Hi Patrick,

Every racetrack surface reacts differently to cool temperatures, so it depends on your specific situation. Often times in very cold temps when using warmers on race tires, the tires can actually lose temperature while you’re out on track, especially if you’re not working them hard enough to generate heat. It’s a different story for running without warmers – in this case the tire is starting cold, and we must work to warm the tire up while on track to create grip. In both cases, we can generate heat in our tires with very hard, straight up-and-down acceleration and braking.

The short answer is: ride to the level of grip available. Learning how to feel for grip is an important skill to have as a rider. Work on being smooth and consistent, avoid overly-aggressive steering inputs, and be respectful of your lean angle.

Hi Bob,

We don’t use warmers on the Q3s at the school, just a few laps of smooth riding with strong acceleration and braking without much lean angle, which flexes the tire carcass, creating friction and building heat. Warmers are typically not needed on street tires because the operating temperature is usually lower than that of DOT or slick race tires. For example, with Q3s the operating temperature is around 130-150F, vs. 170F+ for race tires. For race tires, I would recommend using warmers, because as JP mentioned, the operating range is more narrow, and they require much more heat to work well (and therefore a faster rider to load them enough to keep them in that range).

For more information on using warmers with Dunlop tires, RTS has some useful information:
Race Tire Service

— Tyler

Eric,

Thank you for the response. I totally agree with you on how far tires have come. It doesn’t shock me as much now because I have been on the Q2’s and Q3’s for some time now. What is really fun is seeing the kids I train, ride on the Q3’s and love them.

JP

RB