Human Powered Vehicles Built for Speed

[shizzon]

Originally Posted by BP-Revo

Well, with our 5" diameter tires (or 2" with touring cars) we achieve more contact patch by increasing width.

With bicycle tires which are at least 20" in diameter, they can still be very thin but can have quite a large contact patch due to the diameter.

But that is quite impressive, I must say.

contact patch for a road bike tire at 100-120 psi is about the size of a postage stamp if not smaller, but i wouldn't think that breaking traction would be a problem for these things the way they are geared.

with all the power our cars have and the relatively short distance to get to top speed traction is more important, and finding a balance between rolling resistance and traction will be key.

if there was near unlimited runway then super skinny tires and wheels would greatly increase the speed, as you could slowly apply throttle to prevent loosing traction.