Are PR4s amazingly good or is my car amazingly shit?

[owl10]

When were the tyres last replaced on the polo? And the rears?

Many have said abiut upgrading car components (tyres, suspension) to make a fair test, but you could do it the other way round.....

Take the pr4's off the bike and fit some old vulcanised chinese ditchfinders instead. Also replace your bike shock with something more focussed on being built cheaply than performance, and with far more miles of wear and tear on it to reduce its capability further...

Youll probably be somewhere closer to comparable then!
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[matto]

[talkToTheHat]

I concede there's only one piece of quantitative data ive mentioned in the sea of qualitative data. I just don't make the same journey in the same direction back to back all that often, and comparing dry and warm conditions is pretty pointless.

Existing tyres had been on about 3 years and have 3-4 mm of tread so not dead, but i have come to the conclusion they are pretty rubbish. I've thrown some Michelin Crossclimates on. A set of four cost me about the same as a pair of PR4s so spendy but not eyewatering so. They feel so much better in the cold and wet. Too soon for quantitive comparisons, ice on the bike or on the path next to it makes me reluctant to ride and rather thankful for the shit car, which is now less scary in the conditions i got it it to drive in.
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Bandit. does. everything.

[B5234FT]

I've put a set of Crossclimates on the Mrs car and been pretty impressed with them, moreso when I jumped back into mine back to back (one series and three series)

I think the other thing worth mentioning is that a polo is comparable to a 250 commuter bike, almost any bike has better tyres, suspension etc than a car as they are far cheaper so people buy at a higher price point. They also do fewer miles so the suspension sees less wear.

[talkToTheHat]

I'm aware the polo is not the height of handling. I was briefly in a position where I *had* to have a car, now it's just convenient in the winter. Getting rid of it would be problematic as it was kind of my mum offloading an excess car on retirement. It's not what I would have chosen. It's cheap to insure but quite thirsty on the fuel.

165/70R14 tyres aren't exactly sporting and i've ridden faster 125s. I think my takeaway conclusions from this are 1) the schoolrun tailgate-train runs quite close to the limits of adhesion in foul weather. 2) cheap tyres (I found the reciept £39 a corner, including fitting) really are rubbish. 3) If i'm slowing down on the bike because it feels quite slippery, the homicidal knobsack behind me should be aware of it too and should be considered a threat.
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Bandit. does. everything.

[spnorm]

I drive about 15k business miles a year and don’t skimp on tyres as grip is important on crappy roads, especially in winter.

My BMW 320d had Michelin crappy eco tyres on when new and they were awful; no grip and very flexible side walls. A change to Michelin Premacy 3 tyres improved grip and handling no end

My current Golf GT has Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres fitted and they really do stick to the road. You can almost corner as quickly in winter as you can in summer, so twisty roads are still fun at this time of year unless they’re icy.

The tyre profile and suspension is also important though. Little commuter cars tend to have high profile tyres and soggy suspension, so don’t generally handle well

[bikertomm]

I genuinely think on tight-ish corners and bends I'm quicker in my mx5




Mainly because no fucks given and I feel I'm far better at driving quick(ish) than I am riding a bike quick.

Grin factor on the bike is more, because I'm worse.
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07' Honda Hornet now full powaah! My guide on performing an oil change!

[F1.ash]

OP - check the date code on the tyres. If they're older than 4 years bin them. Premium tyres for that won't be expensive so don't scrimp if you have to replace them. An alignment at the same time probably wouldn't hurt either.

[arry]

[Ste]

Why did the tyres on your 911 last four years?

[arry]

[talkToTheHat]

I sprung for michelin crossclimates in December. I'm quite glad I did given the amount of snow that's hit. Clumsy footwork pulling away and they spin up like anything else, but it's settled on aforementioned favourite bit of road and they're sticking well beyond when they were expected to. They really came into their own during the snowfall though. Many people getting stuck or failing to make it uphills. Not a problem.

I did check the age of they tyres, they weren't that old. There were odd wear patterns on one, but that was an alignment issue I'd already had corrected.

By shopping around I found crossclimates for £10 a corner more than cheapnasties so I'm really not complaining. I think all 4 cost about as much as the last PR4 rear I had on the bike, not sure If i had something else minor done at the same time and I can't be arsed to dig through reciepts.
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Bandit. does. everything.