Radia Tire ??

[recumbentbob]

I've never heard such a thing.
took my 08 Nomad to a little shop for tires. Put an Avon Cobra radial on the front and a radial CT on the rear.

When I picked it up the owner said there is no way I should run radials on a bike designed for bias ply. He said bike mfrs told him if they wanted radials on it they would have designed the bike for radials. He also implied that there is a difference in wheels for bias VS radial.
Told me to be careful I said i would and rode home.

Never heard of such a thing, have you?

Bob

[trosco]

Hey Bob, some bs there and some sort of truths there.

Wheels (car or motorcycle) are designed diferently for tube vs tubless tires and you can go tubed tire on tubless rim but not the other way!

Wheels (car or motorcycle) are not designed differently for radial vs bias ply tires. But suspensions were changed when radial tires came into widespread use. Were you riding on the ragged edge on your 'Busa you might notice some degradation of perf if you stepped down from their OEM radial tires to a bias ply. On the Nomad either tire design is going to be "up" to the demands our suspension will allow us to put on them. As a matter of personal prefer (repeat just my personal preference!) I prefer not to mix designs front to back but some do it quite happily.

Wheels for cars and motorcycles do have a significant design difference that affects tire choice. The motocycle wheel is designed with a different "shoulder" profile ment to more securely locate the bead area of the tire and to restrain the bead in blow out situations. That is also why motorcycle tires are designed with a steel (or other super strength type cord) reinforcement in their bead area. Many car tires do not have this design feature but quite a few such as the truck/suv designs, the 6 and 8 ply heavy duty tires and the ultra high performance designs do.
Again, in my personal OPINION, were I to use a car tire on the rear of my motorcycle (which I am still considering), I would make sure it had that reinforced bead that is a saftey feature in motorccyle tires.

[landman]

that has pretty much been the standard advice ever since radials
first came out.it is advice that i follow but having said that many
people have put radials on bikes designed for bias tires with no
apparant problems.

[ells]

I'm getting better wear out of bias ply than radial on my Nomad, as some others have noticed. Talking MC not CT here.

[macmac]

I run a dunlop radial ft tire and a dunlop radial CT on back with 0 problems. Less problems than with stocker junk stones.. The ct had 10/32nds new and has 7,000 miles and 7/32nds now. No where near the wear that I am even thinking of a new rear ... I killed the rear stone in 7,000 miles too. I'ld say you have no problem..

[denniswoodcock]

I have a 08 nomad the elite 3's for my bike would be 180/70hr-16, radial for rear but in the book the front tire is a 150/80h-16, bias tire, can i mix the two? i found the same issue on the ME880's, last time i was at the dealer i swear he said not to mix the two?? i am not yet wanting to go to a car tire. on the elite 3's could i run the 160/80hb-18 bias-ply?? on rear

[MAS Tequila]

Honda did just that on the early Valks. Bias front and radial rear.

MT

[Yellow Jacket]

Here's some info regarding mixing radial and bias tires:

.......OK......................................... ..............Not OK..................

Radial front, radial rear...................Radial front, bias belt rear
Bias belt front, bias belt rear
Bias belt front, radial rear

This info came from this website:

http://www.bikesafe.co.uk/Bikesafe/ATS/selecting.html

Also, check out this thread:

http://www.vulcanbagger.com/phpBB3/v...t=6243&start=0

[macmac]

Stock I believe all Nomads come this way Bias belt front, radial rear.

Ma Kawii just uses junk trash tires, loke about any vehical tends to come with, as does a table saw or a circular saw, come with not good blades, and this has been std practice for a long long time.

[landman]

denniswoodcock,if you are asking if you can run the bias E-3 in
size 160/80-16 the answer is YES.you asked about an 18" rear
which i assume is a typo.

[denniswoodcock]

thanks for the info, and yes 18" was a typo... im just about due for new tires and looking at my options

[claybuster]

Re: Dunlop tires?
« Reply #6 on Oct 10, 2009, 9:36pm »

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Oct 10, 2009, 3:17pm, jmb wrote:Has anyone tried the D206 it comes in the 170 size? also will a 180 run on an 07? The stock Bridgestones don't wear very long on mine i've tried two sets.


Dennis,
Here is my reply from last October, 2009

I currently have 10,000 on my 07 Nomad. The stock Bridgestones have worn very even, no cupping at all. They start a slight howling/humming noise when leaning into turns between 7,000-8,000 miles but it is not bad and you don't feel anything. The rear tire has just reached the wear indicator marks on the tread. The front tire still looks like it will go 2 or 3 more thousand before reaching the wear indicator. It has about 1/16" left before reaching the wear indicator. I ride mostly 2 up (350 lbs total weight) with 40 psi in both tires and 20 psi air in the rear shocks. Rebound set on # 3.
Here is something to consider, I've talked to many guys on the Delphi Forum that have alot of experience with Dunlop tires on their Nomad's. The Elite 3 Dunlops receive many more good reports then bad reports.
Elite 3 comes in Radial and Bias tires and neither come in the 170 size that we have on the rear of our 1600 Nomads. The front stock size tire we have is available in Elite 3 Bias tire only not in the Elite 3 Radial. Alot of people move up one size on the rear to 180/70R16 Radial and stay with the stock front size in Elite 3 Bias which is 150/80-16. It is acceptable to run a radial tire on the rear with a bias tire on the front but not the other way around.
Through many discussions I've had with other Nomad riders, many of them ran the Elite 3 Radial, 180/70R-16 and got anywhere from 9,000 to 14,000 miles on the rear tire. Several guys I spoke to that originally moved up to the 180/70R-16 Elite 3 Radial actually tried going down one size from the stock 170 tire to the Elite 3 Bias tire in 160/80B-16. This is the Bias tire used on the 1500 Goldwings. It was really surprising to hear their mileage actually double. I spoke to two different guys that got 22,000 and 24,000 miles out of the rear Elite 3 Bias 160-80B-16. Another said he had 18,000 on his at the time we talked and he still had alot of tread left on the rear tire. All of them said they were sold on the Bias vs the Radial. If you go Dunlop's website and look at the tire specs for the Bias and Radial you will notice the 180/70R-16 has 10/32" tread depth and is rated to maximum load of 910 lbs. @41 psi.
The 160/80B-16 Bias tire even though it is 1 inch narrower then the 180 Radial, has a tread depth of 11/32" and a max load rating of 992lbs @ 40 psi. Interesting isn't it. Take a look also at the recommended rim size for both tires, the 180/70R-16 shows a 5" wide rim and the 160/80B-16 shows only a 3.5" wide rim. One of the guys that got 23,000 miles on his 160 Bias said he only got about 13,000 miles on the 180 Radial. He told me he did some research on tires and wheels and a tire size of 180 and even the 170 tire that is stock on our bike is really to wide for the width of our stock rear wheel. Because of this it causes the sidewalls of the tire to bulge more then it really was designed to but the 160 did not bulge on our stock rim. He said he was convinced the 160 tire is actually the better fit and handled extremely well on dry and wet roads. I haven't measured our rear rim width, but what he said makes enough sense to me if our rim is really to narrow for the wider tire.
Based on my discussions with the other guys I am switching to the 160/80B-16 rear before next riding season and moving to the Elite 3 150/80-16 Bias on the front.
Good Luck with your decisions however many guys are running wider car tires in a 195 series width and I haven't heard many complaints yet.

UPDATE March 2010
I spoke to a Dunlop Rep in their Customer Service Dept. He told me the 160/80-16 bias tire is recommended for mounting on rim widths 3-1/2 " to 4-1/2". Our 1600 Nomad rear wheel width is 4-1/2". Since my original post I did purchase both tires for my 1600 Nomad from Motorcycle Super Store. They had the best price @ $257.98 total with free delivery. The front size is stock 150/80-16

« Last Edit: Oct 10, 2009, 9:42pm by claybuster » Link to Post - Back to Top Logged