Bridgestone RE71R wear

[Mkelder]

I was looking over my tires for wear and was a little alarmed. I knew to expect tread rub from seeing what Murray's 71r's were doing last year and indeed mine are doing it but what I wasn't expecting is the center rib between the rain slots is crowning on the wear side.

We are so little into the season that I'm worried I'm going to wreck the construction of the tire even before I wear them down to bald.

[Mkelder]

Been looking around, what is happening to me isn't out of the ordinary for these tires. I'm no expert but it seems to me if bridgestone changed their rain groove a little and expanded that middle bar it would be better for the tires lifespan.

[MurrayPeterson]

Don't worry about the construction -- my experience is that they wear out before the center rib becomes an issue.  I do 50 runs, swap them, and do another 50 runs (maybe).  The last pair wore out in 80 runs, but the events at Helena had some *long* runs at high speeds, so I guess I can't complain.

[NickST]

I think I made about 50 runs on one side on my new tires for this year, just flipped them this week.... come on 50 runs for the other side!

[majormojo]

I got close to 120 runs on my first set last year, flipped at 60-ish. Saw exactly the same wear as you are seeing. 

[NickST]

This is basically one season of tires for me, haha



I've been co-driving a lot this year with people, so I had to order another set of tires just to be safe.

[Reijo]

Someone about a year ago ... maybe 2 was laughing about how using street tires would save money on tires.     Well, maybe a little bit I suppose.   

In 2007 when co-driving with Bill Schenker in the CSP Miata I think we went through 7 sets of 275-50-15 Hoosiers ... but we got quite a few contingency tires too.   
 

[Reijo]

That included events at SCCA Nationals, including the Pro, all LA practices and championships, and quite a few San Diego events.....year round.

So 3.5 sets each ... not bad really.

[PedalFaster]

That's a lot of tires, but it probably still represents a big savings nonetheless. Back in the Stock days, before the Fiesta ST came along, drivers of nose heavy FWD cars like Cobalts and my Mini were sometimes cording front tires in fewer than ten runs.

Keep in mind also that a CSP Miata is about as good as it gets for tire wear -- light, good camber, good suspension geometry, and not much power.

The year that flipped the bit for me was 2011, when my codriver and I spent $10000 on Hoosiers for my BS S2000 in a single season. I switched to street tires the year after, and I don't think I've spent as much on tires in all the time since then as I did that one year in my S2000.

[NickST]

My RE-11's on the Fit were pretty good... I easily got through an entire season with just one set. I suspect that I could probably get double or triple the runs with RE-11's on my Fiesta.

I've said it before, I wouldn't be that upset if the SCCA reined in the rules on street tires. The RE-71R's are certainly not a 200 tread wear tire. I would gladly welcome a higher tread wear rating, or some sort of standardized testing to weed out the cheater tires, in exchange for a better PAX.

[Stuart]

My RE-11's on the Fit were pretty good... I easily got through an entire season with just one set. I suspect that I could probably get double or triple the runs with RE-11's on my Fiesta.

I've said it before, I wouldn't be that upset if the SCCA reined in the rules on street tires. The RE-71R's are certainly not a 200 tread wear tire. I would gladly welcome a higher tread wear rating, or some sort of standardized testing to weed out the cheater tires, in exchange for a better PAX.

With how much of a fight there was with the move from Stock/R-comp to Street/200TW I highly doubt that the SCCA will look at making a change to even worse tires any time soon.

[majormojo]

Here's some interesting data on the change in the popularity of the various classes in WCMA regional series over the past few years (since I started managing it). I think the Stock/Street change has a lot to do with the overall trend here.




For me, I'm happy with where the Street tires are now and I think it's good that the manufacturers can compete making tires that are also sold widely in the market. There's more incentive for innovation for a product that can sell in large quantities as opposed to a small number of people buying tires for dedicated race cars. "Street" now provides a much better entry point for new drivers than did the old "Stock" classes. It's a big deal to be competitive in class with a relatively unmodified car and not having to deal with the everyday limitations of race rubber, towing, etc.

[Mkelder]

Looking over the tires again, probably should have changed them over already before the last event but from what I'm seeing they won't last the season. I'm guessing I'll be skipping my Helena top gun plans and I'm guessing by the time October comes I'll be a no show for the fort McLeod event. 

If I learned to drive properly and stopped trying to puch the limit always ID have more life left in the tires for sure 

[Reijo]

Have you looked at your alignments and what you can do there to get more grip and minimize some of the excess tire wear?  And, of course, over-driving is harder on rubber as you mention ... so I guess you can focus on some of the stuff from the SoloPro Schools and do something there ... the edge ... but not beyond....at least not too far.   

[Mkelder]

My alignment is pretty good. If anything next year I may stop being lazy and reduce my static negative camber for highway trips in favour of flipping the tires every couple events to save outside edge but I've found inside to outside edge wear even at this point.

Like I said, I know I already overdrive my tires and that is the biggest reason for the wear. Now I am no longer able to use last year's tires for highway travel, too bald, perhaps they will be my victim on the next practice event.

It will take some mental discipline from here on out to stop blowing past my grip limit and slowly pulling back to find that ultimate grip/speed in favour of working towards it.

I'm guessing my tires are 3/4 of the way dead and season is halfway done. Something has to change or I need to come up with cash to buy more tires that are already sold out or I will be sitting out the last of the year.

Final note, I love the grip of the re71r. Tread design needs more center rib, less roundness of overall tire shape to save outside edges from natural rounding but then again I'm no engineer working for bridgestone, I've never even stayed in a holiday express last night.