Eli5: Why do offroad bicycles have fatter tires while offroad motorcycles have skinnier tires?

Question

Eli5: Why do offroad bicycles have fatter tires while offroad motorcycles have skinnier tires?

In: 17

Answer 1

One thing to remember is that even the “skinny” off road motorcycle tires are wider than either of the two types of bicycle tires.

I think the main question is why motorcycle road tires are so big. That’s because they can put down more power, at the expense of a little efficiency loss.

Road bicycles don’t need such wide tires because human riders can’t make enough torque to overload the grip of even skinny tires, and do burnouts. There’s no point in going wider for more grip, if you don’t make enough torque to overpower the grip you’ve already got. Motorcycle engines can do that, so having wider tires let’s them put down more power/torque.