Another Tyre Question

[acebobby]

OK so I am in the middle of turning my CBR600RR into a designated track bike, have spent a chunk of money on brake lines, brake pads, suspension components front and rear and a few other bits and bobs!

The issue has been raised that I should probably buy a spare set of wheels and stick a set of wets on them, I am an intermediate rider and dont use tyre warmers, and had it in mind that I'd be fine running a good all round road tyre like I have been previously, i.e. qualifiers, pilot powers 2ct etc etc, due to budget thats what I'l be doing this season anyway.

but what do you guys think, are wets on wheels worth having?

 

Bobby

[khp]

OK so I am in the middle of turning my CBR600RR into a designated track bike, have spent a chunk of money on brake lines, brake pads, suspension components front and rear and a few other bits and bobs!

The issue has been raised that I should probably buy a spare set of wheels and stick a set of wets on them, I am an intermediate rider and dont use tyre warmers, and had it in mind that I'd be fine running a good all round road tyre like I have been previously, i.e. qualifiers, pilot powers 2ct etc etc, due to budget thats what I'l be doing this season anyway.

but what do you guys think, are wets on wheels worth having?

It sure depends on how wet the weather is in general

 

Since you're running on street tyres, they should work fine in the rain as well. Sure, you probably won't be able to ride with your knee down in the rain, but then again .... would you want to?

 

Personally, I lived happily without extra wheels for wet weather from 2003 to 2008. The only reason I have extra wheels now is that they came with the new (used) R6 I bought a year ago.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Kai

[Bullet]

OK so I am in the middle of turning my CBR600RR into a designated track bike, have spent a chunk of money on brake lines, brake pads, suspension components front and rear and a few other bits and bobs!

The issue has been raised that I should probably buy a spare set of wheels and stick a set of wets on them, I am an intermediate rider and dont use tyre warmers, and had it in mind that I'd be fine running a good all round road tyre like I have been previously, i.e. qualifiers, pilot powers 2ct etc etc, due to budget thats what I'l be doing this season anyway.

but what do you guys think, are wets on wheels worth having?

 

Bobby

 

Hi Bobby,

 

You see a lot of people running wets and spare wheels, and for the most part, it's a bit of a waste in performance them, the main reason being is that in order to really use wets, you really need to work them hard. If you think you can ride on wets on in the rain, very close to what you can road tyres in the dry, you'll have some idea of the level of brain commitment that it takes to get to using them properly.

 

Now all the performance may not get used I guess, but your other quetsion probably needs to be, if I have wets, and don't use them that well, will they still be more secure than road tyres in the rain? Answer, yes, undoubtedly. So there is an offest here, worth the money for the tyres 225 quid, plus probably 400-500 for spare wheels, plus brake discs, etc, etc? Not sure that security is worth it myself, but its a personal decsision for sure. What's a low side crash likely to cost you...?

 

last thing to think about is about learning about traction and feel. You'll learn very little in the rain with that level of security, you could learn loads on road tyres....

 

Tricky one eh?

 

Personally, I use them, but for years i didn't.

 

Bullet

[Kevin Kane]

OK so I am in the middle of turning my CBR600RR into a designated track bike, have spent a chunk of money on brake lines, brake pads, suspension components front and rear and a few other bits and bobs!

The issue has been raised that I should probably buy a spare set of wheels and stick a set of wets on them, I am an intermediate rider and dont use tyre warmers, and had it in mind that I'd be fine running a good all round road tyre like I have been previously, i.e. qualifiers, pilot powers 2ct etc etc, due to budget thats what I'l be doing this season anyway.

but what do you guys think, are wets on wheels worth having?

 

Bobby

Bobby;

First I need to say that I have become a Dunlop guy so just insert the comparable tire name from Pirelli, Michelin, Bridgestone etc. in my post. That said I would like to offer my thoughts on your question.

 

I have the set-up you describe (Dunlop wets/rims/rotors) but have never used it not even once. After I rode at the two day camp at Laguna Seca with a set of new Dunlop Qualifiers in the rain, I realized that the Q's were much better suited than full on rains because they adapt to changing conditions better than the rains ever could. At Laguna the rains eventually stopped giving way to the sun and the Q's took it all in stride. In the rain, the Q's were very predictable and gave great feedback so learning to find their/my limits in the wet was exhilarating. There is no better way (IMHO) to learn about the benefits of good throttle control then riding in the rain. The Q’s seemed perfectly suited in the wet and when the track was drying, their grip stayed solid; when it was completely dry, they were awesome. BTW, day 2 saw the weather reversed when it started dry and ended wet. Same results however.

 

My reason for buying this set up was for racing; that's the only reason why I kept it but for track days or Schools, the Q's (or other manufacturer’s equivalent ) are the way to go IMHO.

 

Rainman

[acebobby]

Thanks for the feed back guys, some really good points made!

 

Bullet,

I am more keen in learning about traction and feel than having the security of full wets I think, every time I go on track I am working on improving some area of my riding, so when it rains I should look at that as an opportunity to use good throttle control and search for the traction limits! A section from TOTW 1 that stuck in my head where Keith wrote "for your own instructional purpose, I suggest using a tire and rim combination that will allow you to slide the bike around at your level of riding" I know Keith wasn't talking about wet weather riding when he wrote this but it does hold some relevance in this topic.

The extra security of the wets is appealing though but I think learning more about the traction limits would be more rewarding long term!

 

Kevin,

You have made an excellent point about the way the road tyres adapt to changing conditions, this is something I should have thought about as at my last track day of 2009 the weather was unsettled, it would rain then partly dry out then rain again, it did this for the whole day so in the paddock there were loads of guys that reckoned it was too dry for full wets but too wet for their dry tyres, throughout the day I got a lot of good quality track time on an almost empty track as I had dunlop qualifiers on so wasn't too bothered about the weather, I just went out and had fun while some people never got much track time at all.

 

Thanks guys thats got that idea out of my head, saved me spending even more money on my bike, will spend it on track time instead lol!

 

Bobby