whats your current setup?

 

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.

 

Are the forks shortened?

 

No, stock length. Rather not shorten them as the bike pulls multiple duty.

 

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 ran rains, in the dry, on an R1, for a 3 hour endurance at Nelsons. It didn't work well...

 

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.

 

Put those same slicks on a something like an ex250 and that is more of what I am dealing with.

 

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.

 

Theres a picture floating around somewhere that shows how that ended. Good stuff.

 

Pm cam Moorhead on here, he might have a better option for you.

 

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...

 

What tires are you currently running?

 

Bridgestone 125gp slicks, softest compound.

 

Switch to BT45s. I can actually get some heat into them with a TT-R 125.

 

What he said.

 

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.