tire heat cycling for street use?

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Most racing tires has to be heat cycled before a race to prevent accelerated wear.
Does anyone heat cycle regular street tires to prolong tread life?
 
Heat cycling normal passenger tires? It seems rather extreme. I thought that was primarily used for competition tires that are operated at high temperatures and that typically live short lives.
 
I think you'll find that the reason racing tires are heat cycled is to get rid of the gaseous components in the compound that is generated by the heat. If you do that as a separate step, then the "gassing off" takes plce while the tire is idle - as opposed to a race condition where the gassing off would interfere with the grip.

No need to do that for passenger car tires. Not only shouldn't they be heated up that much, but the components in tread compounds are designed for longevity, so all you'll do is burn off all the anti-oxidants and waxes that protect the tire from attack by the air. This is not a problem for race tires where their life is measured in terms of laps.
 
No. Most racing tires only need to be heat cycled initially once or twice before they get in their sweet spot, and then every cycle after that performance degrades. Street tires do not require this action and have much harder compounds anyway. They'll heat cycle themselves out over a few years and get rock hard on their own, why would you want to help them out with that? haha.

In my experience, heat-cycling tires before you race on them does not prolong life, only gets them to their sweet spot quicker.

-James
11 year SCCA racer and former National Champion.
 
Originally Posted By: willix
Passenger tires are heat cycled every time you turn the key.


Not so. Typical driving heats tires to 120F or so. Heat cycling calls for tires to reach over 160F. They become "greasy" in such circumstances.
 
Originally Posted By: Solo2driver
They'll heat cycle themselves out over a few years and get rock hard on their own, why would you want to help them out with that? haha.


I've never done it myself. I've heard that from a guy who heat cycled yokohama tires and has 50% tread left at 60,000 miles. This is a tire that typically lasts 40-50,000 miles.
 
Originally Posted By: Solo2driver
No. Most racing tires only need to be heat cycled initially once or twice before they get in their sweet spot, and then every cycle after that performance degrades. Street tires do not require this action and have much harder compounds anyway. They'll heat cycle themselves out over a few years and get rock hard on their own, why would you want to help them out with that? haha.

In my experience, heat-cycling tires before you race on them does not prolong life, only gets them to their sweet spot quicker.

-James
11 year SCCA racer and former National Champion.



AGREED!

But what about a 'DOT' type, semi-race compound, 100 treadwear tire like the Toyo 888, or Nitto NT-01 that someone wants to use on the street, in the spring/summer?? (I am NOT talking about the full race DOT stuff like the Hoosier A/R6es, Kumho V710s, etc.)
Would you, or would you not heat cycle those before street use?
 
I would not heat cycle a harder R-compound tire like the Toyo or Nitto...just drive on them. I daily drove an RX-7 with Yokohama A032R's for a few years, no problems. They will still get hard(er), but those tires are kind of dual-purpose.

PS-- I like the NT01...you can really overdrive those things and they are forgiving. Won a ProSolo in 2008 on them, and threw the tires in the garage. National Tour the following spring, won again. Sure they were junk, but I didn't have to worry about cording/overheating an expensive tire.
 
A few years back Bridgestone/Firestone performance & ultra performance rated tires sold tires with claimed UOTG(I think) technology that claim the compound will stay softer though out the end of the treadwear life.
 
Originally Posted By: Solo2driver
PS-- I like the NT01...you can really overdrive those things and they are forgiving. Won a ProSolo in 2008 on them, and threw the tires in the garage. National Tour the following spring, won again. Sure they were junk, but I didn't have to worry about cording/overheating an expensive tire.


So they did not get "greasy" when hot, like so many of the 100 treadwear class of DOT 'race' compound tires (including, if I remember correctly, the 555R2s)??

You were not running in the Street Modified, Street Touring, or Street Touring S classes right? (Since they require at least 140 treadwear donuts.)
 
Originally Posted By: willix
A few years back Bridgestone/Firestone performance & ultra performance rated tires sold tires with claimed UOTG(I think) technology that claim the compound will stay softer though out the end of the treadwear life.

I've heard of some tires that were marketed as having a gradually changing tread compound that became softer as the tread wore down. The supposed benefit was that as the compound hardened with age, the tread would be acceptably soft - although harder than when new. Of course this would be heavily dependent on how long it's been in service and the driver's style. I would think that for really aggressive drivers who wear down their tires quickly, the result could be that once the tread wore down into the softer compound, they started wearing down quickly to the wear bars.
 
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