Cold Tires Want To Stand The Bike Up

[Hotfoot]

OK, I have a question. I was riding someone else's bike on the track, first thing in the morning, on race take-off slicks. I was going slow on the sighting lap and noticed that I would turn the bike (set the lean angle) and if I relaxed on the bars, the bike would stand up. Whoa! I had to actually keep some pressure on the bar to keep the bike at the desired lean angle. I thought there was something wrong with the goeometry so I asked about it and the owner of the bike (very experienced rider) said, "Yeah, race slicks do that, when they're cold. They make the bike want to stand up. It will go away."

 

Well, sure enough once the tires warmed up that problem went completely away. So, what I want to know is WHY do they do that? I've certainly never noticed this on my own bike, but I don't run tires like those either.

[faffi]

Only thing I can think of is that they typically run very low pressure initially that increases as the tyres warms up, making the "walk" less and keep their profile better and also reduce friction (not grip).