Opinions on pirelli td’s and t-drives

I'd agree for beginners slicks are too much to think about. I don't know if you guys can remember what made you jump up a level. "Intermediate" is maybe a big category. Depends on where you're at and where you want to go. If you want to improve, I say try the slicks in warm weather for two reasons: On a V4 you can definitely get heat in the tires set up right not trying that hard. Reason 1, your street tires will be cooked after a track day becoming sketchy on the street; two track days and you can toss them. + showing up to the track with squared off street tires is wasting your day with a lot of "oh-...." feelings. You're not going to learn anything like that.
2, though slicks are more 'precision effort' you can raise your level of confidence and get a wider margin of ability.
So by "more precision effort" I mean you have to run tire warmers, have a routine before /after each track session, pay attention to your set up and learn to adjust tire pressure on the fly as your tires get the right heat in them or even get too hot. There are people at the track that can help you with that. It's not rocket science. And that may get you from low confidence intermediate to higher confidence intermediate. Get a 1 on 1 coach day, tire warmers and slicks your first track day and you'll learn all that and be executing on another level the rest of the Summer. If I read your story as "life is short, time to go for it." This is a next level. Also next level fun as well. My ¢.02

TomFoolery said:

Disagree. Better tires, used correctly (read: with warmers, on a bike with the suspension dialed for rider) are always better, no matter the rider's skill level. Sure, they are more expensive, but a guy tracking a V4 isn't living on a budget to begin with.

I generally dislike the "start on a slow bike, spend 5 years learning it, then move one click up and spend 5 more years, its all about rider blah blah" school of thought. Yes, its always the rider, but absolutely no reason to not give yourself every sensible advantage that you can. If you truly followed your advice, an SV650 is all the bike everyone south of MotoGP riders should need on track.

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False - this is not about spending money its about safety.
Simply put a race tire needs to maintain a certain temperature in order to operate effectively.
Race tires dissipate heat where the TD tire wont.
Once that slick is no longer within its operating temperature it will fail and your V4 is on the ground along with any bikes it get tangled with and any riders on those bikes.
I rode a TD tire for a long time and can verify that tire is amazing even at a high level.
I have written many Posts on this forum about those tires.

heres a review Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa TD Tire Review: Track Rubber

They don't even sell TDs in Europe. I guess it's true what they say here, "safety third!"
Cold tires bin bikes. No one is going to argue that. But a good track instructor will be able to tell a guy at the right time,
"Go see Pirelli service and meet me after lunch with slicks on. Achievement unlocked."
Leaving the story at, "Silly Rabbit, slicks are for kids!" is kind of a bummer.

Paul G said:

heres a review Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa TD Tire Review: Track Rubber

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Thanks for the review. I’m talking to a few folks now about getting a set. Surprisingly hard to find for some reason.

So I discovered that you need to order these like a set of slicks which is not what I expected so there’s that I guess. Mine are coming as part of a group order with some racers that I know. Still stupid cold in Michigan so we’ll see when I get out to give them a try.

cruzin2 said:

So I discovered that you need to order these like a set of slicks which is not what I expected so there’s that I guess. Mine are coming as part of a group order with some racers that I know. Still stupid cold in Michigan so we’ll see when I get out to give them a try.

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Where did you order them from? They are track tires so you have to order them from a track day vendor. I know a couple places that had them in stock and could ship to my house. With them being track day tires they can only ship in their region. So East Coast and West Coast.