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 tire choice depends on what you want to do with it. If you have low acceleration and don’t take many corners (and are able to lean into corners) you don’t need very wide tires, so you go for the lightest.

If all you do is accelerate, brake, turn into a corner, accelerate again, take a high speed corner etc you want all the grip you can get so you go for wide tires.

This is combined in drag racing, the rear wheels are the ones that transfer the power of the engine to the road surface and ‘push’ you off. The front wheels are not used for acceleration ~~and braking~~ so they are very thin.