I’m nearing the end of my set of Michelin Pilot Road 4s which I put onto the C14 after the NI1600. This was my second set of PR4s and I’m still very happy with them.

Since we’re nearing the end of their life it’s a great time to check the wear pattern to see what they tell us about my setup.

I’m starting with the rear because it’s the one with the most pronounced traits:

This is a dual compound tyre and feels really well suited to my mix of riding which is a combination of commuting on rural roads and motorway along with spirited riding at other times. Sometimes two up.

I tend to ride these fairly highly inflated. Normally with the rear at 43-44psi and the front at about 42psi.

It may not look like it but there aren’t any true virgin chicken strips on these tyres, when it’s cranked over I tend to be very light on the throttle though so wear out that far is non existent.

The biggest trait shown here is a major tendency to develop a raised leading edge on the secondary compound. Something apparently indicative of too much rebound compression. It’s too slow to return the tyre back into normal traction over bumps.

I checked the rebound settings tonight and found that they were on ‘2-half turns’ out from full, out of a possible max of 6.

So to see if I can get this pattern to change in the next two weeks before I replace these tyres, I’ve wound that out to 3.5/6. If I start to see any leading edge wear before I change them, then I’ll wind this back to just 3, if not I’ll leave it at 3.5 for my upcoming holiday to see what the longer distances start to show. 🙂