Your Tyre Pressure

[OMG.JAI xD]

To put it simply.

A bike needs to be leaned to turn instead of turning the wheels.

The design of a bike tyre is more pointed because it needs to maintain the same amount of surface area contact during cornering and the straights.

A car has 2 wheels in the front that changes its contact point while its turning. Or 4 if it has 4 wheel steering.

The engineering on those 2 vehicles are completely different.

[curtis265]

Ok first obvious point is that bikes are lighter than cars.
Basically weight plays a major factor when it comes to traction. The more weight the object has the more "grip" it requires to hold it. Even though more force is exerted to the ground, when cornering the downward force will change its direction according to the turn (not sure if you get what i mean there).
Just say a car takes a corner at its limit before any traction loss occurs is @ 50km/h, a bike could probably take it at 80km/h using the same amount of traction required by the car.
[There is a formula in physics that will tell u this but i can't remember it]

Also the more surface area the better, such as the more "tyre" on the ground is better. Although weight will also determine how much force will be put down. The more force in the same surface area, the more traction you will get. Just say like bike weighs 100kg (i actually dont know the real weight) and the surface area of the 2 tires touching the ground is 1m squared. A ratio can be thought of 100:1
On a car, the weight could be say 1000kg but the surface area by 4 tyres is 10m squared, so the ratio is the same 1000:10 -> 100:1
This means the traction is the same across both objects.
(Just trying to get the point across, these figures are probably wrong haha)

Wide tyres usually give more grip as it gives more surface area of the tyre touching the ground. (USUALLY not all the time)

Camber will increase cornering traction as the tyre wall will flex according to the corner. Just say u take a left turn, the tirewall will flex towards the right, and if the tyres have camber then it will conteract this flex and align the tyre to be as if it had no camber on the straight for the duration of the turn.

[ ] -> \ \
----- ------- (the road should angle up abit like / )

Not sure if you can understand this but i tried lol.

I might fix up this post later

To put it simply.

A bike needs to be leaned to turn instead of turning the wheels.

The design of a bike tyre is more pointed because it needs to maintain the same amount of surface area contact during cornering and the straights.

A car has 2 wheels in the front that changes its contact point while its turning. Or 4 if it has 4 wheel steering.

The engineering on those 2 vehicles are completely different.

Ok let's not take cornering into account then to make this a bit more simple - straight line only.

Traction is the ratio between the forces exerterd by a vehicle through the wheel, and the weight supported by the wheel. - forces in two directions which have no effect on each other. A 1000 kg car would be able to put down 10 times the force to the ground than a 100 kg cyclist - as Fallenangel said.

I do too believe that a fatter wheel would increase the traction... but the pressure applied to the ground would be less because the weight would be more spread out. This would mean that the car can exert less force to the ground...

The above paragraph makes sense to me, but i can't accpet how a fatter tyre would be less forceful, and have never figured out how to disprove what i just said... Someone do so! and save me before i go insane..

[FallenAngel]

Haha i tried... someone else have a go xD

[OMG.JAI xD]

Ok let's not take cornering into account then to make this a bit more simple - straight line only.

Traction is the ratio between the forces exerterd by a vehicle through the wheel, and the weight supported by the wheel. - forces in two directions which have no effect on each other. A 1000 kg car would be able to put down 10 times the force to the ground than a 100 kg cyclist - as Fallenangel said.

I do too believe that a fatter wheel would increase the traction... but the pressure applied to the ground would be less because the weight would be more spread out. This would mean that the car can exert less force to the ground...

The above paragraph makes sense to me, but i can't accpet how a fatter tyre would be less forceful, and have never figured out how to disprove what i just said... Someone do so! and save me before i go insane..

With a high pressure tyre. (more pointed). There would be less road contact.
But the force is greater.
You lower the pressure you have less force but more contact.
And it also depends on the drive type.
A rear wheel drive will have alot more force applied to the wheels during take off or launch, and a front wheel drive will have less force applied to the driving wheels, as a vehicles tends to lift off during take off, exerting all the force towards the rear.

Ever tried doing a burnout in a front wheel drive?
High pressures will bunny hop.
Lower pressures will let it spin.

Its very hard to get into detail. But lets say you have 35psi with 5" effective road contact with 200kg on each front wheel. 5x200x35 = 35000 units.
Compared to 25psi with 8" effective contact. 8x200x25 = 40000 units. Even with 7" effective road contact, it equals up to 35000.

That is not a formula. But its something i made up to prove my point.
With 35 psi of contact on 5" effectively on the road. You have 35psi @ 200kg on that area.

While having 25psi @ 200kg with 7 or 8" effective area contact, You still have the same amount of forces but its more spread out.

Its hard to explain. But put into consideration. That tyre pressures vary with different conditions.
and what I wanted the point i wanted to bring across is that if you can have the same amount of traction at 35psi and 25 psi. Wouldnt it be better to be at 25psi to leave for changes in temperature, surfaces, load etc etc?

Force applied to the ground is not all based on tyre pressures.

My head hurts.