Soft or Reg Race tires?

[Nate R]

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.

[YTAK_Racing]

Blue front....super soft
Green Rear...Soft

Invest in a set of tire warmers

[Dawn]

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   :)

[Nate R]

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.

[YTAK_Racing]

You can go cheap with alot of things but not tires

[Nate R]

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

[TreyBone]

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.

[Nate R]

Thanx. That's what I needed to hear.

I'll go with the blue front and green rear.

Nate

[CBRman93]

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.

[rmahr137]

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.

[TreyBone]

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

[rmahr137]

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