Just noticed I have a bias ply and a radial

[Broken Boards Skateshop]

I was cruising through some old posts on here and saw that a radial and a bias ply are not a good combination.  I have a bias ply on the front and a prety warn out radial on the back.  I know I will have to change one or both but I am wondering whats my best option to just change out the back one to a bias ply or to swap both to radial?  Performance, cost, looks, lifespan...?  Also there seems to be alot of old posts asking about going up to a 160 on the back of a 400 but I could not get a sence of if it was a good idea or a bad one (There seem to be alot more tires in that size)

[andrewsw]

tires are such a nightmare of personal preference, riding style etc.

As to whether you change both or just the rear, it really depends on the wear of the front. If the front is in really good shape, I'd just do the back. Seems pretty common to get twice the life out of the front.

I just put on a set of Avon AM-26 Road Rider tires in stock size(110/70R17 front, 150/70R17 rear). I've got about 1000 miles on them now and I'm quite happy with them. They seem to be wearing well. Probably half or more of that mileage is highway style and there's no noticeable wear in the middle. The other half was pretty hard leaned over high speed cornering with the big boys, hence lots of roll on in the turns. You can see where the edge of the treadblocks is wearing there... the corners are rounding off just a touch and it looks like it *almost* wants to ball up a bit. I think that's pretty good.

I'm guessing I'll get several thousand miles out of them. They're a bias ply general purpose tire for commuting and messenger work.

I'm happy with the stick so far but I've not pushed them *too* much. THat's all subjective of course. I did slide the rear on an overly aggressive downshift once, but it was smoking hot outside, tires were beyond fully warmed up, and as I said, I was pushing it on the downshift, so it's hard to say. It hooked up nicely though.

of course that's all just my .02

A