tyre warmers for winter

good or bad idea just to put on half hour before leaving in the mornings ?

i live down a notoriously ice'y road in the winter parents suggested it could be a good idea, your opinions please

[DarrenSV650S]

Install under-road heating

^ ha ....

Bad idea.

In poor conditions you want increasing grip, not decreasing grip. If you go out of tyres that have been warmed the pressures will be too high and then as the tyre cools, will drop. As the tyre temperature drops the grip will diminish and so the grip you thought you had isn't there any more. the footprint and tyre contact patch will also change.

... and there's also an argument that a hot tyre will melt the ice faster in the fraction of a second its in contact with it producing a worse dangerous ice/water situation. A cold tyre can roll over ice without melting it and so would have *more* grip than a hot one.

This is the argument with racing wets. Do you go out on them cold and know how much grip you'll have as a minimum from lap one or do you put the warmers on and have lots of grip for the first three corners before they cool and you lose grip during the race. Wets only come with recommended cold pressures, not hot ones.

C

thanks thats the sort of answer i was after

[yorkie_chris]

Carls argument is good one.

Other point is, doesn't matter how hot your tyres are if it is icy, you'll fall off either way!

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

Carls argument is good one.

Other point is, doesn't matter how hot your tyres are if it is icy, you'll fall off either way!

Yeh I would be thinking that leaving the bike on an icy day is the only sure fire way to not fall off....

i have a quad for those ice/snow days but havent got my car license yet so im going to end up using the bike forthe first part of winter and dont want to bin it again

Originally Posted by Berlin

Bad idea.

In poor conditions you want increasing grip, not decreasing grip. If you go out of tyres that have been warmed the pressures will be too high and then as the tyre cools, will drop. As the tyre temperature drops the grip will diminish and so the grip you thought you had isn't there any more. the footprint and tyre contact patch will also change.

... and there's also an argument that a hot tyre will melt the ice faster in the fraction of a second its in contact with it producing a worse dangerous ice/water situation. A cold tyre can roll over ice without melting it and so would have *more* grip than a hot one.

This is the argument with racing wets. Do you go out on them cold and know how much grip you'll have as a minimum from lap one or do you put the warmers on and have lots of grip for the first three corners before they cool and you lose grip during the race. Wets only come with recommended cold pressures, not hot ones.

C

Wets do actually work better in warmers on advice i got from Pirelli when running in the british supersport at brands earlier in the year when our first session was wet. Put on bike 45mins before use and set pressures hot as you would on dry tyres. The rubber needs a certain amount of heat to start working and the warmers start this process off. You need as much heat in wets as you can as its the heat that generates the grip. The blocks will also move to generate heat but their main aim is to clear water away from the surface that is in contact with the tarmac.

Oh and for the road, no point, firstly road tyres arent designed to run with warmers and the heat would be lost very quickly.

Hi Sarah.

And I plumbed on the side of "Stick the warmers on and have good grip for three corners"

I set my pressures cold (31psi front and back) then stick the warmers on.

C