Can someone explain this?
In: Physics
Cars have enough power to break the tires loose so the larger, stickier tires are to help with trsction. People aren’t generating that type of power on a bicycle so it’s about weight and friction reduction and a skinny tire accomplishes that better.
Because of the relative difference in the amount of power that can be applied. A human can only put so much force into a bicycle, so wheel slip isn’t a huge issue except maybe at take-off and aerodynamic drag is a much bigger concern. Meanwhile a car can spin tires all day long, so wider tires allow for more grip and thus more ability to put power down. Also bikes aren’t going that fast relatively speaking and can lean to turn, whereas grip is a much bigger concern when cornering in a car.
People are wrong about the size of car tyres being for grip, this is a common misconception. The vast majority of grip comes from friction which is independent of surface area.
The ideal car, train, bike, or any other wheeled device would have as thin a tyre as possible if grip was the only concern.
However, for cars the tyres have to hold a lot more weight at higher speeds, and higher accelerations. As such, the rubber gets worn away faster. If you increase the surface area over which this wearing happens, the tyre lasts longer.
For fast cars, you also use a softer rubber which creates even more friction, but is weaker so you need an even wider tyre to get a decent life out of the tyre.
Finally, thicker tyres look good, and that’s important when you’re selling cars.
Bicycles you have to pedal yourself, needs to be light.
Muscle cars are so powerful large tires are needed otherwise the tires spin breaking free. Bigger tires, more surface area, larger coefficient of friction. More weight doesn’t matter so much.
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