[gunther19820]

Just did my first track day. Tires are Michelin Pilot Powers, maybe 900 street miles on rear, unknown street mileage on front. Suspension has been set to my weight.

After my first session, brought the pressure down to 31 front/ 28 rear. I think the tires look fine, but a few guys told me my pressure was too high.

What do you guys think?

Fronts:

Rears:

 

[7 Summits]

Tire pressure depends on brand and type of tire (road, track, or road/track). The surface of the track or road, the ambient temperature and track surface temperature. How hard you are pushing the bike and lastly, it will come down to your feel. The only way to know what the best tire pressure for yourself is trial and error. I've never used Pilot Powers but you are in the right ballpark. Again, depends on all of the above though.

 

[gunther19820]

So this leads me to my next question- how do you know when your pressure is off? What warning signs are you looking for?

 

[tye1138]

Most of the time when you see wear like that, its caused by the tire being heated too fast and getting over heated in certain parts. Generally speaking, too low of a pressure would over heat much easier then too high. Something was going on with the rear tire suspension wise. Looks like the tire was hopping around, probably under breaking and looks like you've got a rebound issue as well. You can tell because rebound issues show up as wear on the grooves of DOT tires. So perhaps the pressures were too high and it caused the tire to hop around. That's very likely, but you'd feel that when riding for sure.

Remember, a hot tire on the track is at least 2 psi more then a cold tire. So that means 30psi hot, which is way too much.

 

[jtdbsr]

The front looks ok, but the rear does not. Was your suspension setup hot or cold?

Check out this link:

Race Track Motorcycle Tyre Wear Guide - Types and Causes

Search Youtube for Dave Moss videos. They are even better than the link I posted.

 

[gunther19820]

Yeah I was checking after the sessions, so I know the tires were hot.

And Im sure some of it is totally my fault, not knowing the correct lines through the corners caused me to ride much harder than I should have

 

[rubbish]

Front is fine, rear's not too terrible, but I'm not familiar with those tires. Try and look up what the suggested pressure is for that tire for track use, and make sure you know if that's cold or hot. The difference can be pretty important, although since it was your first track day, I expect your tires never really got hot...warm yes, but not really hot.

 

[gunther19820]

you are probably right.

 

[Tchase]

Shot of mine (same tire)

Ambient temp was under 70 degrees

 

[X I M]

Too much trail.