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Be realistic; select a tyre that suits your ability and what
you use the bike for. Road-legal race tyres are not for touring,
and squared-off touring tyres are no good for trackdays. Road
tyres work over a wide range of temperatures & conditions,
so while a race tyre may offer more grip when it’s hot,
it can offer less grip if you’re not going fast enough to
keep it hot. Road tyres also have a stronger construction, and
are more able to deal with varying conditions. Like most things,
it’s horses for courses.
Fast road & trackday use: We recommend
Pilot Power; it offers outstanding grip, lasts
well, works well in all conditions, and warms up very fast. You
can use Power Race instead (they are road legal), but they’re
not as good in the wet, you’ll have to be a fast rider to
gain an advantage on the track, and there’s no real advantage
on the road.
Trackday & race use: For trackdays, we
recommend Pilot Power for novice riders, and
Pilot Power 2CT or Power Race for fast/intermediate
riders. Pilot Power and Pilot Power 2CT is best if you do not
have tyre warmers, and they are very good in the wet as well,
so they make a great all-round track tyre. For club racing, we
recommend Power Race or slicks for dry conditions, Pilot Power
2CT for intermediate conditions, and Wets for full wet conditions.
Trackday & race slicks: Trackday slicks
were designed as an introduction to riding on slicks. They behave
in a similar way to treaded tyres; they’re stable, and work
over a wider temperature range than a racing slick. If you ride
fast enough to keep them hot, race slicks offer more grip, although
they have a more aggressive profile, which does help the bike
to turn faster, but can make it less stable. For trackdays and
club racing, we’d recommend a medium or medium-hard rear
and a medium or medium-soft front.
Trackdays in Spain: Spanish circuits tend to
be more abrasive (and therefore more grippy) than most UK circuits,
and both the ambient and the track temperatures are often higher
as well. All of this means that you tend to get more grip and
more tyre wear than you might in the UK, and you should therefore
consider using a harder compound tyre to compensate for the conditions.
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