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Originally Posted by A1337STI
uhm, ya , sure i'm kidding...
I thought the point of heat cycling was just that literrally the tire heating up to (say 220F) release some of the solvents from the tire, giving you a tire with a better level of solvents.
kind of like how using tire enhancer on an old tire makes it better. (it puts the solvents back in that on an old tire has lost much of)
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Per the TireRack link above:
Quote:
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The first time a competition tire is used is the most important. During that run, its tread compound is stretched, some of the weaker bonds between the rubber molecules will be broken (which generates some of the heat). If the tires are initially run too hard or too long, some of the stronger bonds will also be broken which will reduces the tire's grip and wear qualities. Running new tires through an easy heat cycle first, and allowing them to relax allows the rubber bonds to relink in a more uniform manner than they were originally manufactured. It actually makes them more consistent in strength and more resistant to losing their strength the next time they are used. An important heat cycling step is that after being brought up to temperature, the tires require a minimum of 24 to 48 hours to relax and reform the bonds between their rubber molecules.
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It's not at all heat related... it's about stretching the rubber. Stretching just happens to heat up the tire, and that's an easy way to measure the break-in, so it's called a "heat cycle"... but the heat is the byproduct of breaking in the tire, not the purpose/catalyst.