Keeping your buns hot and sticky
So, you’ve done quite a few trackdays, gotten your suspension properly set-up and adjusted, you’ve been bumped into the advanced group and you’re looking to take that next step towards improving your machine’s handling. Perhaps you’ve reached the limits of performance that a street tire can provide and you’re interested in moving to a proper race tire. If this is the case, you might also want to consider investing in tire warmers.You might be thinking, “At $400+ a set, race tires are expensive enough!
Do I really need to shell out even more of my hard-earned loot for warmers?” The short answer is that you can get by without using warmers. Many riders do. The more complicated explanation is that without warmers, your race-compound tires may not last as long as they would have if you’d used warmers. Tire warmers can dramatically extend the life of your tires by reducing the number of heat cycles they go through during a given track day.Race compound tires are much grippier than a street based tire. Practically speaking, they’re shipped from the factory partially cured. Each time you use a race tire, it will generate heat as you corner and brake. When your session is over, the tire will cool back down. This is referred to as a “Heat Cycle.” Each heat cycle draws vital chemical compounds out of the rubber, effectively continuing the vulcanization process. Every concurrent heat cycle furthers this process, continually reducing the tire’s grip and elasticity. If warmers are used, you can decrease the amount of heat cycling your tires go through in a day because you don’t allow them to cool and cure after each session.Studies have determined that tire warmers will prolong the life of a tire considerably. I’ve personally found that warmers nearly double the life of my tires. By that measure, you can recoup the cost of the warmers within just two sets of tires. Using tire warmers can also help keep you safer by reducing your chances of having a “cold tire crash.” Heading out with fully warmed tires, you can run your normal pace right off the bat without wondering “are my tires going to stick?” or taking an extra two laps of your valuable track time at a reduced pace while you wait for your tires to reach a safe operating temperature. When you consider their tire-preserving ability and factor in the potential cost, pain and embarrassment of a cold tire crash, tire warmers start to look like an absolute bargain. If you choose to run race compound rubber, the decision to buy and use tire warmers becomes a no-brainer.
