Grooved slicks: Road legal or not?

[idleidolidyll]

i think you guys are just misunderstanding each other, but anyway....
nice bike and nice groove job!

actually i'm not misunderstanding him at all, i think crasher gets a bit carried away and emotional when posting to me and i was just helping with transport



giz a kiss crasher

[Mom]

I just looked at the thread starter for this...........


Grooved slicks: Road legal or not?

Surely by know you have had that answered time and time again.


Good luck mate if you ride with them is all I have to add.

[idleidolidyll]

I just looked at the thread starter for this...........


Grooved slicks: Road legal or not?

Surely by know you have had that answered time and time again.


Good luck mate if you ride with them is all I have to add.

Yep, that's for sure. My destiny is my own. So far I'm more than happy.
Read between the lines a bit though and you'll see that although that was the title, the thread was about the high prices we pay for tyres in NZ.

[Mom]

Yep, that's for sure. My destiny is my own. So far I'm more than happy.
Read between the lines a bit though and you'll see that although that was the title, the thread was about the high prices we pay for tyres in NZ.

Reading between the lines is not a strong point with some it seems, not even the direct comments made seem to sink in.......like I said mate....good luck!!

[DEATH_INC.]

ride on the road like you do on the track and only one person will win.... he wears a long black cloak and holds an old farm implement in his hands.

That'd be me then......

[FROSTY:Me]

-Back to the origonal question.
Slicks simply because of the lil bit of wrighting on the side -NOT for highway use arent legal on our goat tracks.
back though to SHOULD you use slicks.
Good question --
On one hand I've talked to the guys at both Metzler and Pirelli and in both cases they tell me that the difference in COMPOUND between a race slick and the eqivilent road tyre-eg race tec is ZERO --yep they use the same rubber in both.
Where I'd be a lil worried is that Im told the slicks have a diffferent CARCASE construction -I understand the ancle of the plies is different.

[idleidolidyll]

-Back to the origonal question.
Slicks simply because of the lil bit of wrighting on the side -NOT for highway use arent legal on our goat tracks.
back though to SHOULD you use slicks.
Good question --
On one hand I've talked to the guys at both Metzler and Pirelli and in both cases they tell me that the difference in COMPOUND between a race slick and the eqivilent road tyre-eg race tec is ZERO --yep they use the same rubber in both.
Where I'd be a lil worried is that Im told the slicks have a diffferent CARCASE construction -I understand the ancle of the plies is different.

now that is an intelligent reply.

Yes, i'm a bit concerned about the carcass too and particularly when 2 up. That's why I'm testing it all out.

but your comments do bear out what i've posted from actual experience: that Dragon Slicks are fucking excellent on the road..........................until the next bloody puncture eh!

[onearmedbandit]

Okay lets try to keep it civil here folks.

[idleidolidyll]

Should have gone here to start with: the Pirelli website

much better photos showing the nice sticky curved profile slicks (not a triangle to be seen)

the rear is almost a constant radius curve (as in part of a circle). the front has sides that are somewhat steeper than the curve of the centre/off centre

http://www.pirellityre.com/web/catal...ERBIKE_RAC.xml

[idleidolidyll]

The $90 used race slicks i bought and grooved have now done 2500km.
In that time they have been awesome and all the cries of "danger, danger, they need to get hot or you'll die" have been rendered ridiculous.

The tires feel much the same as street tyres except better.
I never went hard on std street tyres until my tyres were a little warm anyway.
I run the tyres at 32psi rear and 30 psi front cold. When warm i've checked em and found 36 psi rear and 34 psi front.

Looking at the wear dimples, I still have maybe another 2000km left!
4500km! pretty damn good for $90 per end

Come Winter i might just try using race wets and run them at higher pressures to make em last a bit longer.

The upshot is I see no reason so far not to use slicks except the legality/insurance thing. However, it seems to me that these may be based on ignorance rather than informed objectivity. The slicks are MUCH stickier (hence safer) than the goddamn awful Bridgestone I had on the back prior to fitting the slicks.
I even had a ride in the rain back from Coromandel the other day and had no problems whatsoever riding within their limits and while doing so, easily kept up with a (skilled) friend on his bike with sticky road tyres. Another mate was left way back on his road tyres.

I wonder if the reason for the "not for highway use" thing is protection of a lucrative rip off for road tyres?

[FROSTY:Me]

Come Winter i might just try using race wets and run them at higher pressures to make em last a bit longer.

My advice there dude--Dont do it.Have you seen what happens to cages running snow tyres.
Wets need to be used in the WET -as in puddles of running water. They become slippery as all heck if they get hot.Eventually its like riding on ball bearings -I found this out at both Invercargill and ruapuna when the track dried out --I just wore my wets down--The fast guys had destroyed em --In 10 laps or 40km

[FzerozeroT]

I'll second that comment about the wets, intermediates are for what we would regard as rain, race wets are for dragging knee in an inch of water on a track that has no crown

***rumour time*** I heard that the construction of a PIRELLI SLICK is such that it is only designed for accelleration and decelleration, constant speeds may cause the tyre to start delaminating, in effect the tread may separate from the carcass and if this happens in a large enough area at a high enough velocity then the tread could be litterally ripped off the carcass, this is specifically why the PIRELLIS make good race tyres, but poor road tyres.

I hadn't heard anything about the different construction between supercorsas and slicks, in fact the discussion involved that a supercorsa is a poor road tyre as it IS a grooved slick and may suffer from the same issues, bear in mind that this is not any official word from any manufacturer, maybe Frostys contacts would like to supply some hard evidence?

Again the moral of the story is that a race slick is designed for a specific purpose (dry racetracks), and with those design parameters in mind come limitations in other environments (road, rain)

[idleidolidyll]

My advice there dude--Dont do it.Have you seen what happens to cages running snow tyres.
Wets need to be used in the WET -as in puddles of running water. They become slippery as all heck if they get hot.Eventually its like riding on ball bearings -I found this out at both Invercargill and ruapuna when the track dried out --I just wore my wets down--The fast guys had destroyed em --In 10 laps or 40km

Frosty, that was a flippant comment. Of course I'm not gonna use wets. I may not have used slicks when I was racing but I did use wets and know what to expect.
What I will likely do is use ex race proddy tyres; soft ones.

[idleidolidyll]

***rumour time*** I heard that the construction of a PIRELLI SLICK is such that it is only designed for accelleration and decelleration, constant speeds may cause the tyre to start delaminating, in effect the tread may separate from the carcass and if this happens in a large enough area at a high enough velocity then the tread could be litterally ripped off the carcass, this is specifically why the PIRELLIS make good race tyres, but poor road tyres.

I hadn't heard anything about the different construction between supercorsas and slicks, in fact the discussion involved that a supercorsa is a poor road tyre as it IS a grooved slick and may suffer from the same issues, bear in mind that this is not any official word from any manufacturer, maybe Frostys contacts would like to supply some hard evidence?

Again the moral of the story is that a race slick is designed for a specific purpose (dry racetracks), and with those design parameters in mind come limitations in other environments (road, rain)

Please read my comments above. I almost never use my bike for short runs; usual minimum is 200 kilometres.
As for these test tyres, they did a return trip to Whakatene from Auckland and were running at pretty much constant speeds for hours. They have also done a number of 200-400 kilometer road rides.
Frankly I can't see any validity in the delamination argument. The most arduous condition would be the most likely to delaminate the tyre and that is not constant speeds on NZ roads (90-120 kph). Very few to no road riders are likely to maintain constant speeds of 160+ etc so even considering that range is pointless.

There is no sign whatsoever that the tyres are delamniating or otherwise destroying themselves except for ordinary wear.

I'd have to say "Myth Busted" by the reality test frankly.

[Korumba]

Please read my comments above. I almost never use my bike for short runs; usual minimum is 200 kilometres.
As for these test tyres, they did a return trip to Whakatene from Auckland and were running at pretty much constant speeds for hours. They have also done a number of 200-400 kilometer road rides.
Frankly I can't see any validity in the delamination argument. The most arduous condition would be the most likely to delaminate the tyre and that is not constant speeds on NZ roads (90-120 kph). Very few to no road riders are likely to maintain constant speeds of 160+ etc so even considering that range is pointless.

There is no sign whatsoever that the tyres are delamniating or otherwise destroying themselves except for ordinary wear.

I'd have to say "Myth Busted" by the reality test frankly.

Not quite busted.... I find that after many high speed sustained runs I may have a bit of delamination but fixed this easy with a trip to Dick Smith http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.sto...uct/View/F1318
but make sure you take all the air out of your tyre before the relamination process as results may vary.