why cant we run radial tires?

[andrewclaycomb]

Excuse the noobiness but why can't we run radial tires? The previous owner has run kenda tubeless radials on my bike for a couple of years and he was hard on them. The pegs are ground on the bottom at a pretty sharp angle on both sides. What he was doing is far from what ill be doing on this bike. Also what is the advantage of radial over bias ply? I know not to mix the two because one will handle differently than the other.

Thanks

[DanTheMan]

I run radial tires on my GS850L, I don't know of any reason not to run radials. JMHO....:-D

[80GS1000]

I run radial tires on my GS850L, I don't know of any reason not to run radials. JMHO....:-D

What size radials are you running?

[Nessism]

"Radial" refers to the angle of the tires fabric carcass layers. On a bias ply tire the layers criss-cross each forming an angle between them. The angle helps provide stability to the casing by cross bracing so to speak. Radial tires have the layers running straight across the tire radially from bead to bead at 90 degrees. Because the casing is not cross braced, manufactures of radial tires must keep the sidewalls very short to reduce flexing. The tires also must be mounted on wide rims to stretch the tires – again, to reduce sidewall movement.

Our old GS bikes have narrow rims and take tall sidewall tires - just the opposite of what a radial tire requires. There are newer model radial tires that seem to tolerate this type of mounting but overall it's not recommended.

[DanTheMan]

OOPS! My mistake. I had radials on it until I replaced the tires again last year. I'll have to look up what I had on it previously. Currently I'm running 100/90 1957H (Asian)on the front and a Dunlop D404 130/90-17 on the rear.
But it handled fine on the radials I used to have on it, like I say, I've got to look them up again.