Product Reviews

Product/Service: Tirewarmers
Manufacturer/Provider: PDI - www.tirewarmers.com
Reviewed by: Jeff Kufalk

Tirewarmers were once rarely seen in the paddock, and only seen by the top riders of well organized teams. In recent years, this has changed significantly, to the point that most new amateur racers pick them up in their first season, realizing the benefits of them.

With the "boom" of tire warmer use, there has also been a significant increase in the number of choices people have for brands of tire warmers. Each one of them with their own marketing spin, from "America's Original Tire Heating System" (yet the brand name has the English spelling of Tyre), to "Be like Aaron Yates" (do I get boxing lessons?), and just about everything in-between, while prices range from $450 to over $1000.

Everyone is trying to provide their best sales pitch. Most of them are centered around some top AMA/FIM/GP team which uses their product. However, the one which caught my eye that I had to call on was simple enough:

After 5,000 hours of R&D we found only 2 things.
We can make them better
We can make them cheaper

With an advertised price of $299, I was quick to toss down my Roadracing World magazine and point the laptop to www.tirewarmers.com.

The site is strewn with thermal images resembling a DNA breakdown from a physics class, and information regarding the construction and history of these particular warmers.

The second thing that intrigued me (because let's be honest, the PRICE here takes the #1 spot) was the construction. The unique concept which PDI has here, is to sandwich the heating element between two layers of silicone. This has a couple of valuable functions. First and most importantly, it allows for a very even heat distribution. Second, it holds the heating elements in place, preventing them from shifting which will cause air pockets (of NO HEAT), or worse yet, touching another wire causing overheating and meltdown of the warmer.

In my researching of any new product, I start with the website and immediately follow it up with a phone call to grill the owner of the product. Jim Gentz, owner/creator, gladly took my call and fielded my questions. He had a very reasonable view on how warmers should be constructed. Don't waste extra money on overkill, but provide the best heat distribution and construction possible. Constructing a tirewarmer from materials which can withstand 1500 degrees is costly, and makes no sense since your tires will be a pile of molten muck well before that temp. Get reasonable in the materials and save some money. Then pass that savings on to your customers.

Jim's PDI Tirewarmers also offer several unique options that are very attractive, such as:

I quickly settled on a set of warmers with the Superbrite LED's, Contact switches, Piggy back plug and the Red/Black split-top color (go Honda!). The options are very reasonably priced, and the total MSRP came to $350. Which is still $100+ better than most any other MSRP I could find.

Shipping was via UPS ground and took about a week to my WI home from CA.

What's in the box:
Plain & simply enough, a pair of warmers and some idiot-proof instructions.

The box itself is a really handy step-stool type box which has enough room for a 100' extension cord and the two warmers.

My immediate initial thoughts on the warmers were:
These are heavy
Stitching looks perfect
Solid velcro & construction
Should have shock cord versus solid nylon for sides*
Could use a cooling rack**

*Talking to Jim, the shock cord is available and they can give you this should you request it. They decided to go with a solid nylon cord as default, based on the request of the Factory Yamaha crews who are using these. After having the warmers on the bike, I am sold on the solid cord. These warmers are of a bit stiffer construction because of the silicone, so the solid cord works perfect in getting the edges down tight.

**When I say a cooling rack, I'm referring to something to hang the warmers on while not in use. After using these, they do not need any rack or time to cool off. They do cool relatively quickly on their own. I will simply be hanging them by a nylon cord and piece of PVC on the canopy rail while not in use.

In all, they are pretty impressive. You can definitely feel the layers of silicone in them. The silicone makes them a good bit heavier than traditional warmers which may have a foil liner or no liner at all. The weight is more of an observation than any type of an issue though.

Putting them on for the first time was a little awkward. See, the silicone layers have to "break in" and get used to being curved around the tire. This took about 3 warming sessions before it became nice and limber.

The contact switch is a pretty cool option as well. When you put the warmer on, you have to secure a single band of velcro around the inside of the wheel to hold the warmer on. From there, you wrap the warmer around the tire, and follow up with two beefy velcro tabs as well as another loop around the inside of the tire. This second loop holds the military-grade contact switch against the tire and allows the warmer to turn on. When the warmer is removed, it automatically shuts off. No more burned up warmers!!! The Superbrite LEDs let you know positively that you've got things on right and that they're heating up the tire.

Now, on to the important stuff. How well do they work:

Install:
Putting them on, as mentioned takes a bit of care and patience as mentioned until they're broken in, but following the break-in, you can get them on in just a few seconds, and taking them off is even quicker. The biggest challenge of it during the break in is getting the edges down tight and keeping good constant surface contact with the tire. After break-in, this is effortless.

Heating:
For this test, we used a TIF7000 Tire Pyrometer, which is specifically designed for measuring the carcass temp of a tire. With a tire probe tip, the internal rubber temperature is measured versus simply measuring the surface. Surface measurements don't really tell much since the surface will heat/cool in seconds. Internal is what counts.

Anyway, for this test, we used a set of used Dunlop 208GP tires, mounted on the OEM rims of our 2003 CBR600RR, and tested in a controlled temperature environment (my 72 deg F. dining room). We then measured temperature in 3 spots on the tire at varying increments using the TIF7000 pyrometer with tire probe, as follows:

Front Tire

Time
Left Edge
Center
Right Edge
PSI
0:00
70
70
70
32
0:15
101
93
101
34
0:30
139
134
141
36
0:45
156
154
156
37
1:00
159
159
158
38

Rear Tire

Time
Left Edge
Center
Right Edge
PSI
0:00
70
70
70
30
0:15
101
92
102
32
0:30
138
133
139
35
0:45
154
149
154
36
1:00
159
157
160
36

A majority of manufacturers recommend a 160 degree Fahrenheit temperature for optimal traction.

At the 1 minute mark, you could feel heat from the warmers with your hand above them. By 15 mins, the heat was pretty good. By 30 mins, the heat was intense! These things REALLY put out the heat. When I was measuring, by the end, I couldn't comfortably hold the tire to get a good reading. I was putting a towel on the tire so I could get a good grip.

By the one hour mark (between the 45min and 1hr times), the warmers began cycling on/off as they had reached the maximum temperature. Very nice that they are regulated and will not 'overcook' a tire so to speak.

In the end, tirewarmers are a big investment, but one which is not unreasonable and will pay off over and over again. Like many other racers, when I started out, I felt that I couldn't afford tire warmers. I learned a costly lesson my first weekend when I crashed in practice on cold tires. $500 worth of bike repairs PLUS a set of tire warmers to prevent it in the future.

Warmers are a very sensible buy, and looking at the options available to you with PDI, it's one that you don't need to spend an arm and a leg on for extremely high quality.

The top 3 reasons I went with PDI for my warmers?
1 - Price. $299 is the lowest MSRP advertised for *ANY* set of new warmers on the market.
2 - Perfectly distributed heat simply makes sense.
3 - PDI is very reassuring via phone and email, and has an excellent attitude toward customer support.

In the end, you can certainly go with your BickleBakerChickenSox, but I think the innovation and aggressive pricing of PDI certainly provides a good bang for your buck, and is worth a look. Apparently they're good enough for the factory Yamaha riders too, but hey, who are those guys to say what works?!?!

Check out www.tirewarmers.com and tell Jim and the folks there you saw this review.

Did you find this review helpful? Think it sucked? Tell us about it in the forum!

Copyright © 2005 Kufalk Media LLC - All rights reserved