I'm looking at the Pirelli DOT tires for next year.
For the SV, should I get soft compound or regular race compound tires? Will the softs be worse in the 40 degree April weather than the reg compound at BlackHawk?
Keep in mind, this is my first race season. So, lean angle isn't WAY over yet, but I do want some tires I can be confident in.
Thanx for a response to another of my incessant newbie questions.
Blue front....super soft
Green Rear...Soft
Invest in a set of tire warmers
My husband races a SV also.
Our experience has been to run the Perelli's. Purchase them at the track from MRT (Tom Mason). When it is extreamly hot, you may want to run Michellins because the Perelli's are so soft they wear out quickly in the heat.
Dawn :)
Does anyone else feel that the Pirelli's are almost too soft for the SV racer on a tight budget in hot weather?
From the sounds of that, I might just go with the "Regular" compound Pirellis.
You can go cheap with alot of things but not tires
I know that. I'm saying, is the extra wear gonna be so significant that I should go with Dunslops or Michelins?
I love what I hear about the warm-up time (or lack thereof) on the Pirellis.
I know tires are no place to skimp. That's why I want a tire that'll last.
Nate
Don't worry about that. I run pirelli's only on my sv. SuperSoft = Front
Soft = Rear
They heat up just fine and stick like hell. Definantly the best tire for the money.
Thanx. That's what I needed to hear.
I'll go with the blue front and green rear.
Nate
Hey Nate.....I don't personally run Pirellis but check it out. Get the softs and try them. After your first race series, check out the wear on them and compare them with the heat cycles, lap times, etc. Basically without trying to go all scientific about something I should leave to the experts, it's really about you and your bike. You might roast the softs and need some harder buns but then maybe not. Or you might roast the Pirellis but not say a set of Dunlops or Michilens. It's all about you, your setup, your riding style, track temp and so on.
The Pirellis will be great for Blackhawk, run the super-soft front, soft rear. You can get them from Tom Mason, just like everyone else said. I was getting two-three weekends out of my Pirellis this year at Blackhawk, that was running the GT race w/ practice on Saturday, and then GP, Superbike, and Supersport w/practice on Sunday.
I think that I might be trying Bridgestones though at the beginning of this year. I talked to the Bridgestone guy at Daytona and am pretty interested. It also helps that the bridgestone guy for this region lives like five minutes down the road for me. The price difference will be pretty significant and they look like a pretty good tire.
I don't know about the "new" Bridgestone tire but the ones they had last year sucked much a$$. The Bridgestone vendor at every race this year didn't look to busy :-*
I tried them and because the vendor at the track said they would be fine. I was 2 seconds off my normal pace the first two practice sessions with the new tires on.
I have tried every tire at the track ( Dunlop, Michelin, Pirelli, and Bridgestone) and the Bridgestone was the worst.
My .02
hmm, really, do you remember the type of bridgestones you were running, BT-96 or something else.
I just talked to the Bridgestone guy, he didn't have any on hand.
Anyone else there have experience with Bridgestones
Ah, the tire game...
First, the super soft Pirelli was what I ran on my GSXR600. I would go through three rears (softs) before I would change my front. The super soft front, even though it "sounds" like it might be too soft, is great.
The next harder compound from Pirelli above (harder) than the soft is a medium (yellow). It really only works under extreme conditions like a long hot oppressive race. Even then, it doesn't really hook up real well.
As for other tires, the big trick in changing brands is that tire manufacturers all follow their own patterns of development. I've raced on, been sponsored by different companies.
First and foremost, you MUST check the tires to see if there is an actual difference in the heights of the tire. If there is, there will be an alteration in the geometery of the motorcycle, causing it to handle worse, or better, but it will be different. Even the actual contour, the roundness, per se, of the tire can be different causing it to turn in differently. It takes me a full day (hours!) to alter things to try and make the bike work correctly when changing to a different tire than what I am set up for.
I haven't ridden on the Bridgestones, but who knows? The Pirelli's were the "funny" tire in the paddock just a few years ago...
Regarding 40 deg F weather and Pirellis, I ran them down at Putnam two weeks ago, with morning temps in the 40s, and highs only in low 50s. The tires stuck great, like everyone says (soft/supersoft rear/front). But after a day and a half of sessions the rear was toast. Cold tearing was given as the reason by those who seemed to know. But they stuck *incredibly* well - I was doing things on my 748 I'd never done before. So I put a Dunlop 208GP on the rear for the last few sessions on Sunday, left the front Pirelli. Couldn't get the Dunlop to hook up anywhere near as well as the Pirelli, even after a couple sessions scrubbing them in. Yeah, they look like they'll last longer, but if maxing out the fun/lap time factor is your goal, I'd say go with the Pirellis. I will be from now on.
Matt Drucker got my set for me and had them at the track ready to go when I showed up.
BTW, the Dunlop rear showed some cold tearing after two 20 min sessions. Don't know if this was rider error, or the temps, and/or lack of use of tire warmers, but it kind of ticked me off - I'm told once they do that, they're pretty much done.
My $0.02 - ymmv...
Cold tearing...
The current crop of production DOT racing tires are more racing tire than anything. Radials do not generate the heat that the old bias ply tires we used to ride on did.
So, if a tire is cold, the compound can just kind of come apart. Once you loose that rubber, the tire looses its insulation to hold in the heat.
So, tire warmers are pretty much necessary on cooler days, but I continue to use my warmers all year round.
Once it gets the cold shred, you can't put the pieces back, so it's all down hill from there.