I see MotoGP riders lean so much that their shoulders can touch the ground. How is this possible?
In: Physics
Amateur motorcycle racer here. This is actually exactly why the tires are rounded instead of flat like a car.
When you turn a car, you know how your body moves a bit to the left or right? Those are what we call “lateral G’s”, or horizontal forces of gravity.
Same thing happens to a motorcycle, but because the tires are round, there’s always some rubber to resist that force and hold grip even at high speeds and high lean angles. Sportbike tires are designed to have a wide footprint at any lean angle so there’s lots of grip even at high lean angles.
This is of course a gross oversimplification, but you asked for ELI5 so there you go.
Motorcycle tire engineers are some very smart people and the grip on those tires is actually insane. You would not believe how rock steady they feel leaned over that far at those speeds, it’s a surreal feeling.
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