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you also have to take into account weight distribution and sidewall flex. Take what i_s_64 brought up in the comments. Like you mentioned, the force is the key. half of a paint roller leaves half the area, but requires less force to deliver the paint. Since force (weight) is a constant, then by changing the width of the tire, you change how much weight is acting upon it; therefore a wider tire is going to to have less grip than a narrow tire on an inch by inch basis. furthermore, less force per square inch on the tire means it will deform less on the pavement, it will stay more true to its shape (this is especially modified by changing to a low-profile tire which inherently has less flex) and therefore have less surface area contacting the road because its not being flattened against it. Coming back to my original point, having less force per square inch is bad, but it is soo minimal, it almost immediately gets over-taken by the fact that there is much more rubber on the ground. Back to my second point. take two different lengths of wooden dowel, put a large weight on them, measure the contact area to the ground, the difference is in the length. take two different lengths of round sponge and do the same, their surface areas will be much more close to each other. A tire is not what I would call soft, it will behave much closer to a wooden dowel, than a sponge. Another point, this is all in response to static examples. Every changes when the tires become dynamic. But I will not get into that. Long story short, everyone here is right to a degree, but the over-riding fact is a wider tire is going to give you better traction regardless.
TT BEAST IN PROGRESS! |
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