The feasibility of the reduction of nortricyclanone (1) as a chemical probe for testing the proposed radical mechanism for NAD-dependent horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase (HLADH) reactions has been examined using computer graphics modeling. The resutls of this study suggest that the radical ring-opening of this probe molecule may involve too substantial a geometry reorganization for the molecule to serve as a chemical probe in detecting the possible presence of the radical intermediates in the HLADH reactions. This result suggests that one should exercise caution in extrapolating results obtained from chemically based radical probes in the solution phase to the topologically constrained systems such as enzyme-substrate reactions.