scrubbing tyres in

[Two Smoker]

Im lucky to see 9000km's on the front tyre of my little puny 150 ........

[Coldkiwi]

if you want a nice scrubbing in technique (not that I want to risk trying it!), check out the bloke on the ZX-10 doing a warm up burnout on his way to a 9.39 second run (do a search for the thread and download the vid).
I always wondered how you warm the sides of the tyre for a hill climb!! *gulp!*

[DEATH_INC.]

I always ran a steamcleaner over mine,seemed to work......

[FROSTY:Me]

Use the first practice to scrub them in whilst you're learning the track you wuss I did my first race at Manfeild and scrubbed in my pirellis in the wet....didn't fall off till several meetings later.

ok dude its official --you have bigger balls than me
Now we got that out of the way I was under the impression that its nigh on impossible to scrub tyres in in the wet. Hey im open to edjumication here

[FzerozeroT]

I heard the word from a dude -

Tyres need to be warmed up properly to be scrubbed in well, if you sand/scrape the plasiticy layer off the rubber still won't be grippy. once rubber warms up it gets sticky, i.e. even when it cools down the top layer is stickier than if not heated and cooled.

Urban Myth?

[F5 Dave]

Yeah but it gets rid of the mold release.

I’ve scrubbed Slicks in the Wet, but only on Buckets & it’s not what you’d call fun esp. on kart tracks where they oil their kart chains with normal oil.

[vifferman]

Yeah but it gets rid of the mold release.

That's the thing - we're talking about two different things here - one is that the scrubbing in process gets rid of the silicon based (?) mould release stuff coating the tyre carcase that makes it slippery till it's mostly gone, and the other is the combination of scuffing the surface of the tyre so at a micro level it is better in the damp, and the heating of the tread that makes it sticky.
If you can get rid of the mould release coating using meths or summat it shouldn't ferk the tyre significantly. Brake cleaner is acetone based, so it's not as bad as something like petrol. It's also not going to soak right into the tyre anyway, just a fraction of a millimetre, so I don't think it will hurt it. But you have to do a small area of tread at a time, as the acetone evaporates so fast that you could end up just removing the slippery crap from one area so it can end up on another one.

As for the actual scrubbing in, nothing really beats riding the thing, although you could do what I did, and go to the supermarket carpark in the evening and do a few left-hand and right-hand cicles around a lamp standard, using body english to lean the bike awy from you and further into the turn, so there's little risk of it sliding as it might if you're pushing it to the limits on the road or track.

[RiderInBlack]

RIB, please turn your font size down, it just looks too ‘shouty’

A, I'm a bit Deaf. Been arould HD's too Much.

I'll just turn my hearing aid up a bit for you sonny.

Is that better for you (feel like I'm whispering ). By the way my laptop only has a little screen making print this size on it hard to read

[RiderInBlack]

I told Zed that a while ago too, I just can't be bothered reading large bold print so usually skip their messages.

Ooh good because this is not in bold (This is). It is just a larger font size (Comic Sans MS 3, rather than Comic Sans 2, or the site plan and boring Verdana 2 in the standard Black )

[Jackrat]

You can remove the release agent with white spirits on a rag, but the scrubbing in is only going to happen by riding the bike.The tyre has to be heated and then let cool to set the compounds properly.
Removing the release agent and scrubbing in I treat as two unrelated things.

[vifferman]

That's what I said. (?)

[Motoracer]

Find some one nice enough to let you borrow his/her road going ZXR400. Swap the wheels and do some tire scrubbing the proper way.

[FROSTY:Me]

bloody good idea mr
Ok -needed one 1989 zxr400 road bike -for aprox 15 minutes---any takers ??

[Big Dog]

I get 10K easily out of mine. Then again I run touring tyres.

I just got 20,000 out of the front before the sides wore out (middle still has a deep tread). The back will still be good for another 2-5K Battlax BT45F before anyone asks...... but then I am a nana.