Why you should heat cycle your tires

JG, I'm impressed that you know of (listen to?) Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal. 

Where's the data? 

100% surely the factory could do the treatment far more cost effectively that even tire rack. 

I usually just go get them as warm as I can doing figure 8s in a parking lot or doing loops of a cloverleaf if I can find an empty one. Im not wasting a session and hauling tires to the track I can't use. 

I've been autocrossing for years.  I have never had tire rack heat cycle a set.  Is this as beneficial for autocross as well?  This would be on a 94 miata with new RE-71RS. I only drive the car to and from events.  My tires usually age past their time/become rock hard before wearing out. Save the 60 bucks or worth the money.

I've had Tire Rack heat cycle the last two pairs of RE71rs tires I've bought. One set went on my E Street Miata, the other gets mounted on my daily driver civic when I autocross or track it. 
 

Despite the fact that I've been trying to heat cycle my autocross tires myself for the past few years, I definitely think they're lasting longer and the grip is hanging on very well. I lost track of the number of street miles, track laps and autocross runs I had on the set on the civic, I log all of that with the Miata. 
 

The Miata currently has 65 runs on the tires and about 2000 miles. They were good enough at the last event that I finally raw timed one of my friends in his STR prepped NB2, and he was on a brand new set of RT660s. 
 

I ordered a replacement set for the civic before the Challenge since I was going to drive it for the annual Challenge track day, and was planning to finish them off. I jumped the gun on that, they still have a lot of life left after a full day of lapping the Firm. 

mikerunt said:

Where's the data? 

Here's some: https://www.tirerack.com/upgrade-garage/is-tire-rack-heat-cycling-as-good-as-oncar-heat-cycling

theruleslawyer said:

100% surely the factory could do the treatment far more cost effectively that even tire rack. 

I doubt the factory can make a business case for investing in the floor space, capital equipment, tooling, head count, and training required to pull this off at a price delta their customers are willing to pay.

In reply to Andy Hollis :

Thanks Andy, it's good to know that doing the heat cycling myself is effective. I found out that Costco sells the RE71rs, with free mounting, so I'm back to doing it myself. 

You mention not spraying them. What spray are you using when you do?

Bergzee24 said:

You mention not spraying them. What spray are you using when you do?

I meant to reply to this earlier, sorry. When running tires that begin losing grip if they get too hot, you can cool them by spraying water from a garden sprayer. 
Examples of tires that slow down when too hot are the Yokohama A051, Bridgestone RE71rs. 
It's not something you can do when running track laps. It's common practice in autocross, depending on conditions, weight of the car, etc. My front wheel drive car with the open differential and extra demand and weight on the front will heat those tires a lot faster. I often don't even spray the rears. 

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

100% They need to spun on roller and deformed a bit like they would on a car. I know first hand the benefit of heat cycling, and off the car is the next best thing to on the car, done properly of course. It is also very important to cover the tires for a minimum of 3 hours to let the tires cool back to ambient temps slowly. This is the extra step that PTS Race Tire & Wheel ( Phil's Tire Service) does that makes a difference.

I know this a bit of a canoe but I will chime in with an opposite view.

I am a big proponent of heat cycling tires, yet I often don't.

The issue is I do two vintage races a year and I do them within 4 months of each other.  For those two events the heat cycling doesn't offer enough benefit to warrant the extra effort.

After the two vintage races I do 3 track days. Hoosier tires put me in unlimited class at local time trials and I'm totally outgunned there so again I get no tangible benefit form heat cycling them.

Also of note is due to the leaf spring rear suspension the car cords the inside edge of the rear tires long before the tires go off.

In reply to DaleCarter :

I'm a little late getting back to this reply, but, after running the RT660s to the cords at Barber, Sebring, NCM and Road Atlanta, I will never buy another set of tires without heat cycling, if offered. If one vendor offers it and the other doesn't, I will pay more per tire to get them heat cycled.

If the vendor doesn't offer it, I will make the needed arrangements to heat cycle them at a track day and let them rest.