Initial tire heat cycle
 

I was looking through Tire Rack's site and they shave AND heat cycle their R compounds (if you want). Supposedly if you do an initial heat cycle and wait a day or so (with R compounds), it does something to the rubber compound which improves performance and longevity.

I guess the 888's will not be ready for sale in the USA within the next month, so will go with the RA-1's. We have a HUGE oven at work (vented to outside, so no worries about stinking up the plant).

Question: What temperature and duration should that initial heat cycle be?

thanks,
Mark

1) Toyo (and everyone else I've ever talked to) says RA1s do not need to be heat cycled.

2) Oven? Totally the wrong way to do it anyway.

For a DIY, put the tires on the car and take a 100 mile trip. Take the tires off immediately after the trip and let them rest 24-48 hours.

:stupid:

No need to pay someone to bake them for you.

Why 100 miles, and not just a few to get them warm? And that's if you do it at all. I don't, and have often wondered if this is a myth (heat cycling to improve performance and longevity). Any myth busters out there?

p.s. I should add that I and others have found RA1's to be fastest in their first few laps (first time on the car), no different than other race tires.

[QUOTE=rlaifatt,Mar 31 2007, 09:01 AM] Why 100 miles, and not just a few to get them warm?

They don't bake them! They put them on a machine that simulates driving with them.

If baking them was the way to do it, don't you think the tire companies would just bake them?

You need to get them hot but also break some of the rubber polymer chains (ie. you need to drive on them). Then (in theory) the chains relink in a more durable way.

So the idea is that if you heat them up and then let them cool, they become more durable and almost as fast. If you just drive on them new, they are very sticky but not as durable because they haven't gone through this long-chain relinking process.

F1 as well.

I'd argue that they still use scuffs because they are either running out of tires, limited in the number of sets of tires for the race/weekend, or trying to save tires/money. I can't see a team not choosing fresh tires everytime if they had the choice.

At the pro level, if scuffs were faster in certain situations you'd think the tire manufactures would provide both types (at least in F1 prior to this year).

Tire manufacturers provide new tires -- that's their job. How to prepare the new tires is the job of the teams.

And I know that some of the teams still deliberately "scuff" sets of tires in practice.

If they have one, they might use stickers for a short stint, but they value the "scuffs" for situations where they might need a longer stint.

Or so I pick up from TV coverage.