The shape of the tyre is also important. Not all are circular. I think Pirelli are making a pointy ellipsoid road tyre this season.
Differences are fairly obvious, flatter than circular gives more stability, less steering, pointer means faster steering.
The problem with pointier is that it is difficult to hold a given tyre profile over a flatter area, so it tends to flatten out more/quite suddenly at extreme lean where the tyre will be flatter. So pointier tyres may deliver faster steering and better steering angles but less control when at those angles. I think Pirelli has some new tech in its tyres to deal with that.
Running lower pressures 'simply' means larger contact patch. In a car tyre, the width is fixed so that means the patch grows in length not width. Motorcycle tyres are completely different and it increases in both directions, as the contact patch will widen and lengthen, most likely widen more than lengthen.
When this came up before I tried a few different pressures on my bike and I was astonished the difference it made, I really hadn't a clue nor expected it. I might do a series of rides/pressures to see how this works out, but just a few psi down and the bike really didn't want to lean over and I was fighting it to go round at high lean, then over pressured just a few psi (to recommended) and it was jittery and unstable.
I left it one psi over, front and back, this seemed to ride slightly nicer for my expectation.
The window of permissible pressures on a bike, based on my small sample of one bike and a few pressures, seems to be very small, compared to cars. There is no comparison to be made.
Differences are fairly obvious, flatter than circular gives more stability, less steering, pointer means faster steering.
The problem with pointier is that it is difficult to hold a given tyre profile over a flatter area, so it tends to flatten out more/quite suddenly at extreme lean where the tyre will be flatter. So pointier tyres may deliver faster steering and better steering angles but less control when at those angles. I think Pirelli has some new tech in its tyres to deal with that.
Running lower pressures 'simply' means larger contact patch. In a car tyre, the width is fixed so that means the patch grows in length not width. Motorcycle tyres are completely different and it increases in both directions, as the contact patch will widen and lengthen, most likely widen more than lengthen.
When this came up before I tried a few different pressures on my bike and I was astonished the difference it made, I really hadn't a clue nor expected it. I might do a series of rides/pressures to see how this works out, but just a few psi down and the bike really didn't want to lean over and I was fighting it to go round at high lean, then over pressured just a few psi (to recommended) and it was jittery and unstable.
I left it one psi over, front and back, this seemed to ride slightly nicer for my expectation.
The window of permissible pressures on a bike, based on my small sample of one bike and a few pressures, seems to be very small, compared to cars. There is no comparison to be made.
