Hypersport vs Slicks : The Track Day Tire Decision

Yeah, but we also got a question for someone who rides at our local track. I ride a duck, we both know him and he had a great question. So I believe it was a cooler day and he had a little front end slide, uh, but was able to save it, thankfully he's got good reflexes, um, and, and avoided a crash, but his question was, Hey, I run basically street hypersport tires, but I do a lot of track days and I'm probably going to do even more next season. Am I to the point where I should start thinking about race tires and get away from just the hypersport tires? Um, which again, I think this is a great question. We have a lot of questions that comes up a lot, right? And it's, you know, champ school. And I don't know if I necessarily agree with the champ school line on this one, but they're basically, uh, run hypersport tires that you're never going to outperform a hypersport tire. And I think to a certain point, yes, that's true, but I think there's more to it than just that. Yeah. So I would say conditions can influence this greatly, right? I lived in Washington and I raised a Washington where rain showers happen on a regular basis. Having some amount of tread on my tires is probably something I want to make sure I do. It's also going to be cooler temps typically. So the temperature isn't nearly as much of a factor where we are and where a lot of tracks are, and even in cool temperatures, so, but the temperature is a factor and you're going to get your tires to overheat if you're running hypersport tires. So for example, we live in Utah at elevation. We ride at Utah more sport campus. That track gets hot in the summer. And with the elevation that we're at the high desert, it's really, really hot. You will absolutely overheat a hypersport tire. If you're doing full sessions and you're riding hard, we've seen it happen. Absolutely. And you'll see tires start to degrade fairly quickly in those conditions. Even, even street tires will, um, in those conditions, the heat does matter. Uh, but even outside of just the heat and dealing with that, the, the performance is going to hit a ceiling and start to drop off quite a bit. Once they start getting hot, they, when they get too hot, they start to feel very greasy. And it's not so much that they're just like terrifying slides. You just have this kind of like less, less grip, less hooked up, more kind of drifting kind of feeling. Um, and it starts to take away a bit of the fun too, from the whole experience. Right. When you're worried about your tires. Yeah. Cause tires are one thing you should never, ever scrimp on. It's your contact with the ground. Um, but there's, there's three choices, right? You basically can do a hyper sport tire, which you and I we've done that. There's also D O T race tires, and then you have full on race slicks. Now. I favor, I favor slicks and I favor slicks for a couple of reasons, not necessarily for the all out grip, but number one, slicks are a little bit easier on setup. They're not so sensitive to suspension settings because the sipes actually create extra flex points in the tire. So it'll sometimes make things a little easier, but more important than that is, um, when you have slicks, you do have to run tire warmers and that actually helps the tire last longer because it's going through fewer heat cycles. So. As I, as crazy as it sounds, I, for you and I, or at least for me, the slicks are the cheaper option in the long run, because I can get more life out of them. I can, I can take care of them a little bit better. Yeah. And, and I 100% agree that I would probably just steer away from D O T race tires because you have the expense of slicks in that they basically cost the same, you do have to run tire warmers anyway for D O T race tires. Um, but you also have someone, somebody basically before you bought it, went and cut some rubber out of your tire, right? That's all they are. Um, so you're, I would probably just avoid those. And the main reason they exist is there are certain race classes that require D O T race tires. Um, but if you're doing track days, who cares? Yeah. And, and I think rather than, you know, the hassle of like swapping tires back and forth, which I understand is find a set of find a second set of wheels. Right. Yeah. And then put your street tires on one set of wheels and put your slicks on the other set of wheels or have a dedicated way. Oh, it's an ideal scenario for someone who wants to do street as well. Um, but yeah, the slicks are better. The, the, the trade-off is now you got to bring stands with you. Now you got to bring, got to get warmers and you have to have some way to power them. So if your track doesn't have electrical, you know, outlets nearby that you can have access to, you got to give the generator. So now you have to trailer it. It's not like there's all these extra things that you have to deal with. Um, but the trade-off is if you've decided, Hey, I'm way into track days. Yeah. I'm not riding my bike to the track. I put it in a van or I trailer it out there anyway. These other things are just like smaller steps to have a better experience overall. Um, the last thing I'll say about slicks there, the tire vendors at the racetrack are going to have tons of information for you on the slick because all the racers are running slick. So they've got lots of tire pressure information. What compound should you run? Hey, it's a cool day. I'd run this one, not this one. Like all of that stuff is available to you once you're on slicks. Whereas on the street tires, you're just running what you got. Right. And a lot of times the tire guy will be guessing based on he'll just may be making very informed, best guesses. Right. I took one of the Honda press bikes out there that was on a tire that the guy had never seen. I'm like any idea. And he's like, maybe this, you know, and yeah, you're right. Like that's a, that's a really great point. And again, it's like, I think that's a recurring theme of this podcast is trust the guy on the ground. Trust your local resources. Right. And they're going to know and support them by from them. Don't be the guy that orders your tires online. Shows up at the track day and expects the tire guy to swap them for you. That's you're going to burn goodwill fast. Oh yeah. Yeah. If you there's, there's your writer tip for the day on this podcast, do not show up to the track with suspension you bought online and expect the suspension guy to tune it for you don't show up with tires you bought online, expect them to install it for you for free. Um, and the thing is like building relationships, like you might have to pay retail the first couple of times, but if you build a relationship, you're agreeable, you're a good customer. You're going to start paying online prices pretty soon. Well, we are as close to it and really just again, realize you you're going to the racetrack because you want that experience. Don't save 20 bucks and ruin the experience for yourself. You know what I mean? Like just go there, make relationships, buy the tires that you need when you need them, get the suspension service when you need it and just enjoy the experience you're having. I mean, I get it. This, all this stuff costs money. Be smart about where you're saving your money. Don't ruin the experience for yourself. If you can. I think that's a really excellent point, you know, cause we've been going to the same track for over 20 years. Like the track, I think 2006 was the first year the track was here. So 19 years at that track and these people, right. I've known them for, there's people like these are the longest friendships I'll probably ever have in my lifetime. These people are mean far more to me than anyone I went to high school with for four years. Right. I go out there, I know their family, I know their kids, the tire guy, like I know him and it's, you know, we catch up and you're always excited to see him. And so thinking about the whole experience of the track, you talk to anybody, they talk about their track family because where else are you going to find so many like-minded people to yourself that are like, Oh, you like to go crazy speeds. I like going crazy speeds. Let's go do crazy speeds together, but let's not get hurt. So I'm going to wear gear. You're going to like, you're just really with your people. You found your tribe and don't, don't blow it for 20 bucks, you know, because there are people out there who like blow relationships fast and you, you end up sitting on the outside of the circle and it's not fun out there. Yeah. I, that said, the track is a awesome experience to go have. If you've never done a track day, I don't care what bike he got, figure out a way to just go do one. I think, I don't think I've met anybody that was, that showed up and was like, I didn't have any fun at all. Right. There's some people that it's not their thing. Yeah. And that totally is Canyon chaser. She did a whole year out there and she's like, yeah, I just, she said a funny thing. She's like, I, she's so prefers touring that she's like every corner, I would imagine I was someplace else. So like she was, she was bored with the thing where you and I are like, how many laps have we done at that track? And then I think last summer we had like a 30 minute discussion on lines and apexes on the East track. And how many laps have we done there? And you're like, I go from here to here. And I crossed this and I found I can do that. And you're like, oh, I'm going to try that. And you're like, so it's really fun. That whole, like, like measured perfection. So we got a little off of, of, uh, I ride a duck's tire question, but. Hopefully they enjoy the conversation. Thanks for, thanks for the question. Yes.