Will I regret if I switch to bias plys on my 56?

What size is the same as 205 15?Where is the best place to buy?

 

670-15 and the ride is not that bad if you have good springs on your car. but it will find every rut there is on the interstate!!!!!

 

do the switch, it won't be as bad as you think, and you'll get used to it...

 

the ride may not be quite as smooth as a radial,,,but on a traditional car you can't beat the looks....

 

Amen

 

They like to skate on the freeway a bit around 60+, depends on the weight of the car and stuff too I think.. I'd do it!! Just costs more $$$.
-Anthony

 

If ya' plan on driving your car and get more pleasure outa' driving it than lookin' at it, then I'd stay with radials.

Handling, ride comfort and directional stability will be worse with bias.

I've had repop bias and never enjoyed the driving experience of those cars until I switched to radials.

If it's a fendered car, what's the big deal anyway?

Bias is Fred Flintstone era technology. Too many good looking radials are made for me to backup 30 years.

 

i rock wide white bias plys on my 54 and it looks really good... but handles like hell. i guess it depends on how much distance driving you are doing.

 

I agree tottally here,I went to Radials on a 56' in 1971 with a set of pirrelli Cinturatos,the difference in sheer driving pleasure is like night and day. I'll never reccomend bias ply tires for anything and I drive too much to worry about profiling.

 

go to Coker Tire he gives HAMBers a discount.

 

Will look cool but will take getting used to it .The first couple of trips you will think you made a bad decision .But after you get used to the handling its fine .My 2 cents

 

I bought my '62 valiant wagon in 2000 with old bias plys, and drove it that way for a couple of years. Handled ok, never noticed anything particularly bad, but 'upgraded' to radials when they started looking bad.

I immediately lost almost 10 mph off my comfortable cruising speed (went from 70-75 to 60-65) and i didn't notice any improvement in handling at all. I compared the tires, and the bias plys are about an inch taller than the radials (hence the term 'pizza cutter'). going to radials was like changing the gear ratio. Those cars were designed to run on bias plys, and unless you can find some mighty tall radials (or swap rims) I'll bet you're going to notice a difference.

 

have you driven a car with bias tires lately? there is a reason they went with radials many years ago. save the bias tires for the TRUELY traditional hotrods

 

Nothing will get me to walk by a car without a second glance like a set of Radial tires. Sometimes you have to sacrifice comfort for style.

 

I have a set ready to put on my 54 as soon as the weather clears a little.

Bought them off the board for $200 With next to no wear. If you look you don't have to spend alot.

 

go with the bias plys, I'm happy the way my 49 Ford drives with them. The radials just don't look right on vintage cars, not that there is anything wrong with them just my 5 cents worth! go with bias plys !

 

if you really want the car to handle well..... drive something else.


bias plys just plain look right. do it.

 

i have put over 10K on a set of firestone bias plys and everybody always goes on about how they have to ride like shit but I have no problems with them what so ever.

if you are that worried about your car riding that perfect then buy a honda.

it would be like putting a independent front end on your model A because you don't like the way your straight axle rides...

 

I agree with this. If I were to run bias plys on something, it would be an open wheeled hot rod, or something that I wouldn't be driving much.

Malcolm

 

A big heavy car on bias plys is going to drive like crap, especially the more sidewall it has.

 

Modified Driver hit the nail on the head, I will never waste my money on bias-ply tires again.
Times change, we are all on computers, benifit from modern medicine etc. why go back ?

 

Around town or car shows use the bias. If you rack up a lot of miles and don't want to chase hiway ruts use radials. I wouldn't run bias again if they were free, I rack up too many hiway miles.

 

I have to agree . Its funny , you see a sweet ride and walk up to it and start checking it out and BAM ,, radials . You walk away ..

 

They bolth have good and bad points. Bias will work better on trailers .If you drive a lot use radials.However if they sit radials will swarm before you wear them out. Take a look at the junk tire piles at a truck stop where the over the road trucks frequent. You will see lots of radials that have plenty of tread that went bad.Almost all the bias you see will have been wore slick. I reciently bought a 57 chev that had ancient bias with tubes that were flat.We aired them up and pulled that car 100 miles on those tires. It sat for4 months.We sold it and hooked the wrecker to it and took it about 60 miles. The Missouri inspection sticker on the 57 was from 1969. Try that with radials that were sitting on flats and see how far you get.Just guess how i know. OldWolf

 

yes!!!!!!

 

I run radials on my daily driver '56.. all the other cars have Bias-Ply.

When I bought my '56 it had bias-ply on it and I drove for a year or so before I switched out. The Bias tires were at least 20 yrs old, going by what the previous owner told me. Good tires, but I got tired of fighting road grooves, potholes etc.. Besides I drive 20,000+ miles a year in that car.

 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; I daily drove my 4400lb Tbird on bias-ply's during my college days and they sucked! Looked cool yes, but damn it handled like crap and stopped like crap. 2 accidents to prove it; they'd probably have been avoidable, or much less severe had I been able to stop quicker when on two seperate occasions people turned left in front of me.

 

Aw jeez..not the picture of this guy again!

 

hot rod chassis said it best!!