> It may seem obvious once pointed out, but the two elliptical regions under the two tires are the only places where the bicycle interacts with the road and al

> It may seem obvious once pointed out, but the two elliptical regions under the two tires are the only places where the bicycle interacts with the road and almost all of the rider-controlled forces have to act through them. In the book Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, there is a quote that goes something like this: "Most cars have tires that only contact the road in an area about the size of your tongue. Hiro's car had big radial tires where the contact area was the size of a fat person's thigh."