I don’t use tire warmers on track day and since I’m just a poser and not a racer, but how many heat cycles can one get from a set of slicks? I primarily run Pilot Powers and Diablo Corsa’s at track days but I would like to try out DOT Race tires or even slicks.
Depends on what type of bike you have, and how aggressive you are really. I think if you get two full track days on a set of race Pirelli's you did real good...............on say a SV. If you have a 600 or bigger bike...............I think they will start to slide a bunch during your second track day.
I’m on an R1 running in the Intermediate group with TPM. I’m fairly aggressive on them but then again I’m not in the Advanced group therefore I’m not as aggressive as I could be. I’m thinking 1 track day and they’ll be shot – think that’s a good guesstimate?
so does that mean i am seriously dog slow running 2 trackdays and a solo 20 a sprint race, and two rounds of practice on a set of Pirelli supercorsa take offs i got from a guy using them for 3-4 sprints and then the practice the next day(hes FAST!)
I get a race weekend and one or two trackdays out of supercorsas without warmers. Ive done some of my fastest lap times on tires that were worn.
I have a set of Pirelli slicks with 4 sprints on them and a set of last years SC's with 4 sprints and a practice session on them if you're looking for take off's. I'd sell them for about what you would find in the couch...
For track days only, the only reason to pay more for slicks is pose factor... Try the Pirelli or Bridgestone DOT's first.
Since at track days lap times are not important, changing tires is therefore not as important. Obviously you want to be safe but... There is no good rule for changing tires b/c it is something that, as a rider, you should learn to feel. Therefore, my advice would be to leave a set of tire on the bike longer than you have in the past...leave them on till they start to move around a little. Tires will give you little slides as they go away, they don't go directly from fresh to a highside... as this starts to happen change YOU not the tires. Be smoother with the throttle and on transitions. This will make you a better rider then even the fastest set of tires. Then after you ride around like that for a while change the tires. Just my two cents for what it is worth...
As far as running slicks for track days I don't see anything wrong with that... they only cost a little more than d.o.t's and they last about 5x longer! You can save a lot of $$ of course you wouldn't want to carry them over onto the street
Wouldn't an Intermediate-level rider be better off with DOTs? I'm just wondering if the slower pace wouldn't get the Slicks up to temp, therefore the slicks wouldn't be giving as much grip as the DOTs? I've only ever run DOTs on my racebikes, was just wondering...
Define Intermediate..? There's a Wide range of Interm. riders that I have seen...and honestly, some would be better off running one of the hi po type streert / track tires... Then again there's interm. riders that belong in the race group... I think you have to be honest with yourself, in aseccesing your riding level...and use a tire that's best suited to it...
They're both race tires, so both slicks & DOT's have the same temperature dependence and they cost about the same over here. The only diff is that slicks tend to be a little more aggressive in profile and the tread on the DOTs makes them wear out faster.
