Car vs bike - cornering speeds

[RobM77]

MYOB said:

Mieke said:

Just to add my three penneth to this debate. And before doing so, I should state that I have been a keen motorcyclist for over 50 years.

But in terms of actual corner speed, a car in the same performance class will IMHO be quicker around a bend when taking a similar line. The reason for this is that the car has the benefit of much more contact area for the four tyres with the road. In comparison a motorcycle has only 2 contact areas, each of which is about the size of a credit card. A bike may appear quicker because of its superior acceleration out of the bend.

And by the same class I mean that the quickest road going sports motorcycles will be equivalent to the supercars of today - ie. Ferraris and Maclarens etc.

Yep, it's about the contact areas equals more grip. When the bike is leaning on the corners, there is literally just the edges of the tyres gripping the road and there's only so much speed you can utilise on a bike, far less than cars.

Although this is mitigated by the shape of the tyres (so you're not really on the 'edge' - more like a flat put at the right point) and the softer compound (typically bike tyres are more like a 48R on a car). However, despite these advantages you've still got the simple matter of contact patch area - it's much bigger per tyre on a car, especially a performance car, and there's twice as many of them.

As an illustration of this, my track car, in more talented hands than me, can lap Silverstone GP circuit in the same time as a Moto GP bike, yet the bike is doing over 200mph on the fastest straights and the car just under 135mph, furthermore the power to weight ratio of the bike is many times that of the car and the acceleration of the bike is on another planet entirely. The huge differences are all made up in braking and cornering.

Edited by RobM77 on Thursday 11th January 10:59