Why do most motorbikes / cycles / scooters have the rear wheel powered, as opposed to most cars, which have the front wheel powered?
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There is some convergence of benefits for cars.
Fwd on a car is cheaper, plus it’s easier to drive. If the car is under steering, hence you are going straight on a turn, removing throttle will automatically correct it and make you oversteer. That’s a good feature for cars intended for non experts.
For motorbikes, there is a lot more power/weight ratio. This means a forward driven bike would have some handling benefits only with very low power, like an electric bicycle. Anything above that, and your front wheel will spin uncontrollably when you accelerate. Read drive uses the rear wheel and when you accelerate the whole weight of the bike goes on it, allowing more grip, so more acceleration and less skidding. Plus, if you put an engine on the front wheel, you have to steer the wheel and the entire engine weight with the handlebar, super uncomfortable and dangerous as you can’t react quickly.
Add in that read drive is cheap to make for a bike and you get why it’s done so often, there are super rare fwd bikes, they are just awful to drive.
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