Tire Warmers...

[Femmekat]

What is optimal? Some turn them on an hour before, some 30 minutes....

Would putting them back on shortly after coming off track help prevent tires from going off? Better to keep them warm all day than hot/cold/hot/cold...

Discuss.

[union]

It takes about 40-45 min for them to completely heat the tire. On Saturday I have race 4. Ill turn them on at about race 2 which is a 20min GT. After that its a 8 lap sprint but its the novice crowd so it could take twice as long as the GT race. About an hour prior to the race is a good rule of thumb.

When I come back the bike goes on the stands and the warms get put on. If I have some time between races which didnt happen this year, I wont plug them in right away. Thats usually during practice. Ill give them a couple of session then plug in the warmers. If I were able to race every weekend I might have gone through 3 front tires and 8 rear tires. If I didnt listen to PK I might have made 2 fronts and 6 rears.

I know you didnt make it to the shop before your first weekend this year to talk about racing while we prepped your bike. When you do decide to make it there let me know. Ill be sure to be there. We can talk in depth about such things. Although I might be a second off PKs time this year on the same tires I figure I have an advantage. I didnt back my bike into the turn 8 gravel trap.

[Jim]

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Depends on tires.

Conti's should be kept on warm after a session, and on hot 20 mins before the session.

Pirelli's are only supposed to be on hot 20 mins before you go out there.

Not sure what michelin, bridge, & dunlops suggest.

[union]

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Depends on tires.

Conti's should be kept on warm after a session, and on hot 20 mins before the session.

Pirelli's are only supposed to be on hot 20 mins before you go out there.

Not sure what michelin, bridge, & dunlops suggest.

Let me know when you start racing ok? Trackdays are a lot different.

[Jim]

Let me know when you start racing ok? Trackdays are a lot different.

i'm sick of these fuckin comments guys. i have my race license, FYI.

by the way, the info i wrote came from the regional reps...not TD vendors.

[union]

i'm sick of these fuckin comments guys. i have my race license, FYI.

by the way, the info i wrote came from the regional reps...not TD vendors.

First off a license is nothing. I saw a guy make 2 laps in his rookie race. He got lapped in a 3 lap race and still got his license. Get out there.

Second the regional reps tell you what they are supposed to, not what works. Youll figure it out soon enough.

[Jim]

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so because I don't have LRRS experience, means I can't answer her question on warmers?

Just because I haven't crashed my bike in a ton of races like you, means I can't answer a basic question about warmers?

[BLACK SQUIRREL]

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so because I don't have LRRS experience, means I can't answer her question on warmers?

Just because I haven't crashed my bike in a ton of races like you, means I can't answer a basic question about warmers?

[/QUOTE]

proof

[Degsy]

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i'm sick of these fuckin comments guys. i have my race license, FYI.

by the way, the info i wrote came from the regional reps...not TD vendors.

First off a license is nothing. I saw a guy make 2 laps in his rookie race. He got lapped in a 3 lap race and still got his license. Get out there.

Second the regional reps tell you what they are supposed to, not what works. Youll figure it out soon enough.

Why would a tire company rep not tell you what works?

["Dangerous" Dan K]

IMO/IME, depends on the warmers. Remember, you want to heat the entire tire & carcass... I (learned from the experts in my garage, but it's still shitty mcbikefest, so whatever) use the rim being hot as an indicator. With my CH's, that takes ~45min. I've seen it range from 30 min to an hour.

As for part 2... fucked if I know. Maybe someone with more knowledge will chime in with something useful for a change?

[Mr. Kurtz]

Lauren, I'd suggest putting the warmers on for about 45 minutes prior to going out, to get heat into the tire. Pirelli recommends 45 mins @ 170 degrees, for example.

As for leaving them (turned) on all day between races, don't bother. Again, turn the warmers on about 45 minutes before you're going to go out. If that means leaving them off between 2nd practice and a late in the day race, they'll be fine. Heat cycling isn't really an issue with modern tires in this way.

[OreoGaborio]

If I'm racing, I try to turn mine on (hot) a minimum of 45 minutes to an hour before my race. If there's a bunch of red flags, whatever, I generally just leave them on (unless there's a major delay).

Then I come back in and let them cool off.

If I'm at a track day, I never even touch my warmers.

I run out of tread on the sides before they cycle too much.

(Diablo Supercorsas)


Varying from this REALLY doesn't make much of a difference.

[Degsy]

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Lauren, I'd suggest putting the warmers on for about 45 minutes prior to going out, to get heat into the tire. Pirelli recommends 45 mins @ 170 degrees, for example.

As for leaving them (turned) on all day between races, don't bother. Again, turn the warmers on about 45 minutes before you're going to go out. If that means leaving them off between 2nd practice and a late in the day race, they'll be fine. Heat cycling isn't really an issue with modern tires in this way.

The man speaks the truth.

[union]

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so because I don't have LRRS experience, means I can't answer her question on warmers?

Just because I haven't crashed my bike in a ton of races like you, means I can't answer a basic question about warmers?

I have 4 crashes to my name in my race career. One is because a guy decided to hit me in practice I dont think thats a ton of crashes.

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Why would a tire company rep not tell you what works?

You know Degsy I had the same question. So I asked it. It had to do with contracts and legal department. Made sense to me so after thats I started talking to the guys that raced the tires. Sure enough the "official" pressures and the ones the guys that raced the tires ran was different. Not by much but different.

[Femmekat]

IMO/IME, depends on the warmers. Remember, you want to heat the entire tire & carcass... I (learned from the experts in my garage, but it's still shitty mcbikefest, so whatever) use the rim being hot as an indicator. With my CH's, that takes ~45min. I've seen it range from 30 min to an hour.

Good to know... I don't know my inherited warmers very well....and not sure how they run. They don't have various settings, just one. Is there any disadvantage to turning on warmers too early?

Or is there some leeway?

[BLACK SQUIRREL]

Most decent warmers have a thermostat in them that keeps them at temp as long as you have them on. So if you leave them on too long its no issue, too long is better then not long enough.

[TTD]

Good to know... I don't know my inherited warmers very well....and not sure how they run.?

In addition to learning how long to leave the warmers on, make sure you learn how the pressures are affected by your warmers.

Basically, you need to know if the warmers heat your tires more or less than you do when you race.

1 - find out what hot tire pressures work best for you. Let's say that HOT numbers of 30F/28R work best for you.

2 - Once you know that is the pressures you want to race on, you set your tires to that number, hot off the warmers, and do a race or full practice session.

Come in and immediately check to see if you make the pressures go up or down or they stay the same.

In other words, if you set them hot off the warmers to 30/28 but then you come in from your "race" and they are 29/27 - then you know that the warmers heat the tires more than you... so next time you set them to 29/27 off the warmers. Warmers and racers are all different, so you need to spend a trackday or practice session to get this figured out.

Good luck,

[Femmekat]

Excellent advice Tony! Thanks a lot! I will be spending the next track day not only learning about Dunlop pressures, but messing with my warmers all day

[Mr. Kurtz]

Excellent advice Tony! Thanks a lot! I will be spending the next track day not only learning about Dunlop pressures, but messing with my warmers all day

What made you decide to go with the Dunlops?

[Mr. Kurtz]

Good to know... I don't know my inherited warmers very well....and not sure how they run. They don't have various settings, just one. Is there any disadvantage to turning on warmers too early?

Or is there some leeway?

As for what temp they heat to, you can check the tires with a non contact thermometer to determine the temp you're getting out of each setting. If you don't have one, we usually have one at the MTAG garage, come grab me at some point and I'll bring it over to check.

[OreoGaborio]

What made you decide to go with the Dunlops?

Apparently it was all the terrible advice that she just got from all of us Pirelli guys...

[Femmekat]

What made you decide to go with the Dunlops?

Mike Martire's take offs

Wanted something better for the last race weekend, but with needing a new transmission, and aftermarket case covers before the next race weekend was a bit short on $

[Femmekat]

Apparently it was all the terrible advice that she just got from all of us Pirelli guys...

Actually I love Pirellis...havn't decided what to run next season, just needed something better, my DCIII's were a bit tired. Lots of use, and they were awesome. Still good for street.

[Degsy]

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Why would a tire company rep not tell you what works?

You know Degsy I had the same question. So I asked it. It had to do with contracts and legal department. Made sense to me so after thats I started talking to the guys that raced the tires. Sure enough the "official" pressures and the ones the guys that raced the tires ran was different. Not by much but different.

James, I would take the tin hat off if I were you. Lol. There is no great tire company conspiracy to keep the information from you. I'd like to know your sources so I could call them out. I'm actually laughing here.

[DucDave]

I'm pretty sure my lap times are being limited by how I use my warmers....