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Re: Tyre choice for track use



Blake Sobiloff <sobiloff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> Jim Gillespie wrote:
>> 
>> I'm taking the Sprint on a track day at the end of next week (Cadwell
>> Park full circuit :-), and then to the Nuerburgring in July.  I
>> currently have a pair of MeZ4s on the bike and I was thinking about
>> getting stickier rubber fitted for track use.

> Personally, I'd want to run the same rubber on the track as I do on
> the street, since the only reason I'd take my street bike to a track
> would be to better understand how it'll handle at the limits in the
> unhappy event that I get pushed that far on the street (a/k/a accident
> avoidance). Changing rubber can significantly change the way the bike
> handles, and different tires have different ways of communicating how
> well they're gripping (or not). I wouldn't want to expect track tire
> behavior out of my street tires.

    I know what you mean, and learning the bike better is one of the
reasons I want to take it to a track.

    But, I want to have confidence in my tyres and I don't want them to
be a limiting factor (as if...).

    Then again, in the past I've scraped pegs with BT57s on a different
bike, so MeZ4s may be perfectly adequate for my use.  Keeping them would 
also work out cheaper ;-)

> However, the Dunlop D207GP's have been favorite track tires for quite
> a while and would serve well.

    Remember that I want to be able to ride to *and* from the track on
these tyres ;-)  I might contemplate D207s, but I think that GPs would
be over the top.

> I was very impressed with the Michelin Pilot Race tires on the bikes
> at Freddie Spencer's school, and I've heard good things about the
> latest Pirelli Dragon Evos, too. Don't know about the wet handling of
> any of these tires, though...

    I don't think Pilots are highly rated in the wet - some parts of the 
tyre have very little tread (like, the edges =8-O)

> Performance Bikes did a tire test almost a year ago; I typed up the
> results and posted them to the list
> <http://www.seaotter.com/st/1999/v1999.n091.22.html>.

    Food for thought - thanks.

                Jim
- --
      jim@         ,'_             Fast on the straight bits is like slow
  gillespie.org   / -.--.    ___   on the straight bits, just with more
                 _\_  ~-.`--'_.-'  noise
                / /\\    \--'_ \\ 
 '99 Sprint ST  \__/ `---'  \__/                           -- Adam Curtin


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