What are the relative advantages of having a larger wheel on a motorcycle? Stability, handling, ride quality, riding over potholes. And the same for a car.
One is a MX bike the other is a road bike. I really dont know where to start with this one really. You ride them in the same manner, just different. Controls are the same etc .
Some of the things involved are appliation, like dirt-bikes have a taller front wheel than say a sport-bike that uses smaller, the first is because of the terrain and the later for quicker handling on a curvy surface.
I have made and ridden motorcycles for 20yrs and the biggest factors with tyre sizes are stabilty from centrifugal force. Bikes with small wheels are unstable at higher speeds, they are inherently closer to destruction because at the same speed a smaller tyre is revolving faster. Tyres are critical on bikes. As a bike leans in to a corner, the tyre, because of it's shape or profile, increases in contact surface to counteract the amount of force pushing the bike to the outside of the corner. These forces get to a certain point before the bike will slide and crash. Things that affect the performance of this are, heat in the tyre, weight vs power vs tyre size, tyre profile, diameter, motorcycle geometry. Basically you do not change wheels or tyre shapes on a bike unless u are prepared for the consequences. Harleys may put really big tyres on but they are not performance orientated. Almost all bikes these days have a 120/70 17inch front and depending on power a 160-200/55 17inch rear. Most bikes pre-1988 ran 18inch(or bigger) tyres. The simple reason for this is stability vs steerablity. 17inch is the best compromise. If you are designing a bike, stick with these sizes and work on suspension, geometry and weight distribution as they are more changeable. cheers Neil
