Tire Opinion ~ Looking for a good street tires that will do 1 or 2 track days a year | GTAMotorcycle.com

Tire Opinion ~ Looking for a good street tires that will do 1 or 2 track days a year

chiller

chiller

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Due to lack of space in the garage, I'm selling my dedicated track bike.

However, I'd still like to TRY and get out to the track once or twice per summer if possible. I'm a bit out of date with what is the general opinion on tires for this type of scenario ?

- Track wise - I usually ride either Medium group ... occasionally slow group if the medium group is way too fast ~ sometimes I find the hot shoe group is overflowed and they put the slower of the hot shoe in with us in Medium
- Street - I will not be ripping it on the street and I don't really want to wait forever for tires to get up to temperature either. Might be a rain day in the mix if I get caught in the rain.

What I am seeing are these currently available :

Bridgestone S20
Dunlop Q3 (is it any good in the rain ? it looks like it is devoid of any tread by comparison to others)
Michelin Pilot Powers (is the 3 that much better then the 2 ? I have used 2's before for the street / track before)
Metzeler M7RR
Pirelli Diablo Rosso II

Thoughts are appreciated ... but telling me to get separate rims with slicks or a dedicated track bike is a moot point, not going to happen.
 
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Q3 gets my vote, especially if price is a consideration. Despite the minimal sipes, the ones that exist are said to channel water better than Q2. I've got a set ready to go on in the spring.
 
well so far we have :

3x Q3
1x S20
1x Diablo's

What's the warm up time like on the Q3's ? Is it near instant if you are doing 'regular' street riding ?
 
Move to a house with a bigger garage or get rid of stuff. Selling a bike is not the answer.
 
JayV's team did an endurance race on a set of Q3's last yr.
I was amazed at how fast they can be ridden.
Track days have short sessions so they will be great- In an endurance race with extended riding, they can get greasy when overheated.
 
I've found that the Q3 will slip suddenly in left/right transitions or if you're standing the bike up in a dual corner, where the bike is still under heavy side load (turning) but on the strip of long-wearing rubber in the middle of the tire. At an intermediate or better pace, you'll slide in areas like exit of corner 2 and approaching corner 4 at Shannonville Long Track. It's managable, but notable.

If you ride at that pace, I recommend the Diablo Supercorsa. I've heard people say the Rosso Corsa is as good or better, but i haven't experienced it. The Supercorsa, to me, was like riding on a racing tire with marginally less grip. You could almost do race pace on that tire, and it exhibited none of that mid-tire slip that I have found on the Q3 (but much worse on the year old Q2s I had on the Tuono!) Whether this will factor in or not entirely depends on the pace and riding style you use.
 
dricked said:
Move to a house with a bigger garage or get rid of stuff. Selling a bike is not the answer.
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I have a double car garage ... with 4 bikes inside with snowblower, lawn mower ... moving to a 3 car is not in my price range. So I have to downwize the fleet to 3 ...

also the track bike has to go (already pending sale) ... I haven't used it in 2 years (other then to go up and down the street from time to time) ... This is a fact of life with kids in the house now a days. Have a sport bike in the house that can do 1 or 2 track days a summer will be good enough.

How many bikes do you have ?
 
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omnivore said:
JayV's team did an endurance race on a set of Q3's last yr.
I was amazed at how fast they can be ridden.
Track days have short sessions so they will be great- In an endurance race with extended riding, they can get greasy when overheated.
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Shaman said:
I've found that the Q3 will slip suddenly in left/right transitions or if you're standing the bike up in a dual corner, where the bike is still under heavy side load (turning) but on the strip of long-wearing rubber in the middle of the tire. At an intermediate or better pace, you'll slide in areas like exit of corner 2 and approaching corner 4 at Shannonville Long Track. It's managable, but notable.

If you ride at that pace, I recommend the Diablo Supercorsa. I've heard people say the Rosso Corsa is as good or better, but i haven't experienced it. The Supercorsa, to me, was like riding on a racing tire with marginally less grip. You could almost do race pace on that tire, and it exhibited none of that mid-tire slip that I have found on the Q3 (but much worse on the year old Q2s I had on the Tuono!) Whether this will factor in or not entirely depends on the pace and riding style you use.
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Noted, thanks guys.

Shaman, I tried the SuperCorsa's before and while they may be great on the track, I didn't really like it on the street. It was fine on dry if you let it warm up (i found) but wet didn't have enough confidence for me.
 
I know going against general opinion is wrong on here and all but for what it's worth I had q3's and absolutely hated them in the rain. They're terrible. Dry they weren't bad but at the end of the day I went back to pilot power 3's. Yes they're that much better than 2's at least on the street and way better than the dunlop in the rain. I haven't been on the track with them yet.
 
Based on Shaman's feedback alone it sounds like I would go with the Supercorsa (no personal experience with any of these, just throwing peanuts)

How big of a concern is warm-up time on the street for you? I ask because the last time I even had to ever think about it was when I was using a prehistoric Mezteler Z2 rear with a Z4 front. That and the odd bike that broke 50hp but could only use bias-ply tires.
 
TwistedKestrel said:
Based on Shaman's feedback alone it sounds like I would go with the Supercorsa (no personal experience with any of these, just throwing peanuts)

How big of a concern is warm-up time on the street for you? I ask because the last time I even had to ever think about it was when I was using a prehistoric Mezteler Z2 rear with a Z4 front. That and the odd bike that broke 50hp but could only use bias-ply tires.
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Personally, my street riding is not about getting a knee down or doing ramps (anymore LOL) ... I just want to not have to think about the warm up as I am heading out of the house. I have run ST tires for years and you could do that... I realize that sport tires you need to wait a bit first ... a few KM's at least but the less the better. I used PP 2CT's without issues ... also Pilot Pures with no issues and also the older Metzeler M3's before and also had no problems. But only the PP 2CT's and Pures for 1 track day.
 
chiller said:
I have a double car garage ... with 4 bikes inside with snowblower, lawn mower ... moving to a 3 car is not in my price range. So I have to downwize the fleet to 3 ...

also the track bike has to go (already pending sale) ... I haven't used it in 2 years (other then to go up and down the street from time to time) ... This is a fact of life with kids in the house now a days. Have a sport bike in the house that can do 1 or 2 track days a summer will be good enough.

How many bikes do you have ?
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4 (2 race bikes and 2 dirt bikes) and a snowmibile which is for sale for another dirt bike so I can use one of my current ones to ice race next winter. Oh I also have 9 month old kid and a wife. If you weren't using it then I understand....almost.
 
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On the street and in the rain, the Supercorsas do take longer to warm up and are not great in rain. You just have to look at them, to see why. As I don't do much rain riding on purpose, this really hasn't bothered me. That being said, I don't think Q3s are particularly great in rain, either.

Also, it didn't happen to my bike, but I have seen three bikes now where Q3s were literally coming apart at the track. It usually starts out as a crack going directly across the tire and then branches out. I took pictures of two of the bikes last year and they're on the Track Fanatics group on Facebook... FB wouldn't let me link direct. A bit worrisome since Q3s are what my RSV4 has on it and I did three track days last year on them (two short sessions and one fairly long one due to a track bike subframe issue), and as I said, my bike didn't exhibit it. Dunlop says that it's due to under-inflation, but at least one of the bikes was running 33PSI hot (as I was checking for him).

I went back to Supercorsas for the RSV4, FWIW... I don't mind warming them up a bit before playing, all the good roads are 10 minutes away and one lap around the track will bring them up to a decent enough temp. Not sure what tire I will put on the Tuono yet but now that I've had it 7 full seasons, it's going to see more track time, so I'll probably switch it over as well.

I have no personal experience with the Bridgestone S20s but I have heard good things about them.
 
I've had Q3, but cannot wait to use PP .... Q3 is very stiff and likes warmer temps as well as drier weather. The Michelin seems to be better in all categories except for price. The difference is not large though.
 
Rory, I have some cheap scrubs with good tread in the garage if you want to go that route.

For me the only tire for the street is a pilot road 3 or 4, The Q3 or S20 might be ok for the weekend rider but not as an all rounder like the Michelin's.
 
chiller said:
How many bikes do you have ?
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4. Soon to be 5. I have a one-and-a-half car garage. All bikes plus my trailer will fit in there. Use shelves efficiently ...

Anyhow, at a medium-group track day pace, you can really use just about anything. Even a Michelin Pilot Road 3 will be fine.

Bridgestone S20 - haven't tried. Didn't like their predecessor (BT016). Really like the BT003RS. I have those on my cbr125 now, around 7000 km on them including a Pennsylvania trip, still quite a bit left.
Pirelli Diablo Rosso - good grip, but will wear like mad. I bought an ex-race set for my cbr125 and they were done to the cords in 7000 km, although that included one Deals Gap trip.
Dunlop Q3 - I have a set of these now on my 400, which has about 5300 km on them including one Deals Gap trip. They're about 2/3 worn. The mid-corner issue that Shaman mentions isn't something I've noticed in street riding, including at Deals Gap. I haven't tried them on the track. Seem OK in wet conditions. I also have a set on my zx10r, but they were only installed late last fall. The only thing I can tell is that if it is both cold and wet (December 27th ride), they don't have much grip - but not much else would, either. And this is on a bike that makes all roads seem slippery.
Metzeler - haven't tried.

If it is mostly-street and occasional medium-group track day, I'd give the Pilot Road 3 a go. They'll last decently. Just don't try doing an endurance race on them, they'll probably overheat.
 
I didn't notice the Q3s slipping on the street either, Brian. It was strictly on the track and it was when I was breaking into the 2:00 mark lap times that I started getting slides. The front never moved with the Q3s (unlike the Q2s) but the rear was stepping out quickly under throttle and side load in 2/4/7/8 @ Shannonville where you are in a relatively long corner but under power on exit, in a lower gear. That's right on the edge of intermediate pace, so really, not bad for a street tire... but the Supercorsas did none of that even, when they were badly worn. Didn't help that I had the traction control set to 1 & the race ecu load, it allows quite a lot of slip...

I got it on video, but there's no point in posting it, since you can't tell unless I point out the spots.

Re: BT016 mentioned above... ugh. I had a set of BT015s on my 750 and then BT016s. We're well rid of those tires.
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