Road tyres for track?

[TIBLE_90]

Are road tyres ok for a track day? Specifically the continental road tyres. I'm wanting to do a track day over the summer and have a continental front tyre so am wondering whether to exchange the rear one for a continental or get both changed to Michelin pilot powers. Yes, I have two different tyres at the moment due to the previous owner.:facepalm:

[TOTO]

I wouldn't ride on two different tyres on the road let alone on the track. The only scenario i'd do it is if my bike was a super off tyre size and needed the different tyres just for the sake of having tyres on the bike, but would not do track day on a bike like that anyway. With your 636 there is tons of matching tyres available so spend the money and get the best insurance you can to guarantee you stay upright. Michelin Pilot Power 2ct or the pPilot Pures will work fab on a bike like yours :)

[TIBLE_90]

Hey, thanks for the reply. The power pure's look good, seem like they are the perfect fit for my kind of riding :)

[FROSTY]

Toto. Can you explain to me WHY you wouldn't fit tyres from 2 manufacturers?
Given that compound choice is readilly available and the tyres are of the same desighn ie radial etc.
There are some I wouldn't mix n match simply due to the tyre shapes being totally different. One triangular and the other rounded.

[gatch]

Toto. Can you explain to me WHY you wouldn't fit tyres from 2 manufacturers?
Given that compound choice is readilly available and the tyres are of the same desighn ie radial etc.
There are some I wouldn't mix n match simply due to the tyre shapes being totally different. One triangular and the other rounded.

This is a thing that has intrigued me for some time.

Why is there stigma against different brands of tire on the bike at any one time ?

[FROSTY]

This is a thing that has intrigued me for some time.

Why is there stigma against different brands of tire on the bike at any one time ?
I can understand how it has become a "blanket" statement.
First of all theres the influence of the racing fraternity. Heck now if you are sponsored by ABC you would be pretty silly using tyres from 123,
Second is the radial/crossply issue.
Third is that definitely some tyres just don't mix and match. I broadly group them into triangular wear and round wear. Literally some tyres are triangular side on and some are round side on.
No reason you couldn't mix triangular with round if you really had to but the front of the bike is constantly battling with the rear.
As long as you are aware of this stuff then heck I can't see a reason not to mix n match.
As an aside it was a standing joke that pirelli and Metzler tyres were the same thing with a different lable.

[Madness]

As an aside it was a standing joke that pirelli and Metzler tyres were the same thing with a different lable.
250942250943

No similarity at all.....

[Biggles08]

Are road tyres ok for a track day? Specifically the continental road tyres. I'm wanting to do a track day over the summer and have a continental front tyre so am wondering whether to exchange the rear one for a continental or get both changed to Michelin pilot powers. Yes, I have two different tyres at the moment due to the previous owner.:facepalm:

Don't do it!

But my used but still 70-80% left Dunlop 211GP's if you want a good track day / Road legal tire. PM me if interested and you can choose which ones...I have a few of them left from last season. :msn-wink:

[tigertim20]

to answer the opening post, yes.
If you havent done a trackday before, or youve only done a couple, then road tyres will be sweet. Youll have an awesome time telling yourself how fucking awesome you are and convincing yourself that youd smoke rossi, and just then someone will go SCREAMING past you on the outside, and youll realise how far you have to go with the learning.

Youll learn heaps. After youve done a couple and get a feel for the particular track, then youll want to get some stickier rubber, it amazing what you learn in the first 2-3 trackdays.

road tyres are fine for the first few.

[gatch]

The you realize how shit your suspension is and how slow you actually are hahaha.

Yes lots and lots of learning to be done.

[p.dath]

Toto. Can you explain to me WHY you wouldn't fit tyres from 2 manufacturers?
Given that compound choice is readilly available and the tyres are of the same desighn ie radial etc.
There are some I wouldn't mix n match simply due to the tyre shapes being totally different. One triangular and the other rounded.

Frosty, I firstly concede you are far more of an expert in the subject than me, and you have vastly more experience.

But the very first thing that comes to mind is that different manufacturers use different profiles, and they typically design their tyres to be used together. Choosing tyres of two different profiles could result in the two different tyres trying to produce opposing effects, removing the benefits the manufacturers intended.

One profile might favour stability, one might favour a faster turn in, one might heat at a different rate (and change its pressure and profile further). Just consider turn in - if one tyre wants to turn in faster, the the other slower (for stability) then your two tyres will be fighting each other straight away trying to achieve different goals.

Further more, the two tyres might have different parameters under the same load due to different tyre flex. Pneumatic trail (which affects both stability and turn in speed) is also likely to be different. Tyre macro-hysteresis and micro-hysteresis are two of the four significant factors affecting tyre grip in tyre design, and both are related to how the rubber deforms - and tyres from different manufacturers are not likely to have the same deformation characteristics.
Even the free surface energy of the two rubbers, which is what causes the cohesive force of tyres, is likely to be different. If you want more info on this subject may I recommend "Analyzing Friction in the Design of Robber Products and their paired surfaces" by Robert Smith (you can buy it form Amazon). He presents a comprehensive report on the study of tyres and their performance. Specifically, he presents some studies on motorcycle tyres in particular.

When it comes to Gods in the design of tyres Pacejka is right up there. He developed the "Magic Tyre Formula" which is used by nearly every tyre manufacturer. He has an excellent book call "Tire and Vehicle Dynamic". It has an entire section on motorcycles, and there is a lot of discussion about the relationship between tyres and chassis dynamics. This book is very hard going though.


If all the tyre manufacturers were trying to achieve the same outcome for the same tyre application then mixing and matching wouldn't hurt that much, but they all have different ideas on what they want to achieve in their tyres, how to achieve it, and the application that it is going to be used for.

Considering the tyres are an incredibly complicated and a very technical field (read Pacejka is you don't believe me), and the huge effort the manufacturers put in to manufacturing a pair to produce certain parameters that affect the entire handling of the motorcycle system, I think you'd have to be pretty brave to give them the finger and say "just slap on two tyres from a couple of different manufacturers and she'll be right".



Or am I way off base?

[Biggles08]

Frosty, I firstly concede you are far more of an expert in the subject than me


lol...after this post, I'd hazzard a guess your wrong here mate! :laugh:

[sinfull]

lol...after this post, I'd hazzard a guess your wrong here mate! :laugh:

Lol True that

Ya wanna PM me what he said ?