Should I have my RE-11 AX tires heat cycled?
Brown Santa delivered my new set of RE-11's AX tires and they're sitting in the garage waiting to be mounted this weekend.
Sorry if my question has already been already answered somewhere. I looked around online but I'm still not sure I have an answer to my specific question.
Some of the articles I found were old and I'm wondering if they may not be current with the newer tire compounds available for street tires. Some of what I read (older articles?) indicated that only R-compound tires really needed to be heat cycled and that street tires were a harder compound that didn't need it. The street tires only needed a little driving before the first AX to remove the release compound.
Other articles/postings discussed performing heat cycling on a machine vs. some form of driving to get them up to temp. Not sure I came away with a definite answer here either. seemed like consensus was that there is a benefit and that the machine provides a controlled environment and better results but at a cost. There seemed to be many TCB methods of driving on them for the initial heat cycle but results may vary as to the actual effectiveness.
So, assuming that I understood correctly that heat cycling is really more of an R-compound thing. I've read all the talk about the new street tire compounds and how they're getting much closer to the stickyness of an R-compound tire.
So finally... here's my question... Is there more of a benefit now to having AX "street tires" heat cycled on a machine? I don't mind paying to have it done if there's a real benefit (and I can find somewhere in the metromess to do it). Otherwise, if the benefit isn't worth the cost, what's the preferred TCB method for breaking them in?
TIA,
Keith
