Reply With Quote34 could be high for a cold day if you are the kind of rider (or bike set up) that doesn't load up the front.
Haha it could lol! But never had a issue before.
It's not the worst ct, but just thought would ask about pressure
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34 could be high for a cold day if you are the kind of rider (or bike set up) that doesn't load up the front.
2011 ZX10R track/race bike
ZRX1200 road bike
Period 6 ZXR 750 race bike
P6 250 production RMX250 motard race bike
2015 YZ450F Dirt track/motard
TE511 trail bike/motard
Cheers nelso, what would you recommend, 32 hot?
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It depends on too many variables to say exactly what pressure you should set them at. Bikes are different and people ride differently. Some people brake really hard and load the front end up heaps so they need to run more pressure in the front than others, while bike geometry and suspension set up also effects how much weight is on the front end which will greatly effect how much heat your front tyre generates. Then there is the track surface, temperature, how old the tyre is etc. So, as you can see, it's not just a matter of which tyre you run to say what pressure you should be running. Generally people will give you advice on a ballpark starting point for a type of tyre that works for them, but you really need to play around with pressures to see how it changes the grip levels at different temps for you on your own bike and set up.Originally Posted by Leezx10r
The fact that it was a cold, damp track, I would assume you were taking it easier than normal, then there is the fact that there is no heat in the track itself, so the tyres would not be generating anywhere near as much heat as normal. For this reason alone, you would have to run your tyres with less pressure than usual to get them to generate more heat. I run Dunlops, I'm much heavier than you and it's a different kind of bike so you can't compare my pressures to yours, but I run between 30 and 34psi (hot) depending on the air and track temperature. For the same tyres Shawn Giles runs them between 32 and 36psi because he is so much faster than me and brakes so hard.
In saying all this, 34psi sounds a bit high for a cold, damp day and if you were getting cold tearing, I would say that it is likely to be the cause. Personally, I would have dropped it to 31 or 32 off the warmer and checked it when you went out and as soon as you came back in to see what was happening. If you have a heat gun to test the tyre temp, even better.
Last edited by Nelso; 12-05-2014 at 12:59 AM.
2011 ZX10R track/race bike
ZRX1200 road bike
Period 6 ZXR 750 race bike
P6 250 production RMX250 motard race bike
2015 YZ450F Dirt track/motard
TE511 trail bike/motard
I run the metzeller k2 slicks and I've found that I prefer 34-35psi (off the track) in the front. Anything lower and I don't get the feeling from the front end. I'm a heavy trail braker if that has anything to do with it.
Last edited by Marty; 12-05-2014 at 08:22 AM.
Ps: Friday was awesome for me, I smashed my PB by 3.0 secs :o
I (also had a friend timing from the roof) smashed my PB by 2.2 secs. Pretty stoked!
By 3 seconds! Nice work mate. What times were you running? I set my tyres to 30F 28R cold, after being in the warmers from the morning till the second session when we were allowed out, they increased to 36.5F and 34.5R
The guys from MSRC were in my garage and I asked them what they recommended for the racetecs, warmers, hot etc. I was told 30 to 32 front and 26 to 28 rear off the track, so I dropped them to 31F 27R still on the warmers. Straight off the track, front was at 30.5 and rear 28.5. I left the front at what it was and dropped the rear to 27, next session to 26.5. They felt great the rest of the day and stayed roughly at those pressures, within .5
I don't think I can understand what a front tyre not doing what it should would feel like? The hard braking, turn 2 and old turn 9 everything feels uncomfortable anyway, so I'm not sure I'd notice the front squirming or getting out of shape as my senses are on overload slowing from speed as it is?
I didn't have a timer onboard, but my mate was running one and doing 43's and mid 42's and taking a few laps to get passed then not getting away, so I'm pretty damn pleased with that, actually, over the fucking moon! I would guess looking at his laps I would have to be around a similar pace, ie; his lap times didn't drop more than half a second once he was past. But without actually timing myself, I'm not claiming any times!
I am going to save my superbike pro's for Phillip Island, not ridden there before and looking to do a couple of days in october, I figure the track surface there will rip any softer tyres to bits in a day?
Tyre pressures are like asking how you like your eggs done.. each person will tell you something different based on what the front tyre is doing, track temp etc like Nelso said.
I would take it with a grain of salt yes there is a ballpark on where you should set it but ultimately set a tyre pressure that suits your bike riding style etc. it will be different from the bloke pitting next to you
Oh yeh, I understand that, that is why I was doing adjustments on the rear, but the front felt fine, so ballpark and if it doesn't try and throw me off and there aren't any huge increase/decreases in pressure, I'm happy with that! Also checking through the day as the track, air temp starts to change is pretty important? I'm keeping a diary with these kind of records and any changes I make to suspension etc. As time goes on, this will become a pretty useful little reference guide I'd reckon
Oh g'day mate. So when was the last time you ran Bridgestones? Marshy rates their rears up there with UK Ntecs, says they've come a long way.
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My best lap of the day was 1:42.2 (down from 1:45.2), I did 4-5 42s and spent the whole day lapping under 45.0. I was very happy with that.
When I say front doesn't do what I want I mean I get a vague feeling under hard trail braking and also the tyre tends to push on exits.
I just find it weird that most people run around 30-32 in the front (off track) but I prefer 35, every time it goes below 34 it's awful. The other thing I've noticed thru trial and error is that I prefer the medium front (k2) over the soft (k1). I get more feel under brakes.
I just wonder if this is a setup issue with my bike, I'm wondering if I ran the soft front and lower front PSI and stiffened up my forks instead would the bike feel the same? As in maybe I'm compensating for a soft front end by running a stiffer tyre.
Yeh right, I get what you're saying. Have you set up your sag and whatnot? How much travel do you use up front? I had my forks set up by Frank Pons at Biketec and they feel pretty amazing. After last trackday I always had about 15 to 20mm of travel left in the forks.
We set up the sag front and rear before the last day out there and he was asking me what my bike was doing in different parts of the track, ie diving too much nuder hard braking, difficulty in turn in, was I hitting my marks where I wanted to etc. running wide under power and whatnot. Everything felt pretty good to me and I was going to do a few changes to see if I could get it better, but at the same time, it felt amazing and I didn't want to make it worse! Mind you, keeping a diary of all changes, tyres, temperature on the day, comp/rebound preload etc means even if I do make a change for the worse, I can always put it back. I guess it could feel better and it's only a few clicks away! But I think at the moment, I'd be hard pressed to notice, or be able to understand differences? Also a bit scared I guess to make it bad and waste a session...
When you say the front being lower pressure feels awful you mean it's vague under braking and wants to push on exit when the pressure is higher? I didn't even think to change the front pressure, I was in ball park "recommended pressure" and it felt great, I would've thought higher pressure would lead to vagueness and pushing? Man, I have so much to learn! I ordered a set of K2's front and rear, but pretty sure I got the K1 front? Green stripe on rear tyre, blue on front. I can read k2 on the rear, but the number on the front is smudged, so ca only go off colour? The front felt good, but I also thought the front superbike pro felt good and to be honest, I'm not that sure I would notice the difference in a front
I was talking to my mate who is fairly into the dark arts of suspension, he was using all the travel up front and still looking to soften things up. He's been trying loads of different changes lately to his bike. I will go down this path soon.
Under hard braking with the lower pressure and softer tyre it squirms too much (feels like the tyre itself), so turning into a corner like T9 under really hard braking doesn't feel as good to me as with the higher pressure. I think the k1s are blue and k2 is green off the top of my head. I run about 15-20mm remaining travel in the front end. The less preload I can get away with the better the bike turns in for me.Yeh right, I get what you're saying. Have you set up your sag and whatnot? How much travel do you use up front? I had my forks set up by Frank Pons at Biketec and they feel pretty amazing. After last trackday I always had about 15 to 20mm of travel left in the forks.
We set up the sag front and rear before the last day out there and he was asking me what my bike was doing in different parts of the track, ie diving too much nuder hard braking, difficulty in turn in, was I hitting my marks where I wanted to etc. running wide under power and whatnot. Everything felt pretty good to me and I was going to do a few changes to see if I could get it better, but at the same time, it felt amazing and I didn't want to make it worse! Mind you, keeping a diary of all changes, tyres, temperature on the day, comp/rebound preload etc means even if I do make a change for the worse, I can always put it back. I guess it could feel better and it's only a few clicks away! But I think at the moment, I'd be hard pressed to notice, or be able to understand differences? Also a bit scared I guess to make it bad and waste a session...
When you say the front being lower pressure feels awful you mean it's vague under braking and wants to push on exit when the pressure is higher? I didn't even think to change the front pressure, I was in ball park "recommended pressure" and it felt great, I would've thought higher pressure would lead to vagueness and pushing? Man, I have so much to learn! I ordered a set of K2's front and rear, but pretty sure I got the K1 front? Green stripe on rear tyre, blue on front. I can read k2 on the rear, but the number on the front is smudged, so ca only go off colour? The front felt good, but I also thought the front superbike pro felt good and to be honest, I'm not that sure I would notice the difference in a front
I was talking to my mate who is fairly into the dark arts of suspension, he was using all the travel up front and still looking to soften things up. He's been trying loads of different changes lately to his bike. I will go down this path soon.
You may have addressed this above but maybe harder springs or valving required?
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