Yesterday's showers had me thinking - how wet is wet enough for wets?
Full rain tyres, that is.

Is wet enough to just darken the tarmac enough? If the track dries out
during a session, do they go off in a "visit the scenery" sort of way?

--

-Pip

Pipl wrote:
> Yesterday's showers had me thinking - how wet is wet enough for wets?
> Full rain tyres, that is.
> Is wet enough to just darken the tarmac enough?

It's less a question of "how wet is wet enough" and more of "how dry is too dry". You need enough water on the surface to keep them cool, which means it's either actively raining, rained recently enough for there to still be surface water, or there's at least puddles to aim for as a last resort. A bit damp isn't really enough - I'd stick to dry tyres and ride carefully.

> If the track dries out
> during a session, do they go off in a "visit the scenery" sort of way?

No. When they overheat they go squidgy and it's a bit like riding on a wet track with dry tyres. Nothing you shouldn't be able to ride around by backing off a bit. The bigger problem is when they overheat they degrade - the edges of the tread blocks round off, and they don't clear water as well anymore, which makes them useless as rain tyres and you end up spending money to replace them. I've seen people pull off after a couple of laps not because they're worried about crashing, but because they'd rather get a DNF than ruin a perfectly good set of tyres.

I've done full races with wets on a dry track, because nobody gets it right every time. I've gone full distance because I'd rather have the playtime and the tyres are already half-fucked anyway. I've never crashed with wets on a dry track - you just have to back off a bit. And I've kept on using half-fucked rain tyres because I'm too tight to buy a fresh set. But if they started to cook on a trackday, and there was nothing at stake, I'd just head back to the paddock.

On Tue, 28 Jun 2022 12:02:05 -0700 (PDT), ogden <eldaifo@gmail.com>
wrote:

>Pipl wrote:
>> Yesterday's showers had me thinking - how wet is wet enough for wets?
>> Full rain tyres, that is.
>> Is wet enough to just darken the tarmac enough?
>
>It's less a question of "how wet is wet enough" and more of "how dry is too dry". You need enough water on the surface to keep them cool, which means it's either actively raining, rained recently enough for there to still be surface water, or there's at least puddles to aim for as a last resort. A bit damp isn't really enough - I'd stick to dry tyres and ride carefully.
>
>
>> If the track dries out
>> during a session, do they go off in a "visit the scenery" sort of way?
>
>No. When they overheat they go squidgy and it's a bit like riding on a wet track with dry tyres. Nothing you shouldn't be able to ride around by backing off a bit. The bigger problem is when they overheat they degrade - the edges of the tread blocks round off, and they don't clear water as well anymore, which makes them useless as rain tyres and you end up spending money to replace them. I've seen people pull off after a couple of laps not because they're worried about crashing, but because they'd rather get a DNF than ruin a perfectly good set of tyres.
>
>I've done full races with wets on a dry track, because nobody gets it right every time. I've gone full distance because I'd rather have the playtime and the tyres are already half-fucked anyway. I've never crashed with wets on a dry track - you just have to back off a bit. And I've kept on using half-fucked rain tyres because I'm too tight to buy a fresh set. But if they started to cook on a trackday, and there was nothing at stake, I'd just head back to the paddock.

Nothing to add to Ogden's advice - pretty much exactly what I would
have said
--
Champ
neal at champ dot org dot uk

I don't know, but I been told
You never slow down, you never grow old

On Tue, 28 Jun 2022 12:02:05 -0700 (PDT), ogden <eldaifo@gmail.com>
wrote:

>Pipl wrote:
>> If the track dries out
>> during a session, do they go off in a "visit the scenery" sort of way?
>
>No. When they overheat they go squidgy and it's a bit like riding on a wet track with dry tyres.

Dry tyres on wet track "Squidgy"? "Scarily twitchy" IME, but maybe
it'sto do with the type - Dunlop SportSmarts.

--

-Pip

Pipl wrote:
> ogden <eld...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >Pipl wrote:
> >> If the track dries out
> >> during a session, do they go off in a "visit the scenery" sort of way?
> >
> >No. When they overheat they go squidgy and it's a bit like riding on a wet track with dry tyres.
>
> Dry tyres on wet track "Squidgy"?

No, wet tyres on dry track are squidgy. But the consequence is the same as riding on a wet track with dry tyres: less grip.