I don't think tire life span is something that should EVER cross your mind on a track day. Spend money on tires, or on a whole bike and doctors bills when you high side. I'd rather put it into tires.

Now I just need to practice what I preach and upgrade my stock suspension. Almost ended up eating pavement a few times today at the track lol.

 

I have well over 8,000 miles and 4TD on my PPs. Going into braking zones, my eyes pop out of the sockets. On the gas, she drives like a bat out of hell.

Pressure is a balance of grip vs longevity (and suspension setting becomes more important as speed increases).

Keep in mind, that as you drop your pressures that far, you're increasing grip at the expense of heat cycles.

 

I am not sure how many track days you should get on a new set. I buy takeoffs and get almost 2 days out of them IF I flip them.

 

I'll add what I know from some pretty good sources (sorry, neither of these is explicitly for the 2CT):

In July 2006 I got this from Marnie at the Kevin Schwantz Suzuki School (then at Road Atlanta):

The tires we use at KSSS are the Michelin Pilot Powers and I spoke to Tray
to confirm the tire pressure! He said that Michelin advises us to use 32
front and 30 rear as we are not using tire warmers.

"Tray" is Tray Batey, the Vesrah Suzuki racer and KSSS instructor.

In 2005, I spoke with Michelin, and they recommended 30 front, 22 rear for the Power Race. (I know, quite a different tire than the PP, but still, I thought it interesting they recommended such a low rear pressure.) I confirmed this number with one of my club racer friends who spoke with a different Michelin rep at a different time.

videos 4x4

 

Are those pressures for cold tires or hot? If cold that would mean they are around 36/34 hot on the Powers.

 

Good info Troll. Can you answer the above question on Hot/Cold. I'm guessing that's cold considering you mentioned the lack of tire warmers.

 

Disserved- I read back over the thread and saw that you run Pirelli. Yes they ARE set different than Michelin. Pirelli uses a pressure gain method and Michelins are set by cold pressure (IIRC Dunlops are set cold and Bridgestones are set hot).

 

They are. Michelin rep explained it to me that lower pressures cause collapse of the sidewalls in the various Pilot Powers. That's why they, Freddie Spencer, Kevin Schwantz, et. al. say to use a higher cold pressure. Spencer used 35 psi on the PP's at his school.

Pilot Powers use a little higher pressure than the 2CT's. My rep said 30-32 cold on the 2CT's, and he said definately never go below 30,

Power One's use lower rear pressure (22-27) and about the same as the 2CT's for the front (31-33). Michelin has a pressure calculator on their website for the Power One's (for instance, they say amatuer trackday riding, use 27psi rear, but for expert circuit riding, above 20 degrees C, less abrasive twisty, use 22). Check out the tire selector and pressures calculator (it's in bar, by the way. Have to convert to psi): Michelin Power One

 

I'm running between 29 and 32 front and 30 and 34 rear. It really depends on the track, the rider, and the temperature.

I've had no problems getting heat into the tires at reasonable speeds / track temperatures so I mostly forget that line of thinking.

I find if the tires are on the lower end of the spectrum that they start to feel heavy. Some people think of that as "feed back"... I dunno. I'd rather a little bit lighter feeling. If I start feeling the rear end give more slipping feedback then I bring it down a bit.

I started riding the track on 2ct's now I'm running a mix of SC1 and SC2... I generally like the rear medium soft but if I can run the soft I will. At high temps the soft I don't like as much...

 

Great to have you in this thread Woot. Been awhile since I've seen ya on the board.