Nick Apex Talks About Tires and Drifting

We all loved Nick Apex's video review of Avon tires (click here to see it) in regards to stunting which he recently released. Since Nick seems like a man who has really sat down and thought about what he needs and what he gets out of his tires, we think he's a great person to talk specifically about tires and drifting. For StuntBums drift week we got him to break down the basics for us.

Nick Apex: First things first, every tire is different, and every tire changes as it's life is spent bending to your will. So there are no absolutes and the skill needed to look like a pro will differ with the style of rider and how old the tire is. Much like anything freestyle you'll evolve and with it your needs and wants

Hard Compound

Good for holding the same drift until you blow the side wall.

It's great for new drifters to start with something of this nature. These tires tend to have a long life and will be forgiving when you make mistakes. They'll also allow you to scrub speed by backing off the gas and physically pushing the tire to a slide. I'm currently on a tire that is described as a dual compound sport touring tire, the Avon Storm 2 Ultra. On the plus side I can override the tire and at no time will the tire take me for a ride (read: toss me on my ass from a highside). On the negative side it takes more time to build up speed as the tire is slow to hook back up once broken free. I feel confident that for off brake drifting this is a superior tire for multiple revolutions.

Now all said, let's talk about on brake drifting. On brake drifting is disputed as not the real thing, and that's true, it's not drifting related to what cars do and where the name was grandfathered over to us. But nonetheless if you're hanging your ass out and swinging back and forth with little front brake we should talk about it as it is motorcycle drifting. With front brake application on this sort of tire you simply don't have enough rear traction to hang it out at the same level you can with a race tire. These tires allow mistakes still but don't reward you with the ability to power push the front back into shape.

In other words, with heavy gas the rear would rather swing around as opposed to transferring throttle input to forward momentum. It's subtle, and if not measured you probably can't tell with the eye one tire compound vs the other. However, when going from one compound to another back to back, you'll probably find an advantage with the added grip from a softer compound tire

Dual Compound

I'm very accustom to dual compound tires and can say other than the fact I wish they didn't exist (we as freestyle riders could use sticky not hard compound centers) they affect very little. The Avon VP2 series are all dual compound, so is the Storm. They changed to dual compounds recently and my transition to the new style for drifting was negligible. Same with Michelin dual compounds, I didn't have a noticeable issue with the tire

Soft Compounds

Great for fast direction changes and building speed through a drift.

Let's get the most common question out of the way; they're not as good for drifting, sort of. Why? Because you can't get away with as many mistakes as you can with a touring tire. And why sort of? Well, if what you want out of drifting is fast direction changes rather than being able to drift around until you're ready to puke, sticky is better. Now that's out of the way.

They're also amazing for drifting because you can build a lot of momentum with slight corrections to the lean of the drift. You can also trust the tire to regain traction when you push it a little too far but want to keep it from low-siding. I've ridden all brands and have a great time with the differences in compounds. Just know that you must commit to your angle and speed and that the need of commitment it's on a sliding scale graduating up with tire compounds.

So, if you're on a Viper series Avon (same as Qualifier/Powers in market position) you get more speed and angle but the moment you fall out of the drift you'll have a harder time getting back to that same position than if you were on a touring tire. On a track day tire? Same theory but up a notch, harder to get to that angle/speed back once you break it than if you were on a sport tire. Now on brake drifting with these tires I love. You can really push the speed and angle over that of a touring style tire.

Last note about track day tires. LOTS of fun can be had playing around with these tires. I don't recommend them but if you can get your hands on one and try it go for it. The compound reacts so much to heat you'll be able to ride as if you were going up and down 10psi as you gain/lose grip with heat cycles throughout a session. Fun stuff.