Your tyres should roll a little bit onto the shoulder. Some tyre manufacturers will put little triangles on the sides of their tyres, right at the point the tread stops, with the point of the triangle pointing outward toward the tread.

You know your tyres are rolling correctly when you can see that the wear pattern just touches the point of the triangle.

You might have to look closely to see the triangle.

The air pressure that gives you the ideal maximum grip is not necessarily the air pressure that is going to get you through a course the fastest. On a high speed course, you might get the hang of the left foot braking that brings the nose down hard to get instant grip and oversteer. On a slower course, however, you might actually be faster with higher pressures that minimise the dynamic tread patch changes that occur with the weight transfers.

I can give you an answer that will tell you how to tell you have the maximum grip on a given tyre, but that is not necessarily the answer that is going to get you through a particular course the fastest way considering the design of your course and your talents in relation to that course design.

You might actually come away with FTD at an event where you have deliberately sacrificed some grip for smoothness.

There are a number of tyre and handling experts who post at the RR Forum at www.honda-tech.com. If you don't visit there, you might want to think about looking in.