I am a huge "Jason Pridmore" fan. Jason's star school is by far my favorite. After all these years I still savor the thought of sharing a 2-up ride on the pillion of Jason's bike shod with everyday street tires (Dunlop Q3's). I was reading an article Jason posted recently and thought it worth sharing.
Tire Choice
I made the joke this past weekend that I felt I had an advantage running my street compound Dunlop Q’3, pretty much all I ride on at our STAR school events. Many of us have bought into the idea that we have to have race slicks or race DOT’s for the track. What you have to remember is this; race tires are built to operate in an optimum temperature range. On 80+ degree days it is easy to keep the tire temp in your tires after they come off the warmers. On cooler days, depending on the rider, your tires are more likely to be operating below optimum ranges. Street compound tires as compared to race slicks or race DOT’s are easier to get into a heat range that most can ride at. I’ve heard some really bad advice from riders telling newbies they have to put the latest and greatest race tires on their bikes, but on cold days this couldn’t be any further from the truth.
Lastly, days that are chilly intimidate most people and they should. Everything is colder including the rider. I never see to many people doing jumping jacks to warm themselves up in the pits, haha. That said, you can still get a lot out of your day even if all you do is get close to that almighty PR you set last time you were at the track. These days are great practice days, don’t worry about lap times and speed so much, get that technique dialed and enjoy your day with friends. As your experience grows, colder days won’t matter so much to you because you will have gained the knowledge of how to handle things. Doing 24-hour races where temps got into the 30s at night really taught me a lot. Riding at night with temps that low while raining is a whole other thing and we’ll save that for another time.
Hope this helps you all and ride safe,
JP
Tire Choice
I made the joke this past weekend that I felt I had an advantage running my street compound Dunlop Q’3, pretty much all I ride on at our STAR school events. Many of us have bought into the idea that we have to have race slicks or race DOT’s for the track. What you have to remember is this; race tires are built to operate in an optimum temperature range. On 80+ degree days it is easy to keep the tire temp in your tires after they come off the warmers. On cooler days, depending on the rider, your tires are more likely to be operating below optimum ranges. Street compound tires as compared to race slicks or race DOT’s are easier to get into a heat range that most can ride at. I’ve heard some really bad advice from riders telling newbies they have to put the latest and greatest race tires on their bikes, but on cold days this couldn’t be any further from the truth.
Lastly, days that are chilly intimidate most people and they should. Everything is colder including the rider. I never see to many people doing jumping jacks to warm themselves up in the pits, haha. That said, you can still get a lot out of your day even if all you do is get close to that almighty PR you set last time you were at the track. These days are great practice days, don’t worry about lap times and speed so much, get that technique dialed and enjoy your day with friends. As your experience grows, colder days won’t matter so much to you because you will have gained the knowledge of how to handle things. Doing 24-hour races where temps got into the 30s at night really taught me a lot. Riding at night with temps that low while raining is a whole other thing and we’ll save that for another time.
Hope this helps you all and ride safe,
JP
