Pilot Road 4 Vs Pilot Street Radial

[Pete.]

I have two identical bikes (BMW R1100s), one I bought shod with pilot road 4's the other came with Bridgestones I think but near the end of their life so I fitted it with Michelin Pilot Street Radials after talking to Chris at FWR.

I bought the Street Radials around April/May this year as I wanted a tyre with decent longevity, and I figured that I could wear them out through summer and switch to a more premium tyre for winter. I had found that the tyres tracked and turned well with very light inputs but I felt that the carcass was a bit on the stiff side and transmitted every tiny bump and stone through the suspension. I also found that the back brake would lock up very easily in the damp and tend to skip and slide on rough down-changes. I figured that might improve once they were worn in but they didn't seem to get much better after a few hundred miles.

Well I crashed that bike and it's been sat in my garden all summer. The replacement bike came with Pilot Road 4 tyres with loads of life on them. I was impressed by the immediate improvement in feedback of the PR4's and totally different rear-end behaviour to the Street Radials. Just recently the bike has been getting very squirmy over lines as the tyres are just about worn out so I've started looking at replacements.

This weekend I noticed that the front was almost bald on the sides, worn like a pyramid with the peak chopped off so I whipped the wheels off the dead bike and swapped them over to my current one. The light handling has come back with the tyres being barely worn but now on this other bike the Street Radials are performing better than on the other with no nasty little slips on the rear brake.

So now I'm torn. I have to replace my tyres but can't decide between £150 for a pair of Street Radials or £250 for Pilot Road 4's. The Street Radials are a nice enough tyre to ride on but you do feel the road surface a lot more and I'm concerned about their ability to retain heat in the cold and wet. That said, I've no idea how the PR4's perform in winter so will they be any better, or at least better to the tune of an extra £100.

What say you , BCF massif?
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[SQL]

I love my PR4's on the MT I don't really change my riding style when its wet either, I am looking forward to testing in winter but no nasty suprises yet.

[MarJay]

I had a similar experience when I bought my Buell. I have Pirelli Diablo Rosso Corsas on my Street Triple, and they've been on there for a couple of years. The front end has cupped badly and the rear is just starting to square, even though there's still plenty of wear left. Then I bought the Buell which had Maxxis tyres on them. I expected them to be crap, but actually they feel great. Confidence inspiring even though they have a harsh profile. I do like Pirellis, and I always have since I first had them on a bike, but I'm surprised to say I'd definitely recommend the Maxxis tyres.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F; Cheap project: CBR900RR FireBlade
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Slacker24seve...]

Wouldn't the abnormal wear suggest a problem with your suspenders?
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Triumph Daytona 675 track bike + girlfriend's Honda Hornet 600
Selling a hack/winter bike for less than a grand? PM me.
Banger rallies are ace

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

Again, another happy PR4 user here. The PR4 GT to be precise. Next time I'll go for the Standard PR4 as these GTs seem a little on the stiff side without a pillion or luggage.
They're a bazzin' tyre.

I still prefer the old PR2 but reckon NOS isn't the way to go with tyres.
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Diabolical homemade music Bandcamp and Soundcloud
Singer songwriter, Artist and allround good bloke Listen to Andrew Susan Johnston here
The Harry Turner Project

[MarkJ]

Pilot Road 4s (and 3s for that matter) are 'good' in winter from experience. You can still spin them up as it's cold but they're a lot better than some tyres I've used in the past. While the PR4s might be £100 more expensive, how many more miles are you likeley to get out of them? I'm on something like 6-7000 miles on my set now, tread depth just under 2mm.

The centre compound on the PR4 is a lot harder than the edges, so if you do a fair bit of fun miles you might end up with a tall centre band that steeply drops away as it moves into the softer compound. Motorway commuting has sorted that out for me though

[Pete.]

[Pete.]

So general opinion is that the PR4 is a good tyre for cold and wet?

Can't say that I'm slagging off the Street Radial. It's a decent enough tyre and I reckon will put up an impressive mileage but there's still this nagging doubt about wet weather grip. I think I'll try dropping the pressures a bit and see if there's a change.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[MarJay]

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

Pete. I'm a saddo who listens to a bikers podcast hosted by bike test journos. They've mentioned the PR3 & 4 on more than one occasion and in a positive light, and they ain't sponsored so no sales tactic.
____________________
Diabolical homemade music Bandcamp and Soundcloud
Singer songwriter, Artist and allround good bloke Listen to Andrew Susan Johnston here
The Harry Turner Project

[SQL]

The only issue with the pr3 I found was that the right hand side was bald completely and the left was 1-2mm left.

[Pete.]

[Kaya75]

PR4's on order for next week here, week off work so a bit of excuse.. Really time to run em in properly.. Esp after leaving the lights tonight on way home, dry and Warm day down south, backend spun up like a good'un snaking away like a boss.. Wasn't meaning to leave the last of my legal tread of some way past sell by date perilla on the Tarmac either... Had pr3 last winter on old bike, they where beautiful

[mentalboy]

[Pete.]

Well it looks like it's PR4's then. They'll last me through to spring which should be a good test of the poor weather performance.

I hope that extra £100 is worth it - actually it's more than £100 because I usually do 2 fronts to a rear but the front has gone away first this time so I'd be buying pairs every time. That's £234 vs £480 - double the cost.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[Pigeon]

[kramdra]

2 rears for a front is bollocks. Fronts have significantly less tread from new (4mm vs 6mm), and on a rear it matters far less. I run rears down to the cord, but all my crashes have had a front around 2mm. Therefore I now change early around 2mm, not that much above legal.. rears have 3x more usable tread.

I went back to PR2's, quite happy. I imagine being harder than PR3, its not soo much different to a PR4 at half price But brand loyalty is a stupid thing. Plan to try pirelli angel's next.

[Pete.]

Of course it's bollocks, that's why 10 years FWR tyres ran a 'pack of three' deal for 2 rears and a front with the reason that this is the ratio most tyres wear at.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070820092530/https://www.fwr.co.uk/
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[mentalboy]

[Serendipity]

My PR4s will be up for replacement very soon. They’ve done just over 10,000 miles and still technically legal, although the centre of the rear is getting close. That’s pretty consistent with the experience I had with the 3 pairs of PR3s I had on the bike before these. They all managed similar mileage and could have done more if I wasn’t reluctant about touching cloth.

I’m finding that the front wear is making the bike a little squirrelly over white lines so I’ll be changing them as a pair in the next few weeks.

In my experience the CBF1000 has worn front and rear at the same rate. That could be down to the type of bike, weight distribution etc, but equally I think tyre design has changed over the years to make the fronts a little softer. I’d rather a bit of a spin up from the rear than having the front wash out. 10 or 15 years ago I was regularly doing 2 rears to every front, but looking back those tyres were a load of old gash compared to these current sports touring ones. I remember slipping and sliding all over the place on the likes of Bridgestone BT202s then suffering appalling handling as they became squared off. Chalk and cheese compared to the modern stuff.

When I fitted the PR4s I actually didn’t like them as much as the PR3s. I had a lot of trust in the 3s and it took me a while to come up to that level of trust in the 4s. I felt the 4s were a little more flighty and quick steering compared to the assured turn in of the 3s. However the grip has been plentiful and the rear has worn without squaring despite being hammered with motorway miles.

I’d be interested in trying something like the Dunlop Roadsmart family, but I expect I’ll go with the Pilot Roads again. They’ve been excellent so “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”.



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2007 CBF1000 & 2016 CBF1000F - Commuter heaven | 1994 CBR600FR - Awaiting defibrillation

[blueglue]

im another sucker for PR4's

Ive still got 1k left on my Dunlops (dead after 2.5k) but will go onto PR4's straight after.

I get mine from tyreleader.co.uk

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

FWIW I used the RoadsmartII last year and they were also a great tyre but wore a little quicker than the PR2.
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Diabolical homemade music Bandcamp and Soundcloud
Singer songwriter, Artist and allround good bloke Listen to Andrew Susan Johnston here
The Harry Turner Project

[Pigeon]

[chickenstrip]

[Pete.]

I've long been a user of Battlax/BT02* tyres and they have always worn 2 rear to 1 front, but that's always been commuting in town and on commuter bikes. The BMW is far superior to my Bandit in the handling stakes so I tend to be heavier on the front.

Anyway, Pilot Road 4's are fitted to my wheels, collecting them tomorrow
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good