Originally Posted by
tomato coupe
Your theory is incorrect. The effective radius of a tire is less than the unloaded radius, but greater than the loaded ("patch") radius that you show.
Huh???
"Tire radius" (in my illustration) is the radius of the part of the tire that isn't at the patch on a loaded wheel.
Tire radius (loaded) >
patch radius (loaded). As I said and as the illustration shows.
This
tire radius (loaded) is going to be very close to
tire radius (unloaded). But we don't care about these numbers at all (we only care about the patch radius),
Originally Posted by
tomato coupe
Actually, measuring the "patch" radius in your diagram is trivial
??? It seems it would be harder to load the bike and take that measurement. You'd probably need two people.
Originally Posted by
tomato coupe
-- it's the distance from the center of the hub to the ground.
?? I said this.
Originally Posted by
tomato coupe
If you measure it and the roll-out distance of a tire, you'll quickly find that the effective radius of the tire is greater than the loaded radius, and the difference increases as the tire is more heavily loaded.
??? This is what the illustration is showing. The effective radius of the tire is irrelevant.
Only the patch radius matters.