Race/road tire temperatures

[Ho Lee Kau]

I was watching MotoGP and I have heard the comment that race slicks get up to 100-140C temp.

What temp do the road tires get up to in a hot summer?
Obviously the compounds are different between proper race tires and normal road tires, but at what temperature do the road tires start "to work".
Say M7RR or RS, the comments are often that they warm up quickly on the road, but what does it mean?

[Biker 1]

Pour water on your hot tyres & see if it turns to steam!

[Tango13]

Biker 1 said:

Pour water on your hot tyres & see if it turns to steam!

Back in the days of the Metzler me33/99 I could get the tyres hot enough to get steam off them if it was damp.

In fairness they were a cross ply tyre so the carcass had a lot more flex in it compared to a modern radial.

[curlie467]

Uber tyre warmers reach the green setting at 80°.
That useless nugget of info is of no use to anyone as is the commentator stating that motogp tyres reach those temps.
M7rr, they basically reach their working temperature zone quickly.

[308mate]

Road tyres have a very narrow window of operation which is between 78 and 86 degree C (measured at the centre, at 13mm depth with one of those special pointy thermometers you see in MotoGP - just push it in, its fine). You need to really take time to get some warmth into the carcass, not just the tread before they start to grip. I personally would recommend pronounced weaving and hard accelerations and stops in your cul-de-sac, before going out. That's what every other person on a motorbike who isn't crashing constantly, is doing before they go out. How else do you think they don't crash? INSTANT DEATH AWAITS THE UNWEARY!
















FFS.

[anonymous-user]

I thought the OP asked a reasonable question, don't see why the negative reply, we all know there is little relationship between race and road tyres. I live about 3 mile from a twisty motor way into the city (M40/M4 into London sort of thing), Ridding from the house I on my old ZXR I could happily ride at 80Mph on the bends, One day I went from an office that was literally 100M from the start of the motor way and had serious issues with the bike running wide on the first bend, Even the 3 mile across city ride made a difference to grip levels.
Taught me a valuable lesson and I am now extra careful for the first 5 miles or so.

[308mate]

Berw said:

I thought the OP asked a reasonable question, don't see why the negative reply, we all know there is little relationship between race and road tyres. I live about 3 mile from a twisty motor way into the city (M40/M4 into London sort of thing), Ridding from the house I on my old ZXR I could happily ride at 80Mph on the bends, One day I went from an office that was literally 100M from the start of the motor way and had serious issues with the bike running wide on the first bend, Even the 3 mile across city ride made a difference to grip levels.
Taught me a valuable lesson and I am now extra careful for the first 5 miles or so.

I would suggest your running wide issue were more a function of not yet having your eye in, than lack of grip. Unless you held a front wheel slide on a motorway on-ramp? The main road is half a mile from my driveway. When I exit the side street onto it in the morning even at around 7 degrees C, I can pull straight out onto it and hoik a 1st gear minger. The same is possible in the wet (try it). So why careful for 5 miles? Why not 6? Why not 4? Its unquantifiable woo-woo.

Sorry, but of all the bks spouted in biking (and there's a lot), the road tyre temp issue is my pet hate. What if I told you there was a temp they "started to work" at? How would you know when you've reached it? Pull over and test it at the road side (quickly because they'd be cooling down all the time!)? Put your hand on it ('cause that's accurate)? And is it tread temp or carcass temp?

Unless it bloody freezing (I start second guessing it at sub 5 degrees C), on dry roads under normal or even spirited conditions it just isn't something you need to worry about. Worry far, far more about tyre pressures.

[anonymous-user]

I agree road tyres have a wide temp range, I car race a fair bit and I appreciate race tyres are completely different, My experience is it took around 5 miles of fairly easy ridding to get heat to a grip level I'm happy to play around at on my ZXR, Most of the fast roads around where I live are that sort of distance from my house, as I say when I tried the same speed on a cold tyre I had an issue never before never since,
I agree road tyres have grip from the off,and you don't get the big difference you do with race tyres, but they do 'warm up' to an optimal point, As I said I thought the OP asked a good question and I put my experience.
Race tyres the difference after a race lap is huge and I'm not saying you will get that sort of difference on a road tyre.
My ZXR won the national super bike championship (not with me on it), which does not allow slicks, but requires road tyres i bought it one year old and put it on the road, thinking about it the experience i described it did have the tyres it had raced on as I keptto these through out my ownership and they were the nearest thing to track tyres the previous owner could get, so maybe not a true example of the sort of tyres you may run in the UK on the road but lots of people run 'track day' tyres. (Don't asl me what tyres they were I tried to remember and can't)
I no longer have that bike but have gone to a cruiser with a big tread road tyre (old age) I don't push that so I've never seen any difference between cold and hot tyres.
I've also done my share of track day instruction in cars I can assure you grip levels go up on road tyres after a lap,