This is my rear Dunlop Q4 tire on a zx6r after a day at Buttonwillow. As you can see it is already touching the wear bar. It seems there shouldn't be this much wear after one day. Did I have wrong tire pressure? I had it at 28 cold, too low? I have an aftermarket suspension and it was set up track side.
I run these on my RSVR. There are always lots of variables at play with wear, and maybe I am just light handed with the throttle (or slow) but I got 4 days out of my first q4 rear. My second rear had 1.5 days before end of season and it looks like it is good for 2 more. Someone who coaches on these mentioned that the wear bar can be deceiving. They are typically good until the tread groove starts becoming a hard angle disappears on the bottom, if that makes sense. 28 is what I've run rears at cold as well.
Out here in AZ we’re having trouble getting three days out of a rear Q4 running A-minus trackday pace at Arizona Motorsports Park; and that’s running them until the sipes in the heavy acceleration zone of the tire are completely gone. I thought I had given up race tires and warmers for the Q4, but lately i’m wondering if running race slicks would wear better/be less expensive in the long run.... I’m running them at 30 psi cold, and average 90-100 miles per trackday... on my zx6r.
Your tires still have some “meat” left on them. I wore mine down until the wear bars were essentially gone - not just the edge of the sipe like you’re pointing out. However, you’ll probably be lucky to get one more day out of that tire! I had to replace my last Q4 mid-day; i’ve never needed to waste valuable trackday time changing a tire because it wouldn’t make it through a day. Oh, I forgot to mention one of the reasons we have that problem at AMP is because the track is almost always run CW, and the right side of the tire gets way more wear than the left. The right side will be completely beveled off and wear bars gone while the left is almost untouched. Does your track have that same issue?
what kind of ambient temps with pressure that high? I would imagine after the sun blazes and some laps... that grows to north of 36 psi. I put Q4s on my R1 just because I didnt want to deal with warmers. Chased some pressures on the rear the first day... subsequent Nor Cal days were right around 100 degrees but 60% humidity (probably 140+ on the track surface). The front was pretty much on target for me (37 hot) the whole weekend. Rear ended up around 29 psi hot. Well at least according to the gauge I was using...lol. Did 3 days on that brand new set(different variations of Thunderhill)... I would imagine Im going to need new tires and may try pirellis this time. My pace is probably near expert backmarker
The recommended pressures from Dunlop are 32 front, 30 rear COLD. There are no “official” hot temps published for the Q4.
I noticed a friend using Q4s with the same issue at Sonoma. There just isn't a lot of tire when they are brand new.
This was CW #13 at Buttonwillow this past Friday. The high for the day was maybe 65°. I am hoping to hit T Hill next and I believe they run that CCW so I should get some decent life out of them. I ran these tires 31 front 28 rear, but ideally I need to be more diligent watching the hot temps.
That’s what I ended up doing. I was talking to one of the paddock crew chiefs about wear and he’d suggested slicks and warmers. As he pointed out, a pro on a liter bike can destroy tires in 20min and here I’m wanting 140min over the course of a day. I ended up buying a No-Mar and bringing it and extra tires to the track with me. I hated dealing with warmers, but, realized it was just part of it.
great... let me know how they ride "cold"... cause I dont care about that. I care how the pressure is at the pace Im riding. Hence why I asked what psi you were seeing. 30 cold could grow to 38-40 depending on weight, pace, and track temp.
I get ya .... but unless you’ve found documentation for ideal hot temps somewhere, how do you know what to run? Are you reading tires like Dave Moss? The pros testing the Q4s are the ones recommending the cold temps -not me - i’m just following what little info I can find “out there.”
there will never be one since every rider and bike and condition is different. Your ideal feel is probably way different from mine. Also some OEMs will give you starting pressures and its up to you to figure out if you need more or less. Though out west it seems vendors do business abit differently than here in the SE. The dunlop vendor I got the tires from had some pressures on the lil easel outside his trailer and I dont remember them announcing or changing the #s based on a 40 degree temp swing. Are you a pro or have pro level pace? Are you bench marking your pressure guage against the vendors to ensure youre getting pressures the same as reco'd? The Q4 is a street tire... so use accordingly.
