Rain tires

[Manny]

So Ill be running a set of pirelli rains at the track day, assuming I can squeeze the 160 onto the tard...and assuming of course that its raining....what can I expect?

Other than trying to be extra smooth and not put extra inputs into the bars and bike what should I be thinking about?

How do these things have grip? Do I put warmers on em????? Not that I even have the right size I dont think....

[Kurlon]

Bridgestone has a 155 rear that fit my 3.5" rim like a glove, along with a slightly wider 150 rear, so you've got options besides a 160. Bridgestone doesn't recommend warmers on their rains according to Miles, and Carl McAllister along with many others told me riding on rains is a blast if you like riding in the dirt; they slide but it's very predictable and controllable.

[Paul_E_D]

No warmers necessary. I like to simplify it to this: You can lean over, brake hard, and accelerate hard on rains, but you can only do ONE of those things at a time.

You can trail brake, but SOFTLY, you can roll on mid corner, but SMOOTHLY.

Rains are great and quite amazing, but don't be suprised to fall down. I see amatuer racers go out on rains the first few times and run sick laptimes. It doesn't last long though, as the stunning quickness of falling on the brakes in 1 or 3 is enough to scare some sense into most people.

The good news is a fall in the wet is usually very easy on equipment and the body as there's little friction.

[union]

Rain tires are amazing. Like Paul said you can do everything you can on drys but not all at the same time. My break in ride on the R6 was in the rain this year. The amount of grip you have is crazy. If youre not careful you could have a few moments. I had the rear try to break loose on me accelerating off 12 but after I was up and out of the turn and I also had another coming in hot to turn one so I went a bit wide. You dont need warmers.

[Tricky Mike]

a motard with rains is a cheater bike

[Manny]

I like to simplify it to this: You can lean over, brake hard, and accelerate hard on rains, but you can only do ONE of those things at a time.

You can trail brake, but SOFTLY, you can roll on mid corner, but SMOOTHLY.

Love this advice man!

Sure enough the 160 fit fine. I actually only ran 2-3 sessions on them as the first session was wet then the weather vortex named loudon become sunny and hot and the track was dry so I scrambled to get the 749 unloaded and ran about 4 clear sessions on it, then back to the rains for 2 in the PM.

I really loved them....I am not fast but on the 'tard with rains I got to pass lots of peeps I never could in the dry!

The tires were pricey for sure but I figure there is no reason they cannot last for a long time if I am careful to only run them when it is actually wet....