Why does a bicycle wheel with a larger diameter provide greater stability?

Question

I’m looking for something more than just simply the ‘gyroscopic effect’ as this is too vague. Why is it that whilst doing slow speed manoeuvres, it is infinitely easier to do with larger wheels than with smaller wheels?

In: 2

Answer 1

A larger wheel has more mass then a small one, so if they’re both spinning at the same speed the larger wheel has more angular momentum. If you were to spin up a small wheel faster & faster it would eventually have the same angular momentum as a larger wheel which was spinning slower. But since you’re talking about riding a bike or something similar then yes, the fact that the larger wheel weighs more gives it more angular momentum.