Looks like a lockup hotspot but also like it’s delaminating. Odd.
Should have changed that one about 3 races ago.
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I was getting ready to say the same thing @fatboy1dh
That’s fully used for sure. Those lines are the cords.
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Hey, it’s not solid white yet between the lines.
Yeah you’re out of rubber, that’s the canvas. How old are these tires?
I’d have to look back and add up the laps, but maybe ten days of practice. I bought them in July and run a couple times per month, so just guessing. Shouldn’t have been that bad though from laps alone. @Bimodal_Rocket no lockup on that one - it’s a front in 206SR. Along that line, I’m not heavy either, just 370lbs
I would just double check your alignment and make sure you’re not prematurely burning off the tires due to a toe issue.
This might be semantics, but they’re “falling apart” because they are worn to the cords 
. The cold day probably finished them off with push.
It’s hard to judge without knowing number of laps. Ten days sounds like a lot of laps though. As TJ said check alignment as a precaution, if handing is fine though send it down road. If the kart is bound up that can burn up the front too.
I love semantics - getting cause and effect correct isn’t trivial. I’ve been struggling with bind for basically all the last half of the year, so it has always required a ton of steering input to get the kart to lift and turn. The rears have the same diagonal striations though; I saw them first on the rear and assumed it was just superficial until the front started opening. I ran them a couple more laps and then it delaminated like in the picture. The tire I grabbed out of the dumpster did better but not hugely better
It’s gonna be hard for the kart to do anything on tires like that….
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It wasn’t doing anything well before that, but it sure didn’t help. I’m very curious what new tires will do to the handling issues I’ve been working through though for the last several months
I know you think we’re being harsh, but whatever the kart has done the last 5-10 sessions is absolutely worthless. Get some good rubber on there and start over on your tuning.
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It’s so true about tires and yet it’s a mistake I continue to make. Less so than in the last though. It’s too easy for to explain away a lack of performance to tuning or driving.
Again it doesn’t look like delamination (in the pics anyway), there’s just no more rubber left
Oh no, I didn’t think anyone was being harsh. I welcome bluntness, haha. If I sound defensive, it is only because, from everything I have read, the tires just shouldn’t have given up the ghost this badly and I don’t want to gloss over that, buy new ones, and hose them just as quickly. Looking at my data log, they had 28 full sessions prior to this last day (yesterday). Say each session is ten laps counting in- and out-laps, that’s “only” 300 laps. So not spring chickens, but to look like they were done for 10 sessions ago (I agree with that estimate) puts them well within the expected life of a practice Red for a newbie who needs seat time above all else. So… what went wrong? Here’s that same tire on September 4th (10 full sessions done). It looks pretty cone-shaped to my fledgling eyes and a decent bit of graining on the inside half. Outside is not loading up, so my thought when taking this picture was “there’s too much camber either in general or for how little lateral load I am generating. I should try driving better before tinkering”. Eventually (like two weeks ago) I removed all static camber, and some of the plow went away but not most of it.
Sorry, missed this post when reading through. Following my July race (first time using these tires), I bent the frame in the week’s session thanks to a darty cadet… Frame was then straightened and given a ‘baseline’ alignment by an extremely well-regarded team owner. I assume this was done correctly, but, in the name of ‘don’t touch it, just learn to drive’ I never checked the alignment with my snipers. It certainly drove straight ever since, but that’s my only verification. I do want to get an alignment with it on level ground with me in the seat to see what real numbers it is hitting.
How tall are you Caleb?
5’10", 150lbs. Ballast is mostly low (seat back, bottom front edge of the seat below both knees, and two more near my ankles on the front tray). Especially in cold conditions, I could probably benefit from raising some of the ballast up on the seat
Do you have a photo of the rear tires at the same time as the front?
Your tires were done before the rubber started wearing away. Heat cycles mean more than rubber depth. Driving on bad tires isn’t good seat time in my opinion.
Also, getting your weight low is only for top heavy people. At 150# you need the weight up imo. Karts don’t work if you can’t transfer.
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Knowing when to blame the tires vs driver comes with far more experience than I have. My best test was letting a faster friend do some laps in my kart session before last. In five laps, he was running my exact time. On one hand, that shows how much I’ve acclimated to a kart that “won’t turn” (his feedback), he would’ve gone faster than me if he did more than just a warmup, easily. So no matter how terrible the tires are, I can always get faster at this point.At least that was my thinking until this one fell apart.
Heat cycle = oil loss, right? Everything I’ve read on here that they eventually go dead from losing oils, but they shouldn’t be wearing down like this. I’m thinking @tjkoyen was onto something asking about toe. That is a single explanation that tie all my symptoms together.
And yeah, low CG is not helping, but I did recently raise my seat and all the lead attached by an inch, and that made no difference. I’m still going to raise the rear lead, but I think that isn’t the root cause, just a contributor. When my faster friend drove the kart, he couldn’t fit down all the way into my small seat and outweighs me by like 40lbs. It still didn’t turn