what is the difference between radial and bias ply tires?

[toph99]

i tried looking on google and ask.com but nothing satisfactory showed up... does anyone know of a site that does comparisons between different tires like that?

 

[Perknose]

Man, everything rolling today uses radials, and has for several decades. Michelin pioneered them. Before radials took over, we all rolled on bias ply tires (like in the 50's on into sometime in the mid '60's).

Radials are superior, hands down, but if you have an old classic from the mighty Fin era, you'll want to hunt down some bias ply's. An old suspension set up for bias ply tires not only does not benefit from radials, it handles worse with them.

 

[phantom309]

IIRC it has to do with the way the reinforcing belts are oriented inside the tire. In bias ply tires the belts run in the direction of the tire's rotation, with radials the belts go across it.

Like the other poster said, if you are driving anything that was built after 1980 or so you shouldn't even consider running bias plys. Radials are superior in virtually every way, especially in the wet.

 

[phantom309]

double post, sorry