Originally Posted by
dougmc
How much extra weight are you talking? If it's 50 lbs more ... that's the difference between a 150 lb and a 200 lb rider.
My road bike (non electric, about 20 lbs) was perfectly happy with 700x23 tires and me, a 200 lb rider ... (though I do like the 28mm tires I have on it now better.)
If you want fat tires, get them for all the reasons people get fat tires for -- but unless your electric bike is like 100 lbs, I don't think there's any need to get fat tires just because of that.
Probably good advice.
A couple things to think about
:
The contact patch on a 23-622 tire is about one square inch, so with your 220lb rider/bike combo, if you were using the average 110PSI tire - your tires probably weren`t near as happy as you think they were. In fact you would have had to be running 130PSI tires to have any safety factor at all to deal with normal road irregularities and that still wouldn` be enough to deal with even a small pothole. Thats just the math.
The problem with ebikes is that they can sustain a higher average speed than ANY rider can sustain for a longer period of time. ie 35km/hr for a 2hr stretch. The higher speeds mean that the tires need to deal with higher loads from surface irrigularities and will be expected to deaccelerate more often from those higher speeds in the same distance. Thats just the way people drive them. And in addittion to the extra weight of the battery and motor, an ebike typically has a heaver frame and rim construction for the same reasons. If that wasn`t already enough - people tend to load them with saddlebags, trailers and other things that they would be reluctant to put on a regular commuter. Tires have a load rating and its a good idea to match that with the expected use of the bike.