FAT TYRE Vs STOCK

• It seems like most of the  Indian bikers/consumers seem to prefer a bigger/wider rear tyre on their bikes (dont know really why??)
  
  One doesn’t have to look beyond the modifications that guys/"desi" bikers carry out on their bikes. Fitting a loud exhaust and a wider rear tyre and a fancy horn & some LED's to soup up the bike always happens to be among the favourite ones.
  
  
  Actually fitting too wide a rear tyre also has the following negative implications.
  
  
  "Give bikers what they WANT and they would move Heaven and Earth to get it."
  
• Decrease the performance and fuel efficiency of the bike by increasing the "Rolling Resistance" and adding additional weight.
  
  
• It can also adversely affect the handling of the bike.
  
  
• Even if "Average Kya hai..??" (What's the average mileage..??) still happens to be the national anthem among "desi" bikers, surprisingly they also seem to prefer a wider rear tyre.

So why do we seem to prefer a wider rear tyre..??


Reason #1: Aesthetics

Most of us who have seen a Super Bike are always in awe of the impossibly wide rear tyre that those exotic bikes possess. Who wouldn’t like to dream of riding a similar machine someday? So while we work towards that transition, we may want to ride something which shows off to the world that we are indeed riding something powerful (Whether what they ride is really powerful or not is a different matter altogether).


Reason #2: Safety

Normally a wider tyre at the rear gives the feeling that while taking sharp turns and while braking, such a tyre would provide with more contact patch and therefore would be a safer one as well.

But the other day a particular guy put forward his point of view on this..


"Most of the braking load is on the front tire and thats as thick as it needs to be. Shall i say it again, already tested and proven on the race track. You dont brake or corner half as much as that on the street".


Actually is it true. About 70-80 % of the braking in a motorcycle takes place on the front wheels. That’s exactly the reason why the front brakes are made more powerful on motorcycles.


Ok I understand.. But I would still say that a wider rear tyre is a "Psychological" need and maybe an "Emotional" need as well.




In the end it all boils down to what Bikers "Need" and what they actually "Want".. and I can safely tell you that "Give bikers what they WANT and they would move Heaven and Earth to get it."

Come to think of it, even Honda (HMSI) has to increase the size of the rear tyre of the New Unicorn from it earlier size 3.00 (inches) to size 100 (in mm).

The Unicorn had a tyre upgrade after intensive research on that bike by HMSI Engineers who were very careful about the upgrade and didn't want to loose the bike's confidence in handling and so do the other companies.

                                                  But the normal tyre change that we do where we go in for a fatter tyre eventually has its own positives and negatives and one has to be careful about that, afterall life dosen't give you a second chance.