why do the fastest bicycles have really thin tyres but the fastest cars have very wide tyres

Question

why do the fastest bicycles have really thin tyres but the fastest cars have very wide tyres

In: Engineering

Answer 1

The fastest motorbikes actually has very thick tires.

The fastest drag race cars have thick rear tires to have as much traction as possible while accelerating.

F1 race cars have thick tires all around for maximum traction on cornering.

The fastest bicycle (powered by pedals) benefit from a thinner profile as it would have less drag. A bicycle (with its rider) is much lighter and doesn’t travel at speeds where its inertia would overcome its grip on corners. The torque from pedaling isn’t enough to overcome the traction either.

In a hypothetical world where all wheels have maximum grip/traction, they would be better to be as thin as its load-bearing capacity can take to have the least amount of drag as possible.