by AutoVogue

The premier class motorcycle racing is MotoGP....an absolute pinnacle of biking. Almost all the latest technologies and features we see in a street bike are all derived from MotoGP. But not all find their way in a street bike due to safety reasons. Here, I am being specific about tyres. Ordinary tyres won’t last even up to a lap in a race and would blast under high attained temperature. A rider cannot catch pace if the tyres aren’t warm enough, would lose traction and ultimately slide off the track. Hazardous ways used by a racer to extract out the best performance from his machine makes the operating temperature of tyres well over 100 degree C. You may easily guess the traumatic torture these tyres go through by the force they tolerate or withstand while racing which is in between 2000-2500 Newton. Massive force...isn’t? That is why MotoGP bikes are fitted with specially engineered rubber slick tyres which get sticky after reaching high temperature. Absence of threads gives maximum surface contact patch in any situation and less compound expansion. Traction in these tyres increase with the increase in tyre temperature.

On race days, racers get only one warm-up lap to test the bike and also increase tyre temperature. In this lap, all racers accelerate and brake real hard for this purpose. However, a single lap is not enough for the tyre to reach its sticking temperature. The main role of traction comes when a rider is cornering with his knees and elbows dragging on the track. That is why technicians pre-heat the tyres technically known as heat soaking along with the wheels. How? They use a special race tech device called tyre warmer.

Tyre Warmer

A tyre warmer is an electric blanket which supplies internal heat. This blanket is made of special light weight fibre heat fabric having silicone coated copper fibre heating element. Weighing just about 2Kgs or less, it is waterproof as well as decently insulated to avoid heat loss. This is a special elastic material which expands on heating without tearing itself. Thermostat controls the heating rate. An LED device having two stage heat controls is connected to tyre warmer to control the device. LED control could be set to a desired temperature and also decides how fast the tyres could to be heated. Red(heating phase) indicator means the tyre is under heating process while green(idle phase) means tyre has reached the desired temperature. Initially, the tyres should be heated slowly. The problem with rapid heating of a new tyre is that it would only heat-up its surface rather than the entire tyre carcass with the rim.

Deployment

1) Put on the front and the rear paddock stand and clean the tyres to get rid of debris.

2) Plug-in the device starting off with strapping the cover initially from the valve. Valve helps to keep the initial strap in place and avoid slipping when the cover is pulled to strap the next portion of the wheel.

3) Make sure that the tyre is properly insulated by the cover and then switch it on(front and rear tyre).

4) Leave it for an hour to heat.

5) Turn it off as soon as the indicator light turns green and remove the covers.

6) Remove paddocks and now the tyre is ready to hit the track.

Generally, after heating the wheels, it is so hot that you cannot keep your hand even for a second on it. This is actually done to check whether the tyre warmer really heated the wheels or not. The device works the best when wheels are removed from the bike. Also, the technicians check the tire pressure after installing the wheel back on the bike. Tyre warmer along with temperature also improves tyre life. Hitting the track and giving hard time to cold tyres would tear carcass. It is observed that by keeping the tyres at consistent temperature reduces heat cycle ultimately improving tyre life. Almost all racing events from two-wheeled to four-wheeled performance m/cs use tyre warmers. Tyre warmers are also available to public and purchasing one totally depends on how seriously one is into racing and clocking lap timings.