Pirelli SuperCorsa vs. Pirelli Slicks

[ekraft84]

FWIW Sunny, I had two rear slides at Beaver - one on each bike.  My body positioning was different (my butt  was on the seat, not off the bike) and seemingly caused it.

I later went faster, on older tires, by correcting technique issues.

[clink, clink]

[Sunny]

Thanks Eddie for the input!   ;)  I guess I'll have you look at my tire at Nelson next weekend before I purchased a new set of tires and waste the money as Nelson is my last WERA NC race of the year since I couldn't make Grattan later this month due to a cousin getting engaged.

I am not sure if it was my body positioning as I believe I rode the same way during my first race and the laps before the rear starts spinning in the second race.  However, I did got more agressive with my throttle hand coming out of T4 and T10.  I wonder if this also had to do with my on-going fork leaking problem.........  

[Super Dave]

Takes a few laps for some shocks to reach operating temperature.  Might be related to that.

Rebuild time?  Specific to the shock like a Penske?  They need heat.  That's one of the reasons I use the Hyperpro rear shock as it's designed to that it works over pretty much any reasonable temperature range consistently.

[Sunny]

Thanks for the inputs, Dave!   ;)

I am not sure if it is heat/shock related as my second race is only one race apart from the first one (should be two, but those two got combined).  At a short track at BeaveRun, that means less than 15 minutes after I finished my first race which means my tires and shock were still warm to begin the second race.  I'll play with damping setting at Nelson to see if that helps.

Rebuild...........Can't be, just have the Penske revavled.  Well, at least I hope not.

[Super Dave]

Penske's do seem to be very sensative to heat.  

I did some laps using the prototype "Traxxion Generators".  For me, it was a night and day difference.  The shock needed the time to warm up before you could get a feel for what you really wanted.  With the Traxxion Generator, I knew immediately what I wanted.  

I use Hyperpro stuff now, and I love them.  Unfortunately, we seem to race out here when it's cold, so I have some first had experience with them that way.  And they work.

[jstrunseej]

Sunny, the Dot race Pirellis are great. I run a soft in the front and a soft in the rear on my SV650. I used to run the Metzlers and they were just as good. Whatever you do, stay off of those Dunlop's for your SV, they are garbage.

[Sunny]

Thanks Jack.  I always run Pirelli SC1 front/SC2 rear or Metzeler RS1 front and RS2 rear.  Just thought that I give the slick a shot to see if it'll help my slow @$$......   ;D  I did try a rear slick at Nelson when my DOT rear is toasted, and didn't find any noticeable difference with the extra $20.  However, it could be due to the fact that I didn't have a fresh front and the old one was definitely losing grip (front push/slide).  I'll probably try a full set of new slicks at the beginning of the season and see how things go.  By the way, I don't ride a SV now although I would like to (the engine problem I've been hearing is scaring me)!   ;)


Sunny
1998 Honda RVF400

[r6_philly]

I dont know about 160's for sure. for 180's the rear is the same, DOT is a slick with tread grooves.

for the 120 front, the slick is more V shaped and may be more stiff in the sidewall than the DOT's DOT is more rounded. at the center of the tread the circumfrence is the same for DOT and slick, but at the edge the slick is 3 or 4 mm shorter than the DOT.

This from Pirelli at VIR as I struggled to find a front end with the slick instead of a DOT.

[tshort]

in the FWIW dept...I have run mostly DOTs (sc1/sc2) and love them on my stock sv.  Ran slicks once (same compounds), and loved those, too.  Seemed to run slightly faster on those, but I still wonder whether it was all psychological, rather than any real difference (especially since I destroyed my personal best lap time at home track this year, on a weaker motor - and that was on DOTs).

Had to run Michelins once this summer, when the pirelli guy showed up with NO 160 rears.  Couldn't believe it.  So I ran Michelins.  Liked the grip, and overall feel of them, but could not get the front suspension dialed in with them.  Going through T2 at BFR front pogo'd like mad.  Figured out it was due to stiffer sidewall on the Michelins (ok, *I* didn't figure it out.  Thanks, Ed :)).  No matter what I did with rear shock, ride height, and front preload, couldn't get the thing to work. Even had full front rebuild done at the track (thanks, Brian B!).  Still didn't help.

So...I rode it like that anyway, and did ok, but scared myself every time I went thru T2 (there's washboard pavement at the entry there, right as you tip it in - and it's a pretty fast corner.  I stand up on the pegs thru there anyway, motocross style.).

So there's my $0.02.  Love those Pirellis.  Love em.