would new pins be better than worn spikes next time round if the conditions are the same or similar do you think?

I put decent spikes on Jon's car and he was way happier with it, improving by over a lap. I had only chance to do about 2 laps with it, but it felt pretty good to me.
I ran new pins in mine which were way too much up front, so I went to more worn fronts. I think the spikes were better on the slippy stuff, but the pins gained you a ton of time where there was carpet. So probably pins were ultimately a bit faster but harder to drive.

ok cheers john, as my driving skill level is quite a bit less than most I guess I will give both a try next time in practice and see which I make the least mistakes with lol

I also tried both minispikes and minipins and settled on pins in the end. The minispike tyres give a little more traction on the slippery floor but just don't hook up to the carpet very well at all, essentially making the entire track feel slippery.
I went to minipins on the rear of my TM2v2 with yellow cut staggers up front (pins on the front would be suicide with a forward motor car like mine!) and as john says I was able to make up a lot of time through the carpet section despite having to be a touch more careful on the slippy.

Another point is that minipins do tend to improve when they bed in and definitely felt that was the case with mine. Also don't be afraid to give yellow cut staggers a go indoors. Provided they are in a relatively new state they will give you the steering you need on a mid motor car along with being far more predictable to drive than pins on the front.

Just my thoughts,


Chris

hey chris - I noticed with the bury lads that cut staggers are used there and have always intended to try my yellow cut staggers indoors but never have done on my bmax2 mid motor car so will have to give them a whirl as well and see how they go for sure - I do have a tendency to go with other peoples suggestions which are great but I think I need to try things for myself as well as my driving style may suit a different tyre to what others use??

I'm one of the bury lads in question mate. Our indoor venue features very high bite carpet so running pins on the front consistently involves such a delicate driving style it's just not suited. Our slippy floor isn't quite as slippy as batley so cut staggers are ample for most people and transition between slippy/carpet well.
I've been setting up my forward motor tm2v2 for very low grip and have found at Bury slightly used yellow minispikes give more traction on the slippy floor whilst still having enough on the carpet.

This combo did not work at Batley due to the differing grip levels so as you can see it's not always as simple as having a 'setup for slippy', 'setup for grippy' as every track is different.

Something I always try to do is to keep staggers on the front of the car whether harder or softer compound over going to any sort of spike. Staggers are low profile in comparison to minipins/spikes so when you change to the chunkier tyres your suspension will behave differently as the chassis will droop more when running at the same ride height.

Just my opinion of course,


Chris

so a good selection of tyres and decent practice time to try the different combos is way to go I guess to see what works for the track your on at that time

Pins all round are what you want to be on at Batley indoors, brand new ones will be terrible on the hall floor and won't wear in by the end of the meeting - worn about half way down is about right.
I was trying to wear out some pins for Worksop, they were almost down to slicks and mine had plenty of grip :)

how do you guys wear them down enough so that they are right (apologies from a new minion like me) as the places I tend to go are batley, cullingworth and York which are all pretty slick tracks - as the only pins I have are brand spanking new ones.

Also does it matter if they are glued onto standard or slim wheels?

danny has the best advice.

York is a good place to scrub pins in as they start working quite quickly there. Once I think the tyre is in its prime i box em and start another set.
Aim is to always have some that will work, and manage scrubbing new pairs.

would it take the full session (3/4 races) at York to have them worn as needed pal?

This shouldn't be encouraged as it can burn grooves in the floor, it's also not very effective as you wear the spikes at angles the car would never wear them at... I always try to politely say something if I see people doing it (likewise cars stuck nose-in on a pipe and pinning the throttle out of frustration like a nob) as if we piss off the venue and get thrown out it ruins it for everyone.

Best thing to do is run them on carpet, as Danny said York works pretty well as there's usually enough carpet to give them some pain and the grip on the floor when new isn't too bad for the first couple of runs. A 100% carpet track is the ideal thing to scrub tyres for somewhere like Worksop I've found :)

Great advice. I will remove my earlier post - sorry for mentioning it.

thanks a lot Richard, will try and scrub some up at York I think then :) I know what you mean about people pinning the throttle when stuck on a pipe etc ......I have nearly burnt my fingers on peoples rear tyres a few times because they are revving the hell out of the car as I pick it up to get it back on track racing, maybe my fault but because I try to get cars back on as fast as poss when I grab hold of the car, but then again until the car is back on track it isn't going anywhere so no point revving until its back on track