5 things guaranteed to wreck your tyres

1. Not letting them warm up

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Most of us aren’t at our best first thing in the morning, and your tyres are no different. Give them a few miles to warm up, if possible, before you put any extreme cornering, acceleration and braking loads through them. You wouldn’t thrash your engine from cold before the oil has had a chance to warm up, and it should be the same with your tyres.

2. Heavy braking

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The hardest task for a tyre is heavy braking. In fact, maximum effort braking causes three times the wear of heavy acceleration, due to the abrasion of the tyre against the surface of the road. Sometimes an emergency stop is vital, but repeated heavy braking will wear your tyres out, fast.

3. Tyre pressures

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Having the correct pressure within your tyres keeps them working within the operating window that they were designed to work in. If they’re underinflated, they will wear significantly quicker and fuel consumption will increase. Try to check your tyre pressures at least every one to two months; buying a home tyre pressure gauge is money well spent, too. 

4. Don’t overdrive your tyres

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If you overdrive your tyres, you won’t find any more grip, you’re only liable to simply wear them out. A tyre will squeal in a corner because it can’t give any more grip. If you feel your tyres giving up like this on a track day, call into the pits and have a break; otherwise you risk destroying your tyres. 

5. Be aware of obstacles

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Whether it’s debris or potholes on the public road, or razor-edged kerbs on a track day, try to be kind on your tyres by avoiding impacts as much as possible. If you’re going to use the kerb on a track, think about the angle you’re going onto and coming off them. If you’re parking up on a kerb, mount the kerb slowly at 45 degrees - don’t scrub clumsily up against it.