Hi all, I attended the Ducati Silverstone track day for the second time this year. On both occasions my 899 destroyed its rear tyre with two 30 minute sessions. Last year my suspension was on Ducati's recommended road settings so I assumed this was the issue. This year I used Ducati's recommended track settings. Whilst the bike handled much better the tyre wear is just the same. The tyres are the standard supercorsa's. I was running the tyres at 31 psi hot and using tyre warmers.. I'm off to Portimao in September and need to get this issue resolved as otherwise I'll need to take a Lordy load of rear tyres with me! Any advice appreciated.
Hi, I've read that article. Its very helpful, however I wanted to know if anybody else has experienced the issue on an 899 and whether they had a definitive fix..
Is that a rear?! You want 28 max even if in novice group, hot, and if pushing on closer to 26 or below ime. Also depends how hard you are on the gas, if you have tc turned on and a few other rider input bits like weight
Yes its the rear.. That could be the issue then as I was at the pointy end of the 'inters' group so was pushing fairly hard through the corners and hard on the gas from the apex onwards. TC was on low... Thank you, so we should really be 28 psi hot maximum...
Ime yes. I can only say what I do/used to do. Would run mid pack fast group at the time. 28 hot rear, 31 front First two session, leave as is while I and track get to temp (providing they are wrecked already!). 3rd session as soon as I come in, I test pressure and set to 28: if it means letting out or adding pressure. If tyre still has some cold tear, i’ll Drop 1 more. Then I’d look at suspension: @Spence had issues on his iirc and took a couple of clicks comp and rebound and cleaned up lovely when we were at Rockingham couple of years ago
Great info, thanks. I read somewhere that the standard 899 rear dampers can be modified by the guys MCT Suspension to rectify a restriction within the valving. Do you think this could be a factor or do you think that the tyre pressure is wrong enough to be the sole cause?
Your tyre wear is consistent with the wear experienced by others on the day. The new tarmac is abrasive, especially where your pressures are too high which gives cold tear. In my experience and as @bradders has advised, 28 rear and 31 front hot is a good place to start but be prepared to drop the pressure several psi in the rear as the day progresses. The front tends to be less sensitive and I probably wouldn't drop below 30 psi unless the ambient is high 20s/low 30 degrees especially at Portimao. If your bike is track only, I'd venture to suggest you look at a more track focussed tyre. I've been very impressed with the SC and I like the Metzeler Racetech as well. Andy
If you can afford it, swap out for a ttx or ktech shock. I’m sure they can be rebuilt, and if you go down that route I couldn’t recommend @PGP paul Goodall performance enough
I'm going to give your tyre advice a try first as the bike is mainly used on the road with only a couple of trackways per year. So if I can make it work as it stands that'll be a great result. If that doesn't work I'll be upgrading the damper. cheers
Darren at MCT will sort out the valving and spring the shock to your weight which will make a big difference to how the bike feels. If the bike has not been set up properly you could have too much weight on the front which wont help rear tyre wear. That tyre wear is cold tear due to too high a pressure though as Bradders said.
