The Benefits of Professional Tyre Warmers

Most racers and track day riders want Tyre Warmers to avoid cold tyre crashes and to go fast right from the green flag - and it's true that these are two clear advantages of using Tyre Warmers

However, there are several other benefits that are equally important because the correct use of Tyre Warmers provides the ability to tune and manage tyres in the paddock, well beyond simply increasing the grip offered on the opening laps.

With correctly used Tyre Warmers you can

...read why below

Go Faster from the Green Flag
Hot rubber grips the track surface better since not only does the coefficient of friction increase, but the tyre’s ability to form the the track surface through "mechanical keying" is increased.

Set your optimum HOT Tyre Pressures in the Pits
Tyres will increase in pressure by about 20% on the track (e.g. increase from, let's say, 30 to 36 psi) which makes a huge handling difference. CHR Tyre Warmers will get your tyres’ surface AND carcass into the proper temperature range (the same as you’ll see on the track). Without Tyre Warmers 6-8 laps would be needed to get a tyre to its proper "hot pressure".

Many of the current race compound tyres are "low pressure" tyres with psi recommendations of around 22-24 psi. These tyres are much more sensitive about needing to be at their hot pressure before they work properly.

If you pre-set set your Tyre Warmers to the optimum temperature you anticipate seeing on the track, allow your tyres to "heat-soak" for an hour and thorn set the Hot Pressure, when you hit the track, there will be minimal pressure change - meaning your grip and handling will remain much more consistent. So, getting your Hot Tyre Pressure set using your Tyre Warmers means you can be much quicker on the track straight away.

Avoid "Cold Tearing" of your tyres
Taking a tyre at ambient temperature (i.e. 20-25 degrees) and carefully pushing it hard on the track to warm it up will undoubtedly increase the very outer surface temperature of the rubber in a couple of laps. However, the rubber 2-3 mm down from the surface will not yet be warm and not be as elastic and this causes the outer rubber to grip the track surface and underlying rubber to rip or tear away from it. This shredded look or graining once developed in the tyre almost never goes away and basically ruins the tyre’s surface - thus reducing grip. By pre-heating the rubber, cold tearing is - quite simply - avoided.

Reduce the number of "Heat Cycles" by keeping tyres warm between sessions
When tyres are heated & then cooled - i.e. “Cycled” a change occurs that can often be seen, measured and felt. On some tyres you will actually see a blue haze form over its surface as some "oils" migrate to the outside and oxidation occurs. On other tyre compounds you may observe a much drier grayish haze depending on individual tyre composition. Either way, each time a tyre is put though these hot-to-cold cycles the tyre’s grip reduces as the rubber hardens at the end of each cooling cycle and the useful life of the tyre reduces too. A high-quality tyre warmer can keep tyres hot or - simply warm - in "Maintain-Mode" for longer periods of time between track sessions and this automatically reduces the amount of heat cycles a tyre goes through. If your tyres are to see more than one track session on any given day it makes absolute sense not to allow those tyres to cool all the way down to ambient; and this can extend how many sessions the tyre can perform at near maximum grip. By operating in this manner the tyre’s grip life is increased - important not only on race/track bikes, but also track-day bikes which get used on the road too.

Avoid the damage caused by overheating your Tyres
Tyre makers are increasingly providing the specific maximum temperature their individual tyres should be heated to (different tyres from the same maker can need different temperatures). Also, specifically, intermediate or wet tyres require lower temperatures so being able to use the maker's exact recommendation is an important benefit of a higher-spec warmer and can avoid the inadvertent overheating which can completely ruin a tyre over a relatively short period. 

Make your Tyres last longer
Taking tyres from ambient temperature and bringing them up to race temperature on the track may take from 3-6 minutes depending on the machine, track and rider. Aside from giving up speed during these opening laps, it is truly too fast to heat the tyre in an ideal manner. For example on a 25 degree day, the rider may get the tyre surface hot in, let’s say, 4 laps which typically takes 6 minutes. This increase of 100 degrees in such a short amount of time actually "heat shocks" the tyre. Race compound tyres contain "activator" chemicals in them which which are set into motion with heat. Getting your tyre hot too quickly actually spends or wastes some of the chemicals and tyres will lose grip sooner than if warmed slowly on a warmer.