Newbie question re tyres
Discussion
OK, I am embarrassed to ask but I need to know: when do I know race tyres are worn out? I am thinking about slicks in particular which don't have tread patterns. Obviously I will hide my head in shame when someone points out the bleedin'obvious. I also have some other desperately obvious questions to ask, maybe I will start a website ..
Hi there new boy. Slicks if you are doing it with a big budget you would have new ones every time you went out,most of us no budget racers use them until they are dead on the tyre you will see holes some tyres a round hole others a square one basically the wear bar the lower it gets the less rubber is left.
Hello Geoff
Just to add to J-P's comments, the 'holes' he refers to are effectively tread depth indicators and will start life at about 4 or 5 mm deep. They occur at intervals around the circumference of the tread and you'll usually see 3 off them across the width of the tread; left, centre and right. The idea is that by comparing the depth of the indicators across the width, you can judge what effect camber angles and inflation pressures are having on tread wear. If you look at a set of wets (which are usually hand-cut slicks) you'll see that the tread depth is actually deeper than the tread depth indicators. The implication of this is that the usable tread depth is greater than the depth of the indicators, though the scrutineers might take a dim view if they can't at least see a witness of the indicators
!
All that said, by the time you've run out of tread depth, the tyres will have gone through so many (vulcanising) heat cycles, that they'll be more like Bakelite than rubber and hence might be somewhat lacking in grip! so in practice, if you're racing, the tyres are past their useful best well before all the tread depth is used up. This is why pro teams pass on their quarter-worn tyres for a song.
Hope this helps
Laurence
Just to add to J-P's comments, the 'holes' he refers to are effectively tread depth indicators and will start life at about 4 or 5 mm deep. They occur at intervals around the circumference of the tread and you'll usually see 3 off them across the width of the tread; left, centre and right. The idea is that by comparing the depth of the indicators across the width, you can judge what effect camber angles and inflation pressures are having on tread wear. If you look at a set of wets (which are usually hand-cut slicks) you'll see that the tread depth is actually deeper than the tread depth indicators. The implication of this is that the usable tread depth is greater than the depth of the indicators, though the scrutineers might take a dim view if they can't at least see a witness of the indicators
! All that said, by the time you've run out of tread depth, the tyres will have gone through so many (vulcanising) heat cycles, that they'll be more like Bakelite than rubber and hence might be somewhat lacking in grip! so in practice, if you're racing, the tyres are past their useful best well before all the tread depth is used up. This is why pro teams pass on their quarter-worn tyres for a song.
Hope this helps
Laurence
Well here lies another story if your slicks are old i mean more than a couple of years old chuck them in the bin and start again with new ones or newer second hand ones the rubber goes off some may disagree with this but been there done it have gone from the worst handling bag of sh*t new rubber grip!!
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