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

Well, yeah, but I was talikng about a recent (last year) production tire. A guy I met at one of the shows here bought his from Costco (they had to special order them but were in Costco's computer at the time) I forget what exact size they were (7.50 16, 8.00 16 ?, they were on a GMC truck). I just can't remember the specifics for what the tire was, except that it was a Michelin product.

 

That wasn't the important technical part I deleted ................. it was was your personal observation part.

Yes, I said look good as a static display. You can drive them to the moon if ya' want to, but technically the bias can not compare to radials in the following areas if you were to do a back to back evaluation:

• Straight line stability on a variety of different roads.
• On and Off center steering feel (steering torque).
• Steering response and linearity of steering inputs.
• Transitional Stability: f/r balance, lateral firmness, lateral damping.
• Cornering: initial placement, path uniformity, large steering angle response.
• Ride Comfort: large & small impacts, vertical damping.
• Noise: tread whine, joint slap, cornering squeal, sizzle.
• Braking and Cornering Adhesion: dry and wet, break away & recovery.
• Snow performance.
• Rolling resistance (fuel economy).
• Tread Wear.
• Uniformity (are they round).

These are just some of the areas that are evaluated to determine tire performance. The list can goes on, .

AND this isn't done just for passenger cars or tires on high performance vehicles, it's also done for light and medium duty truck tires in unloaded and loaded conditions.

So, you can drive your bias tires all day long with a smile on your face, but technically there is no real comparison with radials in overall performance. The only thing they have in common is being black and round (well at least they try to make them round).

I'll save the discussion of adaptation of radial tires on old cars for another day.

 

So here's my stupid question of the day, since i'm to young to have driven these on a daily basis-sound like a good enough excuse anyway. Whats the differance on the bias plys between the size ratings that Coker makes for example between a 7.10 x 15 and a g7815? is it only a size rating thing or any gains in drivability. Outside of the picrust look anyway. The G78's were considerably cheaper, just wonderin.

 

Is there a pic of your car anywhere here? It would be funny after 4 pages of this if the car was a neon painted 80s custom and everyone is preaching run bias for the look!

 

Where did I say bias were better performing than radials? That's not my point. Obviously radials perform better. But bias tires are NOT the quick ticket to hell that radial preachers advocate.

 

I'm lost as to what your point is . I think it started some place with the cell phones and the dogs . Now we have religon involved (preachers & HELL). Anyway, all I can say is: BOW-WOW, go get'em Fido .

 

HAMB : Traditional Hot rodding & Kustomizing : Old cars modified to look like they where hot-rods or kustoms built back in the period they are ment to reflect, built with parts available back in the days / Or old Hot rods & Kustoms built back in those days ... Good or bad.
"Radial" tires are by far better than "bias plys" when it comes to performance , ..End of discussion !! , If you want reliabillity : A Chevrolet SB-engine is a much better choice than a Ford Flathead ...
A 9" Ford axle is superior to an early Ford banjo ..
A BMW is safer than a Tucker ...
A well built Street Rod is as safe and comfortable as any old car can get . Street-Rod or Traditional ... Your choice .
Traditional stuff is like a shitload of pain , BUT the gain is worth the pain . imho , that is
Klaz

 

I purchased my Brookville '31 roadster partially completed, and it has Coker reproductions of the B.F. Goodrich "Silvertown", 8.20X15 and 5.60X15 WWW already on it.
They do look good, and I not gonna go buy something else just to get a more modern tire, I'm too cheap to not use them up! By the time they're worn out, I'll know how I like them well enough to make an informed decision on the next set. I drove for about 25 years on bias plies before I ever got a car with radials and survived, but I have noticed that flats are way less frequent now.
The Hiboy is gonna be light, and it is a straight axle car, so it ain't gonna ride like a new car anyhow, so that's not even a factor in it for me. Also, since it's so light, I expect they'll withstand pretty much any speed that I'm willing to drive nowadays with John Law having no inclination to let you get away with a small fine if they catch you much above 75 mph.
Dave

 

That's obvious. I'll type slower next time.

It's called an analogy.

 

Let's see here ........ similarity in some respects between things otherwise unlike: partial resemblance.

Cell phones, dogs, hell, tires. Yeah, how dense of me . I get the point now .

Here it is:

"Hi Honey I'm callin' ya' on my cell phone from the the cruise in. I have Fido with me, oops wait a second, BOW-WOW, BOW-WOW. , Fido, Stop... You'll go to doggie hell for peeing on that WWW Bias ply tire!!!, I'm back now Honey, what were you saying".

 

No no no, this is worse than I thought...

(typing even slower)... the analogy was the hell/preacher part. The fire and brimstone of the saftey experts telling us bias is UNSAFE and radials are the answer! Simple concept really.

the dog/phone/iPod/lane changing at 80mph comment referred to the way people TODAY drive on their "safe" radials vs how they used to just DRIVE on their bias tires. Just driving the car... that's it... no techie gadgets to distract them... People today multi-task when they drive. If you try to do all those things in a car with bias tires, then yeah, you might be asking for trouble. But if you drive the car and concentrate on doing that... (similar to when riding a motorcycle) then it's not that big a deal. Seriously! I've done it! For thousands of miles! I promise! I haven't been in any parades either!

If you don't get that, then I don't know what to tell you. If I type any slower, I'll have to break out a pencil.

 

in my opinion, just because they made radial tires in '46, doesn't mean your car will be traditional with Radials



for example, in 1955 some guy with a Mullet could've painted neon pink laser beams on his monochromatic merc. just because it was done once, doesn't make it traditional

 

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Chris ur awesome.

 

I vote for bias plies. I'm running them on my full-fendered daily driver, and I have no complaints.

While it's true that radials are available in a range of profiles, I have never, ever seen radials equivalent to a 700-16, to fit a 4.5" rim. And I still have yet to see a radial with the zig-zag tread and the piecrust edges. Details like that really make a car.

 

Normally I could go on all day tossing stuff back and forth, but my stomach is telling me I need some mexican for lunch .

I'm outa' here and I'm callin' Fido, the trained bias ply pee dog, off attack mode. He sees some radials in his future .

 

When I finally finish my Olds I will put some bias plys for when it's sitting still at a car show. They definetely look period perfect. But for when I am hauling ass on our badly deteriorated highways I will keep my Diamondback WWW radials on my big, heavy Olds 98. Form, as always, should follow function.

 

That is EXACTLY what I did for one summer and trust me when I tell you changing out wheels/tires every weekend just so I could look cool cruzn to the cruzn nights during the week and then putting the radials back on every Thursday night for the out of state car events, was just not worth it. HUGE pain. In 7 years not one person has ever pointed to my car and said "EEEW, you've got radials on your car....you're so uncool"

 

I can believe this is even debatable..............radial tires look like crap, end of discussion. Would any of you (Plowboy excluded) have Richard Simmons pose in front of your car if it was going to be featured in the next Traditional Rod & Kulture? Why is that?!?!?!? Because it's gaahaaayyyy just like radials on a traditionally styled car.

 

...except a car with radials won't get a feature in TRK.

 

just ordered a set of 670s from coker last night for my 50 chevy. great price, great service. this is my first set of bias plys.

i've heard all kinds of horror stories but fuck it, i gotta find out for myself. i've got a good set of radials to switch the front out on the highway if it get's too crazy. then again i'll only be driving 60mph with a 216.

 

Some day I need to learn how do the picture thing ,but so far no pics of my car unless you go on n1gzd's site and look at Tyrod's 2007 pics.It's satin black nosed,decked,shaved,custom grill,Lancer caps,lowered,white tuck & roll and glassguy ground white wall radials.

 

There is never an end to this discussion.....that said, my car (60 ford wagon) had radials on it when i got it....first thing i did to the car (about a month after driving it daily) was put bias plys on it....my gasser has bias on it and it wasnt too bad so i had some things in mind that i was expecting with the bias. the only thing that followed over from the gasser was the tracking on the highway. i dont have any more road noise than the radials, the ride is actually softer than the radials (seems to me that the taller sidewall of bias ply tire will do that). the tracking is marginal when the tires are properly aired (run down on psi a little and they get pissy), its a gigantic car, so i dont drive it like a race car, but it takes turns like any other car on the freeway. plus my car doesnt look stupid anymore. it looks right.

 

You will get a very simple photo posting tutorial while at the RoundUp.....and a couple of CD's

In the meantime, email me the photo of your car and I'll host and post for you.

Denise.Sheldon@mybrighthouse.com

 

I've been 160 mph on off-brand unrated bias ply tires...several times "back in the day"...and I'm still alive to tell about it. To hear some tell of unsafe at any speed bias ply tires, that musta been some kind of miracle.

In 1979, I had two cars...both driven a lot in town and a lot on the highway. One had G60-15 Goodyear polyglas radials and one had the above mentioned off-brand G60-14 bias ply tires. I couldn't tell one bit of difference between the two sets of tires in drivability, smoothness, handling, etc.

Now, a steel belted radial is a whole different story. They are crap at low speeds. Wobble...wobble...wobble. And the steel belted radials are the tires that actually have the sidewall flex that some attribute to bias plys. They feel like you're riding on Jello at low speeds and also in the curves.

And as to safety...think about all the recalls of radial tires for radial separation. I've never had a bias ply tire come apart. And, that includes the used bias plys and the recaps that I've run over the years. On the other hand, I've lost count of the number of radials that I've had replaced for separation. In fact, when they recalled the radials on my Explorer, one of the tires that they replaced them with separated! The problem is so bad that the NHTSA has a whole search category on radial tire recalls because there has been so many. They only have four categories total (by vehicle, by equipment, child safety seats, and radial tires)! You may want to geneflect the next time you drive a car with radials.

Do I look down on hot rods that have radial tires? No.

Do I look up to hot rods that have bias ply tires? YES!

 

my 53 bel air had radials on it when i bought it. i drove it till the side walls rotted and blew out in paso. i bought a set of bias plys, and they rode fine. this car was my daily driver. then, once again on my 41 chevy coupe. i laugh everytime these threads come up. i dont know where the horror stories come from. of course radials are a better performing tire, but the ol' bias plys have worked just fine for me. if i want something that drives like a new car, i will buy a prius.

zombie

 

Bought bias plys when I did my 55. They followed every crack in the road on the highway. Sold them to Corvette resto type at a $25.00 loss each and was glad to do it. don't know if this allowed by here goes.... found this link on that auction site. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Orig...tcZphotoQQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

Dees one?

Going to PM you.

http://www.pangalacticconsortium.com/cars/CarEvents2007/TyRods_2007/imgpages/image045.html

 

Yep,thats mine.

 

Holy shit that is a nice car. Go with bias. PLEASE!!!

 

well shit..........just when i was finally feeling like a real man,
i find out the disk brakes and dual reservoir on my '56 GMC
make me pussy! ahhhh hell! i've got radial tires too! i guess
i better start squatin' to pee.