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The role of tire pressures, and especially for the front tire, has grown in importance in recent years, as aerodynamics and ride-height devices have made the front ever more sensitive to pressure and temperature changes.

It is common to hear riders complain of temperatures and pressures skyrocketing after getting stuck behind other bikes, and kept out of the cooling air.

It is therefore not surprising that factories and teams try to manage tire pressures as carefully as possible.

Honda went into the Indonesian Grand Prix widely seen as potential front runners. Pol Espargaro had been fastest in the test at Mandalika a month previously, Marc Marquez had been quickest on the second day of the test, Honda riders had set a consistently fast pace, looking better than their single-lap speed.

What’s more, Espargaro was coming off a podium at the season opener at Qatar, the race where Marc Marquez had finished fifth.

To say the Indonesian Grand Prix ended badly for Honda is an understatement. Pol Espargaro was fastest Honda once again, but the Repsol rider crossed the line way down in 12th, 33 seconds behind the winner, Miguel Oliveira.

Espargaro was one of only two Honda riders to finish in the points, crossing the line just ahead of Alex Marquez on the LCR Honda in 13th. Takaaki Nakagami could only struggle to a 19th place, 49 seconds behind the winner.

That wasn’t the really bad news, however. The worst blow for Honda was the fact that Marc Marquez manage to miss the race, and perhaps endanger his chances of the 2022 title, or worse. Much worse.

After the first MotoGP race of 2022, the Qatar Grand Prix was over, an observant Twitter follower asked me why the symbol used for Marc Marquez’ front tire choice was different to everyone else.

Watching the replay and then consulting the analysis PDFs on MotoGP’s new results section made clear what Marquez had done.

He and his team and chosen to fit a soft front tire that had been scrubbed in, and consequently, had been used for one lap already.

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic threw a spanner into the works for MotoGP in all sorts of ways. In response to the pandemic, the MSMA decided on an engine and aerodynamics freeze for 2020 and 2021, to limit costs in a time of uncertainty.

That went a long way to restraining costs, but as the world adapted to the pandemic, and it became clear that a global economic crisis had been averted, development budgets started to rise again.

Episode 233 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this show covers the MotoGP action from the British GP at Silverstone.

On the mics, we have David Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler, as they cover what turned out to be a very eventful weekend in Austria.

The guys cover a busy weekend in the UK, and start things off with a discussion of Quartararo’s win, and whether it means he has the 2022 title in the bag, or whether a crash like he had in FP2 could still stop him in his tracks.

With a lineup of popular choices for sport bike enthusiasts, Pirelli is now bringing out the next generation of its street-focused tires, debuting the Pirelli Diablo Rosso IV.

As the name implies, the tire is the successor to the venerable Diablo Rosso III, which is billed as a performance street tire for sport bike riders, suitable for mixed weather conditions and higher mileage uses.

The Rosso III sat below the Diablo Rosso Corsa II tire (one of our favorite street tires) in terms of performance, with the DRC2 being a street tire that also performs well on the race track.

Be careful what you wish for. For four months, MotoGP riders sat at home and twiddled their thumbs, hoping for the racing to return. They got their wish, but there was a catch: the season opener is in Jerez, in July, in the withering heat of an Andalusian summer.

It was positively punishing on track, especially in the afternoon, once track temperatures started to creep into the mid 50s °C. The track gets greasy, and that catches riders out, especially rookies. Alex Márquez was one such rider: the Repsol Honda rider tucked the front at Turn 8, disrupting the plan for the session.

“In the crash, I was too optimistic, coming from the morning with a good feeling on track, you know,” the younger Márquez brother told us. “I made a rookie mistake.

The grip changed quite a lot from the morning to the afternoon. I was a little bit wide in the entry, but I was on a good lap so I tried to go back to the right line but I was a with a little bit too much lean angle on a dirty surface, and then the front was just closed.”

Understanding how the heat affected the track was the key to the afternoon. The track has plenty of grip when temperatures are in the 30s and 40s°C, but once the mercury creeps past 50°C, the grip goes away, turning the MotoGP bikes into a real handful.

By the end of FP1, track temperatures had hit 40°C. By the start of FP2, the track temperature was already 54°C, and rising.

Today we have some interesting news regarding tires, as Metzeler has released a unique track slick into the market.

Called the Metzeler Racetec TD, the German brand says this slick has been made with the track day enthusiast specifically in mind, and one of its many features is that it doesn’t require a set of tire warmers to be used properly.

The Metzeler Racetec TD is sort of a sister tire to the Pirelli Supercorsa TD, which is a DOT-legal street tire that has been optimized for track use – and also without the use of warmers.

As you can imagine, the Metzeler Racetec TD is a track only slick, but it follows the same line of logic as the Pirelli Supercosa TD.

A form of motorcycle racing that doesn’t really ever get its proper time in the limelight, the hyper-niche of drag racing motorcycles is often overlooked in the two-wheeled world.

This means that in many cases, motorcycle drag racers have had to make do with what’s available to them, and for those who race in a Pro Street Bike class that requires a DOT tire, that has meant a world of compromises.

Dunlop hopes that is about to change though, as the tire-maker has just released its first purpose-built DOT drag racing tire for motorcycles, the Dunlop Dragmax.

Hello from a sunny Ronda, Spain where we bring you a different type of “Gone Riding” review. Instead of a particular bike to test, we will be hopping onto a plethora of motorcycles, in an effort to put the new Metzeler Sportec M9 RR tire through its paces.

The successor to the highly revered Sportec M7 RR, the Sportec M9 RR has a high standard to live up to, especially as the “hypersport” tire market has seen an influx of strong competitors.