Recommendations for Track Day Tires

[tourer]

Any one here go to a track day with your Rockster?
If so, what did you use and what do you feel is a really good track day "Only" tires?

Best for all around use on the Rockster on the road?

[Arbee]

Two questions and two answers

Track day tyres are that and are built different from road tyres
but there are compromise tyres which will do both

Road tyres for the occasional track day
Michelin Pilot Powers
Dunlop Qualifiers

These tyres would be wasted on a BMW road tourer unless your
a regular knee scraper.

Bridgestone BT020's will outperform you, despite being a road tyre.

[Sparky]

Any one here go to a track day with your Rockster?
If so, what did you use and what do you feel is a really good track day "Only" tires?

Best for all around use on the Rockster on the road?

Honestly, I don't think you need track-specific tires (unless you want a separate set of tires on dedicated rims).

I took two California Superbike School classes on my R1150R (one at Pocono and one at VIR) and the Metzler Z6 was more than up to the task.

I doubt the bike has enough power to break traction on the rear wheel accelerating out of a corner, and you'll run out of cornering clearance before you run out of grip. At least that's what my experience was -- I ground my peg feelers more than half off and didn't feel as if the tires were ever about to lose grip. As you can see from the picture, I had melted rubber up all the way to the edge of the rear tire.



Good thing is you'll get far more miles out of them than a track-specific tire, too.

[edit: hmmm... can't seem to make the image command work.]

[tourer]

Thank you both, this was the info I was looking for.
I didn't know if I should get track specific tires & rims for the track days.

[m@rco]

I agree with Sparky. A special set of track tires is not necessary. I happened to get a good deal on a set of Dunlop Qualifiers RR (soft street tire) when I participated in a track course. Those tires felt really sticky but they wear out incredibly fast. I'll put my Metzeler M3 back on as soon as these are bald. Another 4000 km for the Qualifiers is my best guess... I wanted to try the Pirelli Diablo Multi Stradas (as per Riceburner's advice) but when I had a flat during my vacation in Italy, that type was not in stock.

[Sparky]

Thank you both, this was the info I was looking for.
I didn't know if I should get track specific tires & rims for the track days.

Actually, I'm going to reconsider my advice -- but only if you plan to do lots of track days.

Generally, the operators of track days require your tires to have a certain amount of tread on them (the California Superbike School required 90 percent tread, but a quick look at the NESBA tech requirements shows a 50 percent tread requirement).

If you think you'll be wanting to do lots of track days and you'll be doing enough street riding to wear your tires down quickly, then you might want to get a set of dedicated tires and rims.

[daveysew]

I'll second the Metzler's. I did 2 days out at Shannonville Motorsports Park this summer on the rock with my Met's and they were never close to losing traction even when I kissed the cylinder heads on the track. Good all around tyre.

dave

[riceburner]

Any good road tyre will be good for the track. Just remember to knock the pressures down by about 4psi, your tyres will be working a lot harder on the track and will overheat if you run road pressures.

[NoRRmad]

Hm. I thought that low pressures will overheat tires. More flexing in the sidewall. Still, low pressures produce a larger contact patch, with more grip -- possibly...

[riceburner]

Hm. I thought that low pressures will overheat tires. More flexing in the sidewall. Still, low pressures produce a larger contact patch, with more grip -- possibly...

The extra hard work that you put the tyre through on the track will heat it up and as we all know: hot gas expands. This will take your pressures up to a point well above the normal operating pressure and thus affect the way the tyre behaves (as well as tearing the rubber up).

knocking about 4psi out means that you keep the tyre within normal operating pressures and so you WILL actually be at around 36/42 (or whatever), but at higher temps.

Remember your science - in a fixed volume, closed system (eg a tyre), more heat will produce a corresponding increase in pressure. In order to maintain a set pressure at that higher temperature we must reduce the volume of gas in the system.

[NoRRmad]

Ah. That makes sense.

[daveysew]

Yeah, I typically run 30/33 on the track with an ambient temperature around 25-30C. I'm also lazy enough to bring a little compressor to the track for the ride home.

dave

[m@rco]

The Dunlop team at the Pau Arnos circuit in France advised me the following tire pressures for track use with my Qualifier RRs:

Front: 2.0 bar = 29.4 psi
Rear: 1.9 bar = 27.9 psi

Yes, that seems to be quite low, but it works great. Operating temperatures of the tire go up to around 70C, and pressure increases according to pV=nRT.... Provided that ambient is 25C and all other parameters stay constant, does that mean 15% pressure increase?!? Someone else double check the math, please

By the way, don't place your glove on the tire 'cause they'll stick to them