[boplicity]

Alright, my rear tire seems to have gone from OK to REALLY, REALLY WORN overnite!

I priced a new mounted tire and realized that can't really afford it at the moment. So I was thinking of going to the track and buying a scrubbed tire and having it mounted there. Is this a reasonable thing to do? Any idea what it should cost?

Miles

 

[Guest]

i wouldn't recommend it miles...
race rubber is designed to be soft 'n sticky at pretty high temps but not really that grippy at low-temps. think of how hard you push a bike during a race. that's the kind of riding that keeps the tires in the grippy temp-range. if you're riding like that on the street (hooligan!), go for it! if you're remotely civil, you'll be at risk.
also note that your bike won't pass inspection when you're due to renew.
i think it may also be a citable offense on the road.

 

[Fillmore]

What Strati said...

Also, even if you found a DOT street tire at the track, those guys don't throw away tires because they've got money to burn. It's probably been heat cycled so many times that it wouldn't be any grippier than your worn tire.

--Fillmore

 

[boplicity]

Aww comon, not even for the few weeks we have left for the season?! I def plan on getting a pair of new tires over the winter so I wouldn't be inspecting this pair. No? Grrr, that means I gotta give a shop $260 if I only replace the rear. Since there's def no way I can afford both right now, is that okay-to replace only the rear?

Miles

 

[Guest]

Miles....what kinda of tires you got on there now.....?

 

[CRASH!]

Miles,

I've found a local shop that'll mount a mail-order tire for you. Not sure what it'll cost you (he charges me less because I hang around every now and then and confer coolness upon his shop by parking my Monster out front ;D). Lemme know if you want address and phone.

I got my Pilot Road rear for something like $125 to my door.
www.swmototires.com. If you get the pair, there's no shipping charge at all. They UPS from a PA warehouse (to NE destinations anyway) so it's three days from your order.

I saw 'em for even less in a Chaparral ad in a bike rag last night, but don't know what they charge for shipping.

 

[Guest]

that's what I thought 260 seems high.....

 

[boplicity]

To be clear, $260 is for a mounted Pilot SPORT, not a Road. $60 of that was the ounting charge for bringing in my whole bike not just the rim. I think it's $30 if I bring in just the rim.

 

[Fillmore]

$260 for one tire? Ouch...

I recently paid $280 for a pair of Metzeler Sportecs, mounted.

Granted the Pilots are a bit more expensive than the M1s, but Dayum!

Does the track have tire service on track/race days? Maybe that would be a better deal...

--Fillmore

 

[Bloodshot]

IMO go for it, as long as it has treads cut into it you should be fine. The concept that a racing tire wouldn't heat up enough on the street seems silly to me. For example the Pirelli Diablo Corse tires, which are not DOT approved, are stickier to begin with. If you're able to warm it up you're doing even better. A tire mostly warms up from the tire wall flexing, not actual contact with the ground unless it's a hot day, so unless you overinflate the tire you should be fine

No offense to anyone else on here, I think the advice is good, just extremely conservative. Go for the tire, have fun with it, just be careful at first.

-Jordan

 

[Guest]

To be clear, $260 is for a mounted Pilot SPORT, not a Road.

 

[Fillmore]

The concept that a racing tire wouldn't heat up enough on the street seems silly to me.

 

[Guest]

We had a name for the guys who would come to the track and buy takeoffs for their street bikes: Squids. Heh.

I (horror) have Michelin DOT race tires on a street bike, and it has yet to throw me into a ditch. Am I a squid? Maybe, but they're my race takeoffs, and I don't expect nearly as much from them on the street.

Really, you should buy a tire made for the application in question -- street tires for a street bike. If you're gonna use something different (and it's your life, do what you want), I would encourage you to exercise a great degree of caution until you're comfortable with the setup.

 

[boplicity]

Tim, you've confused me! First you say that you call people who are looking for take-offs squids but then you say you are running them. Then you say to use a tire for what it's rated for street for street and race for race. Aren't your take-offs track tires? Is a DOT tire a street tire?! This is probably a conversation made much clearer when having it face to face I would imagine!

 

[Guest]

Miles a DOT approved tire is a street legal tire.
There are of course different types of DOT approved tires.
The Michelin Pilot Race H2 is a DOT approved race tire for example.

 

[Guest]

Heh. I'm vague and confusing in person, so that might not help.

My point is this: are you really money ahead by purchasing someone else's used tire with potentially different handling characteristics that'll only last a little while? If you think so, go for it.

I have an understanding for people who use a race DOT on the street because that's what they have laying around or they're super-cheap or whatever. People who use a DOT race tire on the street to get Mo Grip have been misled. You cannot achieve race condition grip on the street. And then there are the guys who think that their manhood will be huge and they will be very attractive to women because they have tires on their bike that are scrubbed out to the edges cuz they are Hard Men That You Should Not Mess With. Those are the guys we called squids.

 

[Guest]

I found used track slicks work great on my "other" ride at the drag strip...the center is great! but that is for a different purpose..just a little side note!

 

[CRASH!]

Miles,

There are race series that require you to run on "street tires." This means that they must be DOT approved. So the tire companies make the best RACE tire they can that conforms to DOT specifications. It's the same with car tires. I used to run Yokohama A001Rs on my Alfa. We called them "cheater slicks." They didn't last long (and they sucked big time in the wet) but warm-up wasn't really an issue because they were designed for autocross where you don't get the tires warmed up anyway.

It's a loophole you can ride a motorcycle through! So while the tires technically confirm to DOT standards and are legal to use on the street, they are really designed for an entirely different operation environment. So you can't use the DOT designation to determine whether it's a road or a track tire.

If you go to a website like www.swmototires.com, they unambiguously separate their road from race tires. Because the tire companies want to link their road and track products in the customer's minds, the tire models are very similar. e.g.
Michellin Pilot Road -- sport/touring
Michellin Pilot Sport -- high performance sport (road some track days)
Michellin Pilot Race -- DOT Track tire.

I hope this is a little less confusing without being patronizing.

 

[boplicity]

Nope that great, thanks Don. Actually, I was getting confused by looking at Dunlop's site. They don't seem to list DOT or not.

Good news is that I've decided to just get a new pair of sneakers and skip the cheapo route. I appreciate everyone's help. I'm either gonna go with the Pilot Roads or the Sports. Leaning towards Sports cause I def want to do a track day or two next season.

Miles