Especially seen on motorcycles with Fat tires. They have FAT rear tires and thinner and maybe even smaller front tires.Why is that so?And can you name me motorcycles with FAT tires both front and rear? Same size etc?
short is best, for example look at jeeps, that would be considered short wheel base. thats y so many ppl use jeeps and not long box extended cap trucks, although i have seen it before and i have a truck like that and only got stuck one time
This Site Might Help You. RE: what do you mean by short wheel base? which is good in off road with regards to wheel base?
Trying to turn a motorcycle with a wide front tyre is very difficult. A narrower front tyre improves the handling. Some years ago, when I worked in the trade, I test rode a custom-built motorcycle that had 360mm wide front AND rear tyres. It handled like a pig on rollerskates, because of the wide front tyre. I'm not aware of any current production motorcycles that have tyres the same width. They would not be practical to ride, so nobody makes them.
First, the rear tire drives the motorcycle. And the more power you have, the more traction you need in the rear to keep the tire from just breaking loose. But also it can be a matter of style. For many years, Harley Davidsons had no suspension in the rear. The seat was sprung to absorb some shock, but also the rear tire was much bigger/fatter than it needed to be, to cushion the ride somewhat. Today that's part of the style of a cruiser. Many cruisers (Harley's 'Softail', and many Japanese cruisers) hid their rear suspension to look like they have a rigid rear end, and the big rear tire is part of that.
Firecracker made some valid points. Back in the days of the Model T, the rear tires were 3.5 and the front 3. The front tire would cut a rut in mud and the rear tire would wedge into the rut, getting you through the mudhole. I could see this maybe working on dirt bikes, but I don't know. The old Brit bikes used the same size tires front and rear also. The really fat tires on the back of bikes is for looks, period. The taller a tire is, the greater the gyroscopic effect, which makes the wheel want to keep going the same way. On a bike, a taller front tire adds steering stability. When bikes first started using 16 front wheels, twitchy handling was a common complaint. The steering geometry was set up for 19 wheels rather than the short ones. One reason rear tires tend to be bigger is because of the weight the tire must carry. On my dresser, without rider or passenger the front wheel carries 400 lbs and the rear 560 lbs, I weighed it. Fill the saddlebags and trunk with gear and with a passenger, I bet the rear tire is carrying nearly double what the front wheel is. The easiest way to increase the load capacity of a tire is to make it widermore surface on the ground and more interior volume for the pressurized air. On any tire of any type for any application, the same holds true; the greater the volume of air inside and the greater the surface of the tire, tread and sidewalls included, the greater the load carrying capacity when the carcass load rating (how many plies to simplify it) is equal and the air pressure is the same.
