Are you still running the OE Kendas, or after market tires Vegas Dan?? If the former, see above; if the latter, what tires, & what sizes?? :dontknow:
Given the good feedback you've already got from others, and that we
really need to know all that info requested above (by me & others!
) in order to provide any
specific feedback/advice, as a general comment, many people who complain about '
their Spyders feeling squirrely in turns' can't really tell us exactly what makes them think that?! :dontknow: . You need to understand that there could be a number of reasons for that feeling.... some may be your riding style as above; but have you checked your suspension components lately?? Had a wheel alignment? Is everything up to spec & in good nick?? Do you know if the 'squirrely' feeling is feedback from the steering, in which case it could be that the front tires are
over-inflated; if it's a movement from the rear tire part way thru the corner, it could be
under-inflated; OR (& this is surprisingly, at least to me, after quite a few years working in the industry, far more common than it should be...
) both/either could be that many
people have simply become used to riding (&/or driving) on over-inflated tires, and they are simply not used to the sidewall flex that
SHOULD be present when they are running radial construction tires, and what they
THINK is '
not conducive to handling' (both for their car & their Spyder!) is actually providing
greater traction than if that sidewall flex was not there! :lecturef_smilie:
Radial tires work best if they are run at a pressure that best keeps the entirety of the tire tread/contact patch on the road; too much pressure marginally increases how 'direct' the steering may feel, but significantly decreases the amount of tread that remains in contact with the road surface, which MASSIVELY reduces traction, ride comfort, handling, resistance to punctures or catastophic failure from road debris, tire life, and the list goes on! And if you're old enough to have learnt to drive on cross ply tires/have always ridden on cross ply 2 wheel motorcycle tires and become used to that feel & ride etc, or if you've become used to riding/driving on hard/over-inflated radial tires that would
not only feel softer & a bit squirmy-er at their optimal presure, but
they MUST feel a bit like that to perform at their best in order to serve you best, then it will probably take some time riding/driving on tires that are run at a more appropriate pressure to get used to that! But if you persist, you'll gain confidence over time due to the greater traction, better ride, handling, improved tire wear, etc etc etc that running radials at or near their ideal pressure will give you..... but if that's your addition & you want to cure it/get better everything from your tires, then you'll
HAVE to persist long enough to recover from the addiction to over-inflating your tires! :banghead:
Admittedly, there's a fairly fine line between over-inflation & under-inflation, and those drivers who simply set & forget their tire pressures for months on end (if not forever! :shocked: ) are far more likely to be running under-inflated tires than over-inflated tires, but if you regularly check your tire pressures & pay attention to the changes that should occur in their pressure over time and as you ride, then you shouldn't have any real issues. FOBO &/or similar Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems make it easy to keep an eye on your pressures, but you should still make a practice of checking your tire pressures and their condition at least monthly, if not weekly or even more often if you do a lot of miles! :lecturef_smilie:
That said, a good '
Rule of Thumb' to use to help you get your tire pressures close to the ideal pressures for
YOU, the loads
YOU carry in/on your vehicles, and the way
YOU ride/drive in
YOUR current ambient conditions & on the surfaces
YOU are riding/driving on is '
the 4psi Rule'. There are others, chalking, measuring footprint length, actually doing the calculations for the load/conditions/major variables that might impact, & a whole bunch more, but for the time & effort it takes,
the 4psi Rule is quite easily done, repeatable, and will get you very close to ideal pressure taking
ALL of the variables into account for the riding/driving you've just done so that it gives you a fairly good
guide for what's coming; and if you use it regularly then over time, then you will likely learn very quickly to get pretty good at estimating what changes you'll need to make for the riding/driving you are about to do - altho for our lightweight Spyders, any changes are likely to be minimal at best - which is why the 'about 18 psi for a/mkt tires across the board is always going to be pretty close!!
How do you apply this
4psi Rule - start by checking your cold start pressures before you ride/drive anywhere for the day, and then head off & ride for an hour or so (or as long as your regular ride/commute might be
) The aim is to see/achieve a 4psi increase in tire pressure after an hour's worth of riding/driving (or whatever/however long your regular ride/commute might be/take.
) An increase of
MORE than 4psi means your cold start pressure was too
LOW, add some air pressure
NOW; while an increase of
LESS than 4psi means your cold start pressure was too
HIGH, reduce your cold start pressure before you next ride/drive. When you know which to do, add or subtract air as appropriate, it's a good idea to only change your pressures by 1/2 of the pressure difference between what your pressure
actually got to after an hour's ride/drive and what it
should have been if it went up by 4psi - and there's no real point in adjusting pressures by anything less than one whole pound of pressure! Any adjustment of less than 1psi is simply chasing your tail into the endless minutae of ever increasing but overall quite meaningless accuracy! So if you are within 1 psi of that 4psi increase, that's probably close enough for most riders/drivers, even if you might see the F1 Teams or other regular racers &/or professionals making smaller adjustments - for most of us, if the pressure is 1 psi
LOWER than the 4psi, it's easier just to brake a little later, corner a little harder, or drive/ride maybe as much as 5mph faster; and if it's just 1 psi
HIGHER than the 4psi, simply knock 5 mph off your speed & drive/ride accordingly. The point is that the 4psi thing is simply a gude to make it easier for you to get closer to the ideal/optimum pressure for your driving/riding, load, conditions etc, and there's no point in worrying about anythong nthat requires an adjustment of less than 1psi, it's really not going to make
that much difference! :lecturef_smilie:
Sorry about the epic tome, but you did ask, and it's sorta hard to condense years of study & learning, experience, etc into a quick description....
. To be any more specific in answering YOUR question Vegas Dan, we really need that info I asked for at the top.
Over to y'all! :cheers:
) are far more likely to be running under-inflated tires than over-inflated tires, but if you regularly check your tire pressures & pay attention to the changes that should occur in their pressure over time and as you ride, then you shouldn't have any real issues. FOBO &/or similar Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems make it easy to keep an eye on your pressures, but you should still make a practice of checking your tire pressures and their condition at least monthly, if not weekly or even more often if you do a lot of miles! 
hyea:
