rfn026

We spend a lot of time talking about our tires but very little time about how we need to take care of them. We never ever talk about what makes a good tire pressure gauge. This is a copy of a column I did for Vintage Motorsport magazine last year. Enjoy.

Richard Newton
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GettReal

Good post. Heres a question for everyone. Do you mark your tires, if so, what to you record? I always see numbers, markings, etc ON the tires themselves and not in a log book. What do all those numbers mean? What do you mark on your tires?

rfn026

The only mark I make is a yellow stripe on the side that tells me where the valve stem is (was). Most tires will actually spin on the wheel - without loosing any air. I just like to know how far the tire has spun.

It sort of makes balancing track tires silly. After a few sessions you have no balance to speak of.

Richard Newton

Z06cool

Depends what you're keeping track of. Number of heat cycles, what corner you ran it on for rotating (RF, LR, etc.), or track it was run on (VIR, RA, etc.).

greendot

One quote from Smokey Yunick that I liked is "I balance the tires on my lawn mower"

If the tires move then a rebalance is in order, IMHO.

Kubs

Good article, and a good group of guys doing the work in the pictures!

waddisme

Pretty much what I do - for rotation and heat cycles.

rfn026

So you like those guys with the red shirts? I think you might know few.

Richard

the blur

Did you ever drive on front tires that are OUT of balance ???
It's not much fun, and quite annoying.

rfn026

Tire balance is one of the great unknowns of the tire world. We have all of these expensive road force machines now but very few people understand the physics of balancing. I think I ought to do a column on it sometime this year.

Richard Newton

Kubs

I would like to read that as well. I dont balance my track tires because they spin, pick up rocks and other pieces of rubber, and are never in balance anyway. I have never had an issue.