help me understand bike setup vs. (front) tire durability

just read this hayden quote from monday's post-race testing:

"One thing we really worked on was trying to make the front tyres last
a little bit longer because I've been hard on front tyres this weekend
and I think we achieved that."

what sorts of suspension and frame adjustments can be made to improve
tire durability, and what's the mechanics of how that durability is
realized? seriously...to keep it simple, lets focus on the front-end.

what adjustments are made to improve front tire durability while still
maintaining (or improving) grip? and how do those changes *cause* the
improvment in front tire durability?

walter

 

I'm no expert on bike setup and there are certainly things these teams
do that are beyond a lot of people's understanding due to the variety
of setup options. That said, the general idea is that if you increase
trail, you increase stability, especially on the brakes (worsening
side-to-side transition time somewhat) and allow the rider to brake
deeper into the corners. So I would read the quote to mean they tried
to get away from that a little by decreasing the trail a little, which
would allow the rider to brake a bit longer in a straight line, and
then quickly lay it down on the side. This kind of riding might be
bad for a defensive line, as it would expose the inside longer before
reaching the apex.

Other possibilities include similar goals with respect to offloading
some of the braking work from the front by maybe turning up more
compression damping on the rear to keep the trail short on corner
exits to allow the bike to continue steering well after the apex.

 

It's fairly safe to say that we won't know exactly the problem because they
don't, (yet?) and when, or if they do figure it out I kinda doubt they'll be
real forthcoming with any answers. It may very well be as Mark noted before,
trying to ride around a problem they can't dial out is resulting in
excessive tire wear and most likely until that particular problem is
addressed by the engineers at HRC he'll struggle. Now, what priority that
"lack of feel thing" gets in Asaka is anybody's guess and open to
conjecture...(My guess? He's pretty much fuk'd, at least for the time
being...)