Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyGrey
-A certain amount of energy goes into deforming the rubber when it hits the road. The square footage of rubber that meets the road per rotation is a function of tire width and does not change with contact patch. In other words, a 195mm tire has 5.4% more area that must make and break contact with the road surface than a 185mm tire.
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Good points, but I have a question over the first statement.
Generally, a wide tire and a skinny tire have a contact patch of equal area at a given psi, right? If the skinny tire has a square contact patch, the wide tire would have a thin rectangular one.
Wouldn't the area of tire deformity be equal on both? A wider tire has more area than a skinny one, but less of it is in contact with the ground at a particular moment. A wider tire will also cause a smaller area of the sidewall to flex at a time, which intuitively seems more desirable then decreasing tread flexing.
I've only tentatively gone over this in my mind, so sorry if I've made a blatant mistake...
- LostCause