I really dig the nostalgic look, and have been planning for a set of bias ply BF Goodrich silvertowns for my mild custom 65 Riv. Question is How will they affect the ride? Better? Worse? Same? I was told recently they are good for fenderless cars, but I would be sacrificing my ride quality on my car. Is this true? Thanks.
I put a set of firestones on my 32 last year and they ride great and look good. I'm extremley happy with them. Try a set, you can always go back to radials if you don't like them. But I think you will like them. IMO, an older car looks better with Bias tires. If you want a nice ride, go buy a 2009 Caddy.
I have an uncle with a '39 Chevy Coupe sedan which had bias ply white walls and about 12,000 miles on them. He said he didn't like them because it seemed like his car was all over the road.
Takes getting use to if your freeways have rain grooves. The first time I drove my '31 with bias plys, the car wandered. Within a week, I was drinking coffee with one hand and driving with the other.
The ride doesn't suffer too much but Handling may suffer as they don't usually track as well as radials. The rolling resistance is a bit higher but on a Riv you probably won't notice the difference in gas mileage. What you will notice is a large difference in tire mileage. That is if the car has a static height suspension that is and was aligned properly. In the early 70's when I worked for Firestone in a store in TX the best bias tires were good for maybe 35,000 if you rotated them every 5K and had the alignment checked often. Now a joe average set of radials is often good for 50K+ and it isn't unusual to get a lot more than that out of a lot of them. If you only drive the car 7/8 thousand miles a year or maybe less it won't be an issue but for some of us who put serious miles on a car every year it can make a difference. You kinda have to remember that some of the loudest proponents for bias tires on here don't really put that many miles on their rod or custom every year. Some don't even take a road trip over 100 miles from the house. Many don't drive the rod or custom except to events or on special occasions. At all other times the daily gets driven to save the rod or custom the grief of traffic and wear and tear. Then you have HRLC who puts more miles on her radials on her rod in a year than many guys here drive theirs in a lifetime.
Go with bias plys... Have em on the 65 ss and have no problems, and they look a whole hell better then radials
he is referring to Hotrodladycrusr (Denise) and she drives the heck out of Big Olds (purple convertible 48, note color of my post). I agree 100% with this entire post. Any other sentiment is just that, sentiment. If you want facts and truth, read no further.
i have always run the denman g78's and l-78's on my cads. they look great but handled like ****, especialy the 405 in so-cal, or any so cal freeway , ride was alright, but as mentioned seemed to wander and grab the grooves alot. i recently threw on some supremes with thin radial whites for the round up, and will from now on be running radials.
Loosen up your steering box, and you'll never know it's the tires!! Seriously, I run them on my 59 Olds and I haven't had a problem with it wondering!!
With a light car - 2400# 32 roadster - I run lower air pressures in its radials. 30# up front and 20# in back. I've run as low as 26# in front and 12# in back. Those pressures due to the different max load levels and sturdier construction of the tires. I'm curious if you guys running bias plies are running lower pressures in the lighter weight tires?
Bias ride very much softer than radials. When radials started to become standard equipment on new cars, they offered 'radial tuned suspension' Mostly because we all complained that the radials transfered each tiny bump into the car, as each seam on the concrete. The main change made was to the shocks, they had just a fraction of travel before the dampening kicked in. Thinking was this would let the small bumps be taken up in the springs, and not be transfered. We all forgot there was a differance because the radials wore much longer and had better grip on curves....but... I swiched to bias on my bike to get WWWs, and I could tell the ride was so much better in just the first mile. As long as I can get bias plys, I'll never go back. Its a cruser, so I don't need maximum speed ratings
i have denman g78 on my 51 yes they wander but youll get used to it. before that i had firestone pie crust 670's as long as you run up in pressure and keep the tread flat/square you will be fine and the car will drive great i love by bps
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