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Q3 Street Pressure

6275 Views 8 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  cb4265
OK. I'm sure this has been covered before, but....

What pressures are optimal for the street on the 1098?

The MOM says 2.2 Bar front and 2.3 Bar rear (well, it actually says kg/cm2, but damn, they are almost the same thing...) but when I look up the pressures on Dunlop's website (http://www.dunlop***************/fitment-guide/search?type=fitment&make=8&model=191&year=203&submit= )
they recommend 36F/42R in PSI. That's a little above the 31F/33R (approx) in the manual.

Thoughts?
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A lot of variables here as you know, but I run 33-34 front & 36 PSI Rear, some have said that is too hard as they have a stiffish side wall and makes for an uncomfortable ride, any lower I would be afraid of cupping that I experienced with PR2's.
I probably need to understand the 20% rule better to comment further, maybe Shazam will chime in.

Craig
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I found this kind of funny....This is what dunlopracing.com says about these tires on the track:
"If you are riding on the street, read your owners manual for recommended tire pressures. If you are riding on the race track, a good starting point is 32 front and 32 rear cold. After riding on the track and before you go on the street, let your tires cool, then adjust back to the pressures recommended in your bikes owners manual."

So, basically the street pressures are about the same as the track pressures.

I think for now I'll go with what Craig has and see how it feels. I'm not too concerned about the life of the center of the tire, the edges are getting hammered from the track time they have seen so far, which is I think 4 track days at Miller. I'm not the fastest guy out there, but I'm not the slowest either.
What pressures are you running at the track days?

And what ambient temps?

Craig
31F/31R with ambients in the upper 80s.
A number of years back the tire manufacturers got together and agreed to just recommend one set of tire pressures which I recall being the 36F-42R. Keep in mind that these pressures are just a starting point and the numbers are high enough to avoid legal problems with premature tire failures due to under-inflation.

The motorcycle manufacturers recommend their own set of pressures specific to the OEM tires they install. When a bike manufacturer is developing a new model their test riders will determine what pressures in their opinion, best suit the new model. The recommended pressures are the best for general street (not track) riding, so you can increase grip somewhat by reducing pressures.

Further, you'll notice that there are higher recommended tire pressures for Japanese in-line fours versus Ducati twins. In-line fours heat up their tires more than a twin so a higher starting pressure is needed to prevent overheating the tires, particularly the rear tire.

Years ago, superbike racers discovered that it was easier to modulate the power to prevent wheel-spin on the Ducati V-twins than it was to do the same on the Japanese inline-fours. This is because there is a longer interval (in terms of both time and crankshaft rotation) between cylinders firing, which gives the rear tire a "break" - time to recover traction and match its speed to that of the motorcycle.

More recently, more sophisticated traction control systems have been used – they reduce tire temperatures, improve tire life and lap times.

As an example, here's what Bridgestone says:

When bike manufacturers are developing a new model they have approximately 3 years during which time their test riders will be able to determine what pressures in their opinion, best suit solo and (if different) pillion riding. They are also generally only working with two tyre manufacturers who will become the original equipment (OE) suppliers. Bike manufacturers usually launch no more than three new models a year.

Bridgestone has approximately 4,000 different tyre approvals in our fitment guide so, as with all other tyre manufacturers, we obviously only have limited time to test each bike so we test for the one set of pressures that work well whether solo or with a pillion. It would be irresponsible of a tyre (or bike) manufacturer to recommend pressures that did not give optimum stability, and higher pressures lead to greater stability. If we were, due to the aforementioned time constrictions, to only recommend pressures for solo use and then a rider took a passenger along without increasing pressures, and suffered the consequent instability that may occur, it would be the tyre company that would be held to blame.

The higher pressures we recommend are perfect for commuting, touring, motorways, general riding and pillion use. The only area where you could possibly increase grip by reducing pressures is solo sport riding, and then not by a heck of a lot.

One other point - we are recommending pressures that our test riders have found best for our tyres on, in your case, a 999. Ducati have never tested BT010s on a 999 and because of the different way each type of tyre behaves, what's to say that Ducati's recommended pressures will work with our tyres?

By the way, we used a 999 as one of the bikes for our recent BT-014 launch and they suited the bike perfectly. The BT-014 is the tyre that will replace the BT-010.

Bridgestone UK Motorcycle Technical & Sales

The Best Tire Pressure

Tire Pressure - ducati.org forum | the home for ducati owners and enthusiasts
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THIS IS FROM DUNLOPS PAGE, I GOOGLED DUNLOP Q3 PRESSURES AND FOUND THIS

Tire pressures for Q3-Q2’s? And do I use a tire warmer on them?

If you are riding on the street, read your owners manual for recommended tire pressures. If you are riding on the race track, a good starting point is 32 front and 32 rear cold. After riding on the track and before you go on the street, let your tires cool, then adjust back to the pressures recommended in your bikes owners manual, Warmers are optional, but if you choose to use them, you can get tire warmer recommendations here http://www.dunlopracing.com/Warmers.pdf .

I think I am close @ 33-34 front and I might reduce the rear to 35 and see how it feels.

Craig
Look up like 4 or 5 posts...
Look up like 4 or 5 posts...
oops

Cheers
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