Lydden 18th April

[Red Herring]

With my experience round there it would have been rude not to have been in the race group. I did drop back into the inters group for the last session to be with my mates....and the fact that I didn't have a back tyre left. That's the only problem with Lydden, you can easily do two back tyres on a good day round there.

I was in the novice group, as it was only my second trackday.

But I agree with how aggressive the surface is. Can you recommend any tyres at all?

Ive been using BT-016s, and to be honest I don't think I'll be outriding them anytime soon.

[Red Herring]

Just about any decent supersport road tyre is a good compromise unless you are only going to use them on the track. There is this belief that you need super sticky track tyres to ride quickly on the road but in fact unless it's a hot day and you are taking serious liberties then they are not as good as their "lesser" brothers. Track tyres only work well when up to temperature and the sort of heat they are designed to be subject to on the track will rarely been found on the road. Road tyres on the other hand are designed to work across a broad spectrum of heat ranges and provided not stone cold will always work with a degree of predictability.
I use Dunlop D209 qualifiers on my SV and they are brilliant on the road, and will easily hang in there with the front of the intermediate group on the track.

I did Lydden on my Dunlop Roadsmarts and never had an issue. Although I was right on the edge of both tyres so I don't think I could have pushed much harder. 9,000 miles and still good for a track day is pretty impressive!

Warm up time is something I always consider when buying a road tyre. I think it's the most important aspect when you consider that our roads in the UK are cold most of the year!