Using a Durometer

Hi, everyone. I am thinking about investing in a durometer in an effort to be somewhat analytical about assessing my tires. I intend to try to track the degradation of the tires and try to predict when they are done before I find myself out on the track with crappy traction. Questions:

*Will this work? Will a durometer be sensitive enough to detect the changes in my tires over several sessions of use?

I know the rating will vary by tire manufacturer and by tire compound, but is there are target reading for a "good" tire?

*Is there a rule of thumb regarding what the readings will be when the tires are done being useful?

*Do I need to buy a fancy digital guage or can I just use a guage with a dial?

TIA!

Dave

Rule of thumb: When you start to see cords, the tires have two more good sessions remaining. Please use newer tires for practice/qualifying and the WELL-corded tires for the race (especially if I'm running). :D

I've obviously been thinking about this all wrong! No wonder I can't keep up with you. I'll try this, based on my performance thus far it can't hurt!! :blink:

The dial gauges are fine. It's what we use in our labs for rubber sole testing. The main issue that you are going to run into are that durometer readings are temperature dependent. I have access to gauges anytime I want but have never seen the usefullness because of the variation in ambient temperatures and the lack of desire to develop a temp vs. durometer coorelation so I could get accurate adjusted readings throughout the race season. Much easier to track heat cycles.

I actually tried using one from one of the tire guys and couldn't get any useful info from it. May have been using it wrong. :shrug:


What kind of tires are you using?

I have a dial durometer from Longacre and have not found it to be very helpful for myself. I just count heat cycles.

I did use it not to long ago on some brand new tires that had just arrived vs. some stickers that were over a year old, I could see a difference in the readings but knew that would be the case before I even checked.

I'm using Hankooks, and love them. However, I don't have a great deal of experience with anything else so my opinion means nothing.

Does anyone have any experience with the number of heat cycles Hankooks can withstand before falling off? They are said to last a bit longer than Hoosiers.

Thanks!