The quick way to doing this is you just get some Pirellis and lower the tire pressure way down. Other tires don't feel good at extremely low pressure but Pirellis don't seem to notice much. You want small chicken strips, thats how to do it. ...otherwise just ride and have fun.

I've got Pirellis now, its going to be 100+
if we go on a ride this weekend, I wonder if 28psi it reasonable?
How low do you think I can go on the PSI, might be hitting 120+
in short spurts in straights, and then 80/90+ in some of the longer radius sweeps..

I don't see 28 psi being a even a small concern.

If the roads are hot, that's going to heat up the air inside the tire. Your psi will increase from heat expansion.

I can't remember the tire pressure I used for sport riding. I believe it was 20-25 psi. I know I tried lower pressure than that and very low speed, low temp handling became very noticeably weird. I could feel the tire sides flex in a gentle curve. Noticed it right away and turned to go back to the garage and air up. Pirelli Superbike Pros both handled well with something like 12-15 psi. I decided not to run them that low on the road because I feared damaging a rim on a pothole or bump.

I'd go with 28 psi for your weekend ride. Before you go lower than that, I'd do a test run somewhere where you have access to a tire pump. You're going to notice problems caused by inadequate tire inflation at low speeds more than high.

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I'd go with 28 psi for your weekend ride. Before you go lower than that, I'd do a test run somewhere where you have access to a tire pump. You're going to notice problems caused by inadequate tire inflation at low speeds more than high.

I've got a Diablo Rosso 2 in front and the Pirelli Angel in the back,
I only recently upped the psi to 30 + - , and was running 28 since
I got the bike, so I'll try 28 again then, and see how that goes,
the tires have always felt rock hard, when tapping on them with
a stick or knuckles.
When I get back or maybe even tomorrow, I'll set them at
26 front and 25 back for a couple of 70-90 sweeps and see
how that feels, all of my Pirellis have felt great so far
at any psi I've 'run', but this might be a quite interesting
test.
This might also even out the center flat spot a slight bit.

If the roads are hot, that's going to heat up the air inside the tire. Your psi will increase from heat expansion.

Here is an interesting note that I heard this last month
from one of the pros, (I may have mentioned this earlier)
I can't recall which pro, but
a credible source.
This goes against what I'd previously understood;
He said that when the tires really heat up like on a hot
track we need to ad psi to keep them from getting too mushy,
and then consider letting some air out on a cold day since the tires
can get too hard and more on the stiff side in sweeps.
So it's another one of those issues that I have to
try to sort out, but yeah, 25 or 26 might be the sweet spot.

* Last updated by: Stratovarious on 3/27/2026 @ 5:59 PM *

Traction Control

I lowered psi to 25 front and rear, then went for coffee,
on the way back, when I got into 2nd I might have (cough)
twisted the throttle and let out the throttle more abruptly
than normal rear tire cut loose, and TC 1 kicked in though
I thin' I coulda' ridden it out, still, not complaining about
my TC in 1st position.
I mentioned almost sliding out a while back;
from a complete stop to on throttle while turning
right, back came out and TC was on , might have saved the day.
What do you thin Rook about PSI vs traction (?) thoughts?
Should I expect the rear wheel to break out on hard accel
in the lower gears if I have this lower psi, which is not
a problem so long as I'm aware of it.
Also noting that breaking-loose was instant , no hint of the
front end coming up.

When I get back or maybe even tomorrow, I'll set them at
26 front and 25 back for a couple of 70-90 sweeps and see
how that feels, all of my Pirellis have felt great so far
at any psi I've 'run', but this might be a quite interesting
test.

All the Pirellis I've used also felt perfectly stable at any speed with any psi.

The thing is, if you go fast, centrifugal force is going to play a part in how much your tires flex in a corner. You don't have that working for you at low speed. That's why I feel a very low speed test is the best indicator of minimum safe tire pressure. Also, tire temperature...if the tire gets hot from road surface or lots of flexion, that's going to make the air in the tire expand.

Here we go again, one of Rook's little stories better kept to himself...I rode a flat rear tire over a hundred miles. Don't do that, I'm just telling you it's possible even if extremely dangerous.. How is it possible? What I just said, the 2 psi of air left in the flat swells to 6 psi because the tire is so soft, the rubber is flexing and stretching the whole time just from being so soft. Also the centrifugal force thing. I didn't ride over 50 mph but that's plenty fast enough to throw the spinning tread out away from the axis with an appreciable amount of force. The flat tire keeps itself inflated. Yes indeed, I got off the bike and watched the obviously low tire flatten almost to the ground in about 20 seconds. It had a nail in it. It was very skittish even taking the large curves on the interstate. I totally felt the tire bending. It was quite hot to the touch when I got home. It needn't be mentioned but what if the nail came out or what if the bead broke? Likely crash. Im just telling you, I tried it and it worked that time.

Also, my first track day, after the first couple sessions, someone asked how the bike was handling. I told him the rear was sliding all over in the corners, it was scary. I never experienced anything like that on the street. He asked me the tire which was a Bridgestone BT-003 and told me to lower my tire pressure to some ridiculously low psi. This was the owner of the dealership I bought the bike from. I think it was 12 psi...maybe 8, front and rear. It worked. In my experience, Bridgestone tires are nothing special but in a track situation where the tire was melting, going way softer made a huge improvement. I guess the speed and heat. Hey, if it's melting hot, it's going to melt even more soft but at least the contact patch is larger. IDK what the combination was but it worked. Hey, my pics work again!

No tire pressure I've ever used in street riding ever made nearly as much difference. I simply can't ride on the street as fast and for as long as I can on a track. Low tire pressure on the street is more a mental thing. I don't feel I can go any faster. Same with go fast parts and other mods, sometimes I feel them but I cant really use them.

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This might also even out the center flat spot a slight bit.

I think probably not. There's just way too much straight road to overcome that. LOL Kruz wears out the sides of his tires before the middle but that's extremely uncommon.

Lower tire pressure is going to make your contact patch larger and that includes when the bike is standing straight up. I was always careful to inflate my tires to 40 psi for longer trips. The low pressure was for sport riding and I kept it to that as much as possible. Eventually, the center wears down. It's very obvious on a stock sized rear tire. A taller rear will look kind of normal when the center is worn out.

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This goes against what I'd previously understood;
He said that when the tires really heat up like on a hot
track we need to ad psi to keep them from getting too mushy,
and then consider letting some air out on a cold day since the tires
can get too hard and more on the stiff side in sweeps.
So it's another one of those issues that I have to
try to sort out, but yeah, 25 or 26 might be the sweet spot.

That completely contradicts my experience but track riding is very different than street riding. The conditions from one track to another might require highly specialized procedures.

To me, if it's hot and you don't have traction with a hard tire, going with a harder isn't going to solve that. Going softer increases the heat but also frees up space for heat expansion of the air in the tire. Once again, none of this ever mattered except on a track.

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What do you thin Rook about PSI vs traction (?) thoughts?
Should I expect the rear wheel to break out on hard accel
in the lower gears if I have this lower psi, which is not
a problem so long as I'm aware of it.

From my experience, lowering the tire pressure should increase your traction. There's a point where the tire gets slippery from melting. If it's at a low psi, it will melt even more but that could be preferable to a hard melting tire if the road is that hot. I've only had one traction problem on decent pavement. That had a lot more to do with the throttle than the tire pressure. Use common sense in a corner, it's not too big of a deal if the rear tire slips in a straight line. It's a deal if that happens when the bike's leaned over.

From my experience, tire pressure doesn't make a huge difference for sport riding on the street but a hot day here is like a normal day to you.

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From my experience, lowering the tire pressure should increase your traction. There's a point where the tire gets slippery from melting. If it's at a low psi, it will melt even more but that could be preferable to a hard melting tire if the road is that hot. I've only had one traction problem on decent pavement. That had a lot more to do with the throttle than the tire pressure. Use common sense in a corner, it's not too big of a deal if the rear tire slips in a straight line. It's a deal if that happens when the bike's leaned over

I had a chance to do a shake-out run,
getting set for tomorrow's group ride.
I didn't notice much difference but I'm guessing
it was better, I took one of the 'known' sweeps that
I mentioned before , quicker than I ever have, this
is the where I'd mentioned feeling like 'we' were
kind of loosing the radius, skipping outward a bit,
which was kind of unsettling and probably had more
to do with my continuing education in sweeps.
But yeah, today was quicker than ever and that sweep
felt much better.
The ride overall seemed softer, which makes perfect sense,
though it could have been my imagination, knowing
what 'could be' in theory.
Good to hear you reinforce again that Pirelli's are
generally pretty good and about any PSI, within reason.
I'll try to remember not to ride at 6 psi like @Hub ,
nice that he survived.

I've got a Cardo intercom now, two others have them,
it will be cool if we can get them paired up.

* Last updated by: Stratovarious on 3/28/2026 @ 8:07 PM *