old cars and bald tyres

[richard]

The last three new cars on my scene have been The Opperman Unicar , spares from a crashed car included TWO completely bald tyres , the blue G Tourer rear end ,  I bought from Cornwall , with TWO completely bald tyres ( but a perfect spare rusted to its bracket in the boot ) and now the Welsh Bond D with .... you have guessed it TWO completely bald tyres . Was it a pre '63 MOT thing ? taken off the road when they needed to pass an MOT ?

[AndyL]

I know what you mean, the two wheels on the front of my isetta with the original Goodyear crossply tyres were running close to slicks!

[marcus]

"Dunlop Baldmasters" was the name my friends and I gave to bald tyres back in the 1970s, a variation of Dunlop Roadmasters. Bald tyres were a regular part of life in those cash-strapped days, but people seem to keep a few to fit on any car they sell!

[Big Al]

Tonsures in the cloisters of old collections. The noble baldness of the holey project, left long years. Yeah, though I had tread through the valley of DEFRA, I shall fear no Wirrall. For I shall drive on the right side of the road, when I am restored in Devon.

[Barry]

My Velocette LE tyres were only just worn-in.

[Big Al]

I prefer to chuck out bald old tyres than chunk treaded, deaded, tyres that might have had life left if only they were not ancient. If only...... Still recall Root nearly blowing his ears off with NOS IC tyres on the Llandudno cars. The rubber had rotted allowing the inner tubes to burst out like huge hernias. With no space in the rear of the van the explosion was pretty effective.

[plas man]

 nothing new here then , Bonds just love grinding off the front tyre rubber , even when new less than 2,000 miles would have you running on the canvas , but with the trye laws Bond owners would risk it ( ) after all it was out of sight !!!
legal would see about !,000 mile - but with now-a-days the crap rubber used front tyre life is around 900 mile,s , remember that these carry the mouldings to tell its down to the legal depth 2mm - (1.5mm on a three wheeler ) , now a set of radials on a Mk G will be good for 3,000 mile - but they are illegal ,  the Bond 875 is the only legal 3 wheeler with radial's (design of the stearing ) , and they have to be fabric belted .

[AndyL]

Radials illegal on a Bond. Why is that?

[richard]

actually all of these tyres , and also of the Unicar , have been from the rear wheels goodness knows what the fronts were like 

[Bob Purton]

" the Bond 875 is the only legal 3 wheeler with radial's (design of the stearing ) , and they have to be fabric belted "   

I think you will have to qualify that statement..

[DaveMiller]

I'm intrigued.  I'm aware that it would be illegal to mix crossply and radial on one axle, and that if only one end of the car has radials it must be the rear (presumably, in both cases, to avoid the car swinging round under harsh braking) but I've not heard of a general ban.

[Barry]

What type of tyres should I fit to the Invacar model 70 then?  Radials at the moment.

If mixing crossplys and radials, I thought the radials had to be on the driving wheels, not always the back wheels?

[Bob Purton]

I wonder how Grinnell Scorpions get there type approval and MOT with those big fat radials all round?

Maybe plasman is just talking about Bonds here or maybe just single front wheel steering cars, either way, more clarification is required.

[Big Al]

The Bond 875 had the clever, if stillborn, idea of steering including changing the camber of the wheel angle. It would thus, in theory, present the full tread at a better angle of attack to the road. In practice other issues rather negated the effect, so I feel we never got to find out how well that idea worked.
Could not comment on legalities of tyres. I am fairly sure there was a restriction on radial tyres for three wheelers. But is it still in force? As to the use of radials on IC, you must remember these, historically, are not cars, but appliances. Only recently have they become cars, by positive action of the ICR, and the resulting default action of our wonderful Government.
There is also the historical difference of a Trike under 71/2 CWT and a vehicle featuring a trike wheelplan. These used not to be the same, and still are not - see Motorcycle and sidecar, which is not a tricycle. One lot was drivable on a Provisional license, Some a Motorcycle license, the other, not either - Reliant Ant in work. That relationship has been changed about 4 times in 40 years, I think, mainly to remove L plate drives from Trikes and harmonise the laws with Europe and metric measures. So there is every chance the law has got so screwed up in reality that Trikes can only be driven without tyres, unless by someone not qualified to drive them!

[super-se7en (Malc Dudley)]

The Morgan Aero i think has radials and that has type approval. My 1200cc scorpion was perfect on radials but the tyre pressures were in the low teens.