wide wheels with rather narrow tires

[auditude at neta.com]

On 16 Jan 2001, at 18:47, Stephen Bigelow wrote:
> 
> > What is tramlining? And a narrow tire is better?
> 
> Tracking on cracks or ridges in the road.
> 
> > How do you say? Doesnt
> > it make sense that the stiffest widest tire possible will give the most
> > dry traction? More rubber contact to the ground, and least amount of
> > flex?
> 
> Least sidewall flex, yes. More rubber on the road, no.
> 
> Contact patch size is a function of wheel loading and tire pressure.
> Contact patch shape is a funtion of wheel width, tire width, tire pressure
> and wheel loading.

To add my 2 cents, if you increase contact surface, then the 
pounds per square inch of that surface is decreased.  There is a 
point beyond which the weight of the car is so spread out over all 
that tire surface that the tire isn't "pressed down" into the pavement 
hard enough to get any traction.

That's clumsy way to try to explain it, but that's what came out.

Later,

Ken