i hear some say it's better to take the wheels off the car after doing the initial heat cycyling for the 24 hour cool down period. is that being over **** or does it actually help some?

gonna heat cycle my first fresh set of R tires!! RA1's.




[Modified by GhettoRacer, 8:13 PM 2/18/2003]

 

Don't believe there is a need to heat cycle Toyos. At least that was what I was told (call Bob Vilven and ask - he knows about 10 or 12 thousand times more than me on this but that's what I believe he told me on shaved RA1s).

 

according to this http://www.specmiatawest.com/garage/index.shtml (not sure if it's official from Toyo), but even if not I trust HRA...

no heat cycle required, although it does grease up on first couple of heat cycles. i thought i'd take them up to do a little gentle canyon runs to warm them up well. being a budget racer i opted to stay full tread.




[Modified by GhettoRacer, 8:24 PM 2/18/2003]

 

I seriously doubt you'd get anywhere near the sufficient heat to "heat cycle" a tire on the street. I was told that it was unlikely that I was getting enough heat into my rears running a full practice session to heat cycle a Hoosier FWIW.

That actually might be a great reason to get them shaved. Full treads will chunk (seen it from just a drying track in rain races), shaved tires (my two sets) do not seem to.


[Modified by phat-S, 11:32 PM 2/18/2003]

 

yah that was my concern. must the tire be pushed near the limit to get a true heat cycle?? and will the rear ever get enough heat? hmm.... when people heat cycle their tires, do they do a full session, or just couple of good warm up laps, couple of hot laps, and that's it?

i understand the risk of running full tread... and it's something i'm willing to take. i also think having a good amount of camber (-3.0f -2.0r)will reduce the possibility of rounding off shoulders considerably. last thing... i have very good self control and will do what i can to preserve the longevity of the tires.

 

Frank,
The Phat one is right. Don't run the tires full tread. Go get them shaved first. Heat cycle them & let them sit for 24. I usually take them off the car because I like to have a set ready to go ahead of time. BTW, canyon carving to heat cycle them = . You will be driving dangerously & I still doubt they will get hot enough.

I have heard some people say that you don't need to heat cycle the RA-1. In my experience ( & advice from others I trust), you will get better wear out of them if you do. In addition, it helps to get rid of that greasy feeling. The first time out after heat cycling they are still a little bit greasy IMO.

 

hey frankie,

glad to see you're finally stepping up and racing!

to get the tires heat cycled, they have to get up to at least 160 degrees. ain't gonna happen on the street. you will have a better time getting the rears up to temp too having a rwd car. fwd cars take longer to get the rears up to temp.

i have heard that you should run a full session...start up slow and gradually build your speed up until you get a few laps in at full speed at the end. then come in and remove them for cooling. it's better to have them cool w/o one spot on the ground...probably something like calipers and pads holding the heat in one place on the rotor, plus the deformation of tire sitting in one spot.


[Modified by toml, 4:50 AM 2/19/2003]

 

hmm, so, if spirited driving don't really heat the tires up enough (I need to go by a pyrometer...), then can all street driving be disregarded as a heat cycle? at least with RA1 we don't have to worry about them being heat cycled to death (has there ever been a reported case on RA1?)

i ran falken azenis full tread and hard on the get go. no funny wear. must've been at least a dozen of track days... and most of the wear was from the inside front spinning... so had with a quaife wear should be even better...

 

It doesnt take much spirited driving to get the tires up to 160°F if the conditions are right. First off, pick a road with plenty of twist and turns. In my case, Malibu canyon is just 10min drive for me. Time your session so that it's during the hottest point of the day. 80°F ambient temp (with the sun out) is good enough. From my experience, this is enough to get tire temp to 158°F all across the thread measured by a tire pyrometer. Remember, braking and acceleration also contribute heat to the tires which twisty canyons require plenty of. Good luck!

 

I've run toyo's un-shaved, shaved, and even a 1/2 shave (5/52 instead of 3/32). I use to heat cycle them religiously (always on-track) until I flatspotted a set badly qualifying at Sebring and was forced to start a race on non-cycled tires. They fely a little "skittery" for the first 4-5 laps, but then came right into the zone. I always monitor tire wear in terms of time, track, and amb./track temps. I didn't think it made a diff. large enough to merit the logistic hassle of heatcycling them. If you've got the time it can't hurt...if not, no biggie. If you run them in the rain just remember what shumy says.."tires always talk to you, in the wet they just whisper."

 

what is your experience with them unshaved? any issues with chunking or shorten tire life?

 

I usually leave one set unshaved in case of rain. I've had one set of unshaved that got used on dry track. They didn't chunk (as I've had Kumhos do un-shaved), the life was not outside the range of a shaved tire, albiet it was on the lower end of the scale, the only big diff. is that the unshaved took longer before they felt "great" whereas the shaved hit the sweet-spot mich sooner. For me, I always try to run shaved in the dry, tread in the wet. Enjoy them, they're great tires.

 

Another data point (sort of anyway).

Just bought new, shaved RA1s. I did heat cycle them, well, because I thought I needed too. It was cold (~25F) out when I did it. Went to the local church parking lot and ran a bunch of circles to get the tires hot. I think I got them warm enough. Went home and jacked the car up and put it on stands for 48 hours.

School was cancelled last weekend, so I didn't get to see how they did. Hopefully it'll be dry enough this weekend to use them.

You may not need to heat cycle them, I don't know for sure. But I don't see how it could possibly HURT anything to do it.