Warmers
So,, been thinking about this,,and here's Warmer's 101. I'll try to keep it middle of the road but there will be some info-mercial in this.
Basically the warmers we can afford are wire based warmers. The negative of a wire based warmer is you get cool spots between the wire.KLS makes a carbon mat warmer [I have a set] but in fact, you still get cool spots between the mats of carbon. So If we were to use KLS as the "best" warmer product out there,, lets see what I have learned from the others.
First off the wire does not like to have bends.So on the warmers that have a zig-zag pattern across the warmer you will have reduced life. The wire is ordered,, you can order single strand to 10 strand.We use a 7 strand and I have not seen any other warmers currently made with more then 2 strands.Picture the heating wire as a thick strand of hair. The wire has a Teflon coating to keep it from bending and braking. The wire is specified to have a 1/2 inch space between it and other wire.If this is not adhered to the Teflon bakes and snaps the wire.
Now because a warmer design is forced to have a very slim profile,,, it sucks at retaining heat.In most cases most warmers loose well over 50% of their heat through the top of the tire. So it doesn't matter how you make heat if you aren't getting it to the tire. This past winter we spent days trying new products. Finally I found a very simple product that doesn't raise the cost of the warmer retail wise but is the "bomb". We actually retain more heat then we loose now. Or heat soak the tire quicker!
There are very good insulators out there like Nomex,,about $50 a set. Kevlar is much cheaper but not as good. Most use a cotton based insulation,like a Thinsulate but not nylon based as it will melt. So we in fact use two insulators, Kevlar and a fire retardant foam material.
Now back to the wire. No matter how you lay the wire a front takes about 50 feet a rear takes about 100 feet. So if I use the same wire as most do,, the front obviously will come up to temp much quicker then the rear. So you run the risk of heat shocking the front tire. Or if the front is good you,, assume the back is. Or you waste the thermostat cycles in the front as it's bouncing off it much sooner.
So we use a wire for the rear and a higher resistance wire in the front.
Now covers,,, tried the big side wall coverage but they hang up on the calipers. Tried the "green"light is good to go,,,messed up more heads on cooler days.So go rid of that.
Also, the thermostats can be ordered to fail open or close.If they fail closed and all you do is put your warmers on for 45 minutes life will be good.Should 45 minutes turn into red flag turn into lunch ,,well they just get hotter. With thermostats that fail open one day they just won't seem as hot. So, the best thermostats you can get have 100,000 cycles available. That relates to about 3-4 years in regional racing life. Nationally it's about 1.5 to 2 years. We actually design the warmer to retro fit new thermostats.[did about 6 sets this week] So if you look after your stuff and get 3 years on the original thermostats then pay $75 to $100 for new thermostats to be installed ,over 6 years+ that's not bad. We have regional racers here going on 8 years on one set of warmers,two thermostats.
The programmable warmers,, well lets say the hard part is to get the displayed temperature to represent the actual tire temperature. If the display is not even close to the tire you have and will learn nothing. Good boxes are good money.So I won't go cheap there. I remember working with Steve Dick and they were using a US based design. The tire was only 64 C and the display showed 85C. The rider was cold tearing tires like crazy.
So these are questions you need to ask. I got into making warmers because I got tired of trying to fix my XYZ warmers. Nor did they last more then 2 years. So my warmers aren't cheap,but nothing we put in them is.I could source cheaper products or go to China and buy them for $80 a set.[nightmare]
But we don't make them in a factory,,just three people make every set. Honestly,, no warmer is perfect but most of all,, how long and where does it need to go to get fixed! That is the big question. A warmer has a hard life! So being able to get it fixed at a nominal fee is the big question.
JB