Originally posted by alternativeauto
Back to my idea, most slicks have small holes in them to detemine wear. These are the holes you use to measure tread depth. I don't understand how getting your tires wet and driving down the driveway is going to determine correct contact patch. When you launch, the tire expands changing the contact patch of the tire, pulling up and down the driveway with a waterhose in hand cannot duplicate dragstrip launching conditions. If you are consistant and check the change in tread depth after every pass, it is very easy to determine whether or not you are using too much or too little air. Once you have acheived a even patch if you are still spinning then you might want to consider a different compound or larger slicks.
This is why I hate trying to help anyone in here, somebody always knows everything
If there is too much air in the tires, they will leave a mark skinnier than the actual tread of the tire. In other words, if a 26 x 10 tire is leaving a 5 inch wide mark, you should probably take it down some, unless, as mentioned, the rim is too narrow for the tire, then it will never sit right. Once you get them to where they are leaving a mark the entire width of the tread (or as close as they will get with the rim you are using), that is a good starting point, and you can adjust down from there until you get a good bite. All I was talking about was a starting point, no tread depth guage is going to tell you what pressure to run. In all honesty, you are probably not going to be riding on the entire width of the tire once they start expanding at higher speeds anyway. One does not need to actually
measure tread depth, one glance at the tire, and you can see the wear pattern, we're not talking 60,000 mile radials here
