Talk:Motorcycle tyre

Someone with some knowledge on the matter should explain why the front tire on a motorcycle is usually thinner than the rear tire. Unfinite (talk) 06:22, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

The engine in motorcycles drives the back wheel. As motorbikes have got more powerful they can spin the back tyre i.e it breaks traction (skid) which could lead to a crash if it happened in a corner, or at any time the machine is leaned over. In the very old days engines were not very powerful(3-15 Hp) and scientific understanding of the forces involved was limited, so tyres were roughly the same width. In the bad old days sealed roads were rare so it was the normal to ride on loose gravel at slower speeds. The front tyre is used in the steering where it is important that loads are kept light. Manufactures try to keep not only the front tyre weight down but the rim and brakes as well to keep total steering loads light. This is important on the road when going through a series of tight left and right bends. Slow steering means the rider cannot flick the bike from side to side fast enough. Front tyre weight is not the only factor at work -steering geometry -for example the angle of the forks and the amount of trail is also important, as are factors like total wheel base length. In addition a light front wheel (with the correct suspension set up) follows the road better. The front tyre does need enough contact area to stop front wheel skids when braking hard. In the old days brakes were very poor but now disc brakes are immensely powerful and are quite capable of standing a sports bike on its nose, so sports bikes have enormous rear tyres and quite wide front tyres. Recently ABS brakes have been fitted to many road bikes to make it easy for beginners, with little real time experience, to brake with more confidence on surfaces that are wet. Front tyres vary more in diameter than rear tyres due to the intended bike use. Off road bikes use 21"tyres to roll over obstacles more easily. They are also narrow to bit down through loose gravel, dust or mud to contact the more compact earth etc underneath. Touring bikes that may be at times used in rough roads often have 19" tyres. 18" used to be the standard for road front tyres until about 1980 but today 17" is the norm-the smaller diameter lowering weight and allowing quicker turn in on a bend and adding the side to side flicking needed in a series of bends. Ideas about the correct tyre width are always changing -back in 1971 a 750cc 60 Hp Norton Commando had a rear tyre the same width as you would find on a 250cc 28Hp sport bike today. The commando tyre only lasted about 5-6,000 km though .

If you want a real scientific understanding of how front tyre size, weight etc effects handing look up how gyroscopic forces act on front wheels of bikes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.188.178.77 (talk) 08:05, 14 February 2016 (UTC)

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I've used the term "rubber" to describe motorcycle tyres even though strictly speaking the material used is not really rubber (more like nylon). Rubber is a natural material (latex) from the rubber tree(Hevea brasiliensis). It is a long, long time since normal motorcycle (or car) tyres were made from real rubber (back in the 1930s). Real rubber is very soft and quite sticky. The exact formula for the "rubber " is probably a trade secret.115.188.178.77 (talk) 08:26, 14 February 2016 (UTC)

Vulcanized rubber is still rubber. oknazevad (talk) 06:07, 27 November 2022 (UTC)

The 1st paragraph doesn't so vague and even though it was added in 2015 it reads like LLM generated prose. unless anyone objects I will cut the paragraph. In a less vague form the concepts may still fit elsewhere in the article.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Motorcycle_tyre&diff=653086430&oldid=652836143&variant=en Duncnbiscuit (talk) 09:28, 16 December 2025 (UTC)