Do You Need Fat Tires for City E-Bike Riding?

Fat-tire e-bikes have become a common sight on city streets. Their oversized tires look rugged, feel substantial, and seem like an obvious answer to cracked asphalt, potholes, construction zones, and other imperfections that urban riders encounter. If a wider tire can provide more cushioning and handle rougher surfaces, it seems reasonable to assume that the widest possible tire should make the best city e-bike.

But do you need fat tires for city e-bike riding? For most riders who spend the majority of their time on paved streets, bike lanes, greenways, and maintained urban paths, the answer is usually no. Fat tires can offer real advantages in certain conditions, particularly when surfaces become loose, soft, or consistently rough, but they aren't a requirement for comfortable everyday city riding. They can also bring tradeoffs in weight, size, handling feel, and portability that matter much more to some commuters than others.

The better way to choose tires is therefore not to ask whether fat tires are “better.” Instead, consider what surfaces you actually ride, how often you encounter genuinely rough terrain, how much you need to carry or store the bike, and what kind of riding experience you prefer. A rider crossing loose surfaces or badly maintained roads every day may have very different priorities from someone whose five-mile commute follows paved bike lanes almost the entire way.

Do You Really Need Fat Tires for Everyday City Riding?

For ordinary urban riding, a suitable e-bike tire doesn't need to be extremely wide to provide a practical combination of comfort, grip, and control. City streets aren't perfectly smooth, but most normal urban routes are still fundamentally paved environments. Riders encounter pavement seams, repaired asphalt, manhole covers, cracks, driveway transitions, small debris, and occasional potholes rather than miles of continuous sand, snow, or loose off-road terrain.

This distinction matters because tire width isn't an all-or-nothing choice. There is a large range between narrow performance-oriented bicycle tires and the very wide tires commonly associated with fat-tire e-bikes. A moderately wide tire with appropriate air volume, construction, tread, and pressure can provide useful cushioning for normal city riding without requiring the entire bike to be designed around oversized tires. The ideal setup depends on the bike, wheel size, rider and cargo load, manufacturer specifications, and intended use rather than a single universal width.

Fat tires do have genuine strengths. Their greater air volume can provide additional cushioning over uneven surfaces when properly set up, and wider footprints can be useful on certain loose or soft surfaces. They can also give riders a sense of stability and confidence, especially when roads become rough. But those advantages need to be considered in context. If 95% of your commute is asphalt, buying around the remaining 5% may lead you to carry extra size and weight through every other mile of the ride.

This is particularly important with folding e-bikes. The whole purpose of a folding design is often to make the bicycle easier to store, transport, or integrate into a smaller living space. Very large tires can work against some of those priorities because tire and wheel dimensions influence the physical package of the bike. Depending on the design, wider tires may be paired with wider rims and greater frame or fork clearance, while the complete fat-tire bike may be heavier and bulkier than a lightweight urban alternative.

That doesn't make fat tires a poor choice. It simply means their advantages need to solve a problem you actually have. A rider storing an e-bike in a garage and regularly traveling over rough mixed surfaces may care little about additional bulk. Someone carrying a folding e-bike upstairs every evening may care a great deal.

For most paved city riding, then, fat tires should be viewed as an option rather than a necessity.

What Do Fat Tires Actually Change on an E-Bike?

The most obvious difference is tire volume. A larger-volume tire provides more air between the rim and the road, which can influence how the bike responds to small bumps and uneven surfaces. When used at an appropriate pressure within the tire, rim, and bicycle manufacturer's specifications, a higher-volume tire can deform around some road irregularities and reduce the harshness riders feel from certain surfaces. This is one reason a fat-tire e-bike may feel reassuring on rough pavement during a test ride.

Traction is another frequently mentioned benefit, but it needs context. Tire width alone doesn't determine grip. Tread pattern, rubber compound, tire pressure, road conditions, temperature, load, and surface all contribute. A wide tire designed for loose terrain isn't automatically the best-performing tire on clean city asphalt simply because more rubber appears to touch the ground. For normal urban riding, a tire designed around paved or mixed-surface use may provide the characteristics a commuter actually needs without going to an extreme width.

There are also tradeoffs. Fat tires and the wheel systems designed around them can add rotating and overall mass, while aggressive tread patterns and tire construction can influence rolling behavior. The exact difference varies greatly between tires, so it would be inaccurate to say that every fat tire is slow or inefficient. What can be said is that a tire optimized for loose terrain may involve compromises that provide relatively little benefit if almost all of your riding happens on smooth pavement.

Bike weight is especially relevant. On an e-bike, it's easy to assume that weight doesn't matter because the motor provides assistance. While electric assistance can make a heavier bicycle easier to propel, it doesn't make that bike lighter when you're lifting it. If your e-bike stays in a garage and rolls directly onto the street, this may not be a major concern. If you carry it into an apartment, put it in a vehicle, move it through an office, or regularly fold it for storage, the equation changes considerably.

That's why urban tire choice should be evaluated as part of the complete bicycle, not as an isolated specification.

The takeaway isn't that one side wins every category. A rider who needs the capabilities in the left column may happily accept the tradeoffs. A commuter who spends nearly every mile on pavement may get more everyday value from the right.

Are Fat Tires Better for Potholes and Rough City Roads?

Potholes are where the fat-tire argument becomes more convincing—but also where it's easiest to exaggerate what a tire can do.

A larger-volume tire can provide additional cushioning and may help the bicycle deal with some rough pavement more comfortably. Cracks, patched asphalt, utility cuts, and smaller road imperfections can feel less harsh when there is sufficient tire volume and an appropriate setup between the rider and road. If your city has consistently poor pavement, tire volume deserves serious consideration.

However, fat tires don't make potholes harmless.

A deep pothole can still cause loss of control, tire damage, rim damage, or a crash. Speed, wheel diameter, tire pressure, tire volume, rider and cargo weight, suspension where fitted, and the shape of the pothole all influence what happens during an impact. Even on a fat-tire e-bike, safely slowing down and avoiding a serious pothole when conditions allow is better than assuming the tire will absorb everything.

This is why the question “Does my city have potholes?” isn't enough to decide whether you need a fat-tire e-bike. Almost every urban rider encounters bad pavement eventually. What matters more is how much of your normal route is genuinely rough. If you ride five miles to work and encounter two avoidable potholes, it may not make sense to choose the entire bike around those two obstacles. If large sections of your route consist of repeatedly broken asphalt, construction areas, rough shoulders, and poorly maintained surfaces, larger-volume tires may provide benefits you experience every day.

It's also important not to treat tires as the only factor in rough-road capability. Wheel diameter, bicycle geometry, rider position, appropriate tire pressure, speed, suspension, and rider technique all affect how a bike handles damaged pavement. That's why the broader question in Can a Folding E-Bike Handle Potholes and Rough City Roads? deserves its own discussion rather than being reduced to “buy wider tires.”

A useful principle is:

Fat tires can make some rough surfaces easier to manage, but they don't turn bad roads into good roads.

Do Fat Tires Automatically Make a City E-Bike More Comfortable?

Not necessarily. Tire volume is one contributor to comfort, but a comfortable city e-bike is the result of several systems working together. Rider fit influences how your weight is distributed between the saddle, pedals, and handlebars. Saddle height and riding position can affect your hips, knees, hands, wrists, shoulders, and back. Tire construction and pressure influence road feel, while wheel size and bicycle geometry influence how the bike reacts to different obstacles.

This becomes more noticeable as ride duration increases. A fat-tire bike that doesn't fit you properly can still become uncomfortable after 30 or 40 minutes. A lighter folding e-bike with more moderate tires may be more comfortable for a particular rider if the fit, riding position, saddle, and overall setup are better suited to them. A large tire can absorb some road irregularities, but it can't correct poor reach or an incorrectly adjusted saddle.

Electric assistance works in much the same way. The motor can reduce fatigue and make hills or longer commutes easier, but it doesn't correct mechanical fit problems. Comfort should therefore be considered as a combination of fit, tires, riding position, surface, speed, bike design, and ride duration, rather than something you can buy simply by choosing the widest tire.

For city commuters, this leads to a more useful buying philosophy. The goal isn't to eliminate every vibration or prepare the bicycle for the worst road you could possibly encounter. It's to have enough tire volume, traction, control, and comfort for the streets you ride regularly without accepting unnecessary tradeoffs in the areas that matter to your daily routine.

And that's where the comparison becomes especially interesting for folding e-bikes. If two bikes can both handle your normal city route comfortably, but one requires substantially more weight and bulk to provide terrain capability you rarely use, is the extra tire really helping your commute—or are you carrying it around just in case?

Fat Tires vs. Regular E-Bike Tires for Everyday City Commuting

For everyday commuting, the difference between fat tires and more moderate urban tires becomes clearer when you stop thinking about the worst road you might encounter and start thinking about the hundreds of normal miles you'll actually ride. A city commuter may travel to work five days a week on asphalt, protected bike lanes, neighborhood streets, and paved paths. Even if the route contains cracks, patched pavement, manhole covers, and occasional potholes, most of those miles are still on relatively firm surfaces. In that environment, a suitable urban tire can provide enough cushioning and control without requiring the size and weight associated with a true fat-tire setup.

Fat tires can offer a more cushioned feel on uneven pavement, and riders who frequently encounter rough surfaces may appreciate that extra volume. But commuting also involves repeated acceleration from intersections, maneuvering around traffic or obstacles, parking, storage, and sometimes carrying the bicycle. Tire and wheel mass, tread design, pressure, and overall bike geometry can influence how the bike feels during those everyday situations. A more moderate tire setup can allow a city-focused e-bike to remain relatively compact and light while still providing enough volume for normal pavement imperfections. This can be particularly valuable on a folding e-bike, where portability is often one of the main reasons for choosing the bike in the first place.

Efficiency is another consideration, although it needs to be discussed carefully. It's too simplistic to say that every fat tire has dramatically higher rolling resistance. Tire construction, tread, compound, pressure, surface, and speed all affect rolling behavior. However, a large, aggressively treaded tire designed partly for loose terrain may provide capabilities that aren't especially useful on pavement. For a rider whose daily route is almost entirely asphalt, a tire optimized more closely for urban use may offer a better balance of rolling feel, weight, grip, and comfort.

Handling can also feel different. Very wide tires can give a bike a planted, substantial character that some riders enjoy, while a lighter urban setup may feel more responsive when steering at lower speeds or moving through tight spaces. Neither sensation is universally better. What matters is whether it suits your environment. A rider traveling over rough mixed surfaces may prefer the reassuring feel of a larger tire, while someone navigating bike lanes, elevators, apartment corridors, and crowded storage areas may place greater value on a more compact bicycle.

The comparison therefore isn't really fat tires versus bad tires. It's fat tires versus tires designed around a different set of priorities. A properly selected urban tire can still provide grip, comfort, and durability while allowing the overall e-bike to remain easier to manage. For daily commuting, the best setup is usually the one that matches the conditions you experience repeatedly rather than the most extreme capability available.

When Do Fat Tires Actually Make Sense in the City?

There are city riders for whom fat tires make a great deal of sense. If your route regularly includes loose or soft surfaces, badly maintained roads, unpaved shortcuts, rough construction areas, or other terrain where additional tire volume is genuinely useful, accepting extra size or weight may be a worthwhile tradeoff. Riders living in places with particular seasonal conditions may also have different requirements from someone commuting year-round on relatively clean pavement, although tires should always be selected for the actual conditions and manufacturer-approved use rather than assuming width alone guarantees traction.

Mixed-surface riding is another strong use case. Imagine that your commute includes three miles of pavement followed by a long section of rough unpaved path. In that situation, choosing the bike entirely around smooth asphalt doesn't make much sense because a substantial part of every ride occurs elsewhere. Likewise, someone who uses the same e-bike for weekday commuting and regular recreational rides on rougher terrain may reasonably prioritize greater tire volume even if it isn't strictly necessary for the weekday portion.

Rider preference matters as well. Some people simply prefer the feel and appearance of a fat-tire e-bike and are willing to accept the associated tradeoffs. There is nothing wrong with that. Not every bicycle purchase has to be optimized for minimum weight or maximum efficiency. If you have plenty of storage, rarely need to lift the bike, and enjoy the way a fat-tire model rides on your local streets, portability may not be an important consideration.

The key is distinguishing preference from necessity. A rider may want fat tires without technically needing them, just as another rider may prioritize an exceptionally lightweight folding bike even though they could physically manage something heavier. Both are valid buying decisions when they're made with an understanding of the tradeoffs.

Where fat tires become less compelling is when they're purchased mainly because a rider is worried about ordinary pavement imperfections. Normal city streets don't require off-road levels of tire capability simply because they aren't perfectly smooth. If the route is predominantly paved and the bicycle is designed with an appropriate urban tire setup, cracks, seams, and routine road texture can generally be addressed through the overall design of the bike, appropriate tire pressure, sensible riding speed, and attention to hazards.

This is why it helps to look at your route before looking at tire width. If possible, think about a normal week of riding rather than your worst five minutes. Are you repeatedly crossing rough, loose surfaces, or are you remembering one bad pothole? Do you ride unpaved shortcuts every day, or almost never? Will you carry the bike upstairs every evening? Will it need to fit into a vehicle or small apartment? Those answers reveal much more about the tire setup you need than the word “fat” on a product description.

Why Tire Width Matters Even More on a Folding E-Bike

On a full-size e-bike that remains in a garage, additional tire bulk may not affect the owner's routine very much. On a folding e-bike, the situation is different because compactness and portability are fundamental parts of the product.

A folding bicycle doesn't become useful simply because the frame has a hinge. Its real value appears when the folded package is practical enough for the places you want to put it and the complete bike is manageable enough for the way you need to move it. Wheel and tire dimensions influence that package. Very wide tires remain wide after the frame folds, and the wheel system is still part of the weight you need to carry.

Imagine two riders who both have a five-mile urban commute. The first keeps the e-bike in a garage at home and locks it in a bicycle parking area at work. The bike is almost never lifted. The second lives upstairs, brings the bike inside at work, and occasionally puts it into a vehicle. Even if both riders use exactly the same streets, the second person has a much stronger reason to care about total bike weight and folded dimensions.

This is where a lightweight folding design takes a different approach from many larger fat-tire e-bikes. A bike such as the ZevyBike Go Z1, at approximately 32 lbs, isn't interesting because narrower or more moderate tires are automatically superior. The more relevant idea is that an urban folding e-bike can be designed around the conditions city riders encounter most frequently while keeping portability high on the priority list. If a rider doesn't regularly need soft-terrain capability, avoiding unnecessary size and mass can make the complete bicycle easier to integrate into daily life.

This distinction is particularly important because motor assistance can hide weight while you're riding. Once the motor is providing support, a heavier e-bike may feel surprisingly easy to move along the road. But arrive at your apartment building and the motor doesn't carry the bike upstairs for you. Reach your car and it doesn't lift the bicycle into the cargo area. Walk into a crowded elevator and it doesn't make oversized tires take up less space. For a folding commuter, these moments can matter just as much as what happens on the road.

That doesn't mean every folding e-bike should use the smallest or narrowest tires possible. Going too far in the other direction would create another set of compromises. The objective is appropriate tire volume for the intended surface while preserving the portability that makes a folding bike valuable. For a predominantly paved city commute, that balance may be more useful than maximizing tire width.

Can You Get a Comfortable City Ride Without Fat Tires?

Yes. A comfortable urban e-bike doesn't need true fat tires, provided the bike's overall setup is appropriate for the rider and conditions. Tire volume still matters, but it works together with tire construction, pressure, wheel size, frame design, riding position, saddle setup, speed, and road surface.

Appropriate tire pressure deserves special attention. Riders sometimes assume that simply lowering pressure will make any bicycle more comfortable, but tire pressure needs to remain within appropriate limits for the tire, rim, bicycle, rider and cargo load, and manufacturer guidance. Pressure that's inappropriate can negatively affect handling and increase the risk of tire or rim problems. The goal is not the lowest possible pressure; it's an appropriate setup for the system.

Riding technique matters too. No tire removes the need to pay attention to the road. Looking ahead, reducing speed when approaching rough sections, avoiding deep potholes when it is safe to do so, and maintaining enough space to react can improve both comfort and control. An urban e-bike should help you manage normal road imperfections, but it shouldn't encourage the assumption that every obstacle can simply be ridden through at speed.

Comfort also needs to be considered over the complete commute. If your ride is five miles each way, you may care about road cushioning, but you may also care about how easily the bike moves through your apartment building, whether it fits where you store it, and whether you can comfortably carry it when necessary. A tire setup that provides slightly more cushioning but contributes to a substantially bulkier overall bike may not be the better choice for every commuter.

This is why there is no single “best tire width” that applies to every city e-bike. The right tire is part of a larger design decision. For riders spending nearly all their time on pavement, the sweet spot is often enough tire volume to handle ordinary urban imperfections comfortably without turning the bicycle into something optimized for terrain it rarely sees.

The result may not look as dramatic as a four-inch fat tire, but everyday commuting isn't a contest to see who can fit the most rubber underneath a bicycle.

It's about finding the combination that works every morning, every evening, and everywhere you need to take the bike in between.

How Should You Decide Which Tire Setup You Actually Need?

A useful way to decide is to start with your route rather than a product specification page. Think about the surfaces that account for most of your weekly mileage. If your commute is overwhelmingly paved, begin by looking for a city-oriented e-bike with tires designed to provide an appropriate balance of comfort, grip, durability, and efficiency on pavement. Don't eliminate a bike simply because its tires aren't exceptionally wide.

Then consider the roughest parts of your normal route. The word normal matters. If you encounter badly damaged pavement for several miles every day, larger tire volume may deserve greater priority. If you encounter one pothole near an intersection that you normally avoid safely, it probably shouldn't determine the design of your entire bicycle. If you regularly transition onto gravel or loose paths, evaluate the tire for those surfaces as well rather than judging it only on asphalt.

Next, think about what happens when you're not riding. Will you carry the e-bike? Fold it regularly? Put it into a vehicle? Store it in a small apartment? Take it into an office? If portability is central to your routine, total bike weight and dimensions deserve to be considered alongside tire comfort. This is particularly important when comparing a lightweight folding commuter with a much heavier fat-tire model, because both may be capable of handling your city route while offering very different ownership experiences.

Finally, don't buy entirely around appearance or one specification. Tire width is easy to compare because it's a number, but the complete riding experience isn't. Fit, brakes, motor assistance, battery capacity, bike weight, folding design, tires, and intended use all need to work together.

For a rider who regularly needs soft-surface capability, fat tires can be a worthwhile part of that package.

For a rider whose life is mostly apartment → paved commute → office → paved commute → apartment, they may solve a problem that barely exists while adding size and weight to every day.

That distinction is the heart of the decision.

Frequently Asked Questions About Fat Tires for City E-Bikes

Do You Need Fat Tires for City E-Bike Riding?

For most riders who primarily use paved streets, bike lanes, greenways, and maintained urban paths, fat tires aren't a necessity. A properly designed urban e-bike can provide a comfortable and controlled ride with more moderate tires, provided the tire setup is appropriate for the bike, rider, load, and road conditions.

Fat tires become more useful when rough, loose, or soft surfaces make up a meaningful part of your regular riding. The important distinction is between occasionally encountering imperfect pavement and regularly riding surfaces where additional tire volume provides a benefit. If almost all of your commute is paved, choosing an entire bike around the occasional pothole may not be necessary.

Are Fat Tires Better for Potholes?

Larger-volume tires can provide additional cushioning over some rough surfaces and road imperfections, but they don't make potholes harmless. Deep potholes can still cause tire or rim damage, loss of control, or a crash regardless of tire width.

When conditions allow, slowing down and safely avoiding serious potholes remains the better approach. Tire volume is only one part of rough-road performance; wheel size, pressure, bike geometry, speed, rider and cargo weight, suspension where fitted, and rider technique also matter.

Are Fat Tires More Comfortable on City Streets?

They can be more cushioned on certain rough surfaces, but tire width alone doesn't determine comfort. Tire construction, appropriate pressure, rider fit, saddle position, riding posture, wheel size, and road conditions all contribute to how an e-bike feels.

A fat-tire bike that doesn't fit you properly can still be uncomfortable, while an appropriately fitted commuter e-bike with more moderate tires can be very comfortable on normal paved streets.

Are Fat Tires Slower or Less Efficient?

Not necessarily in every situation. Rolling resistance depends on tire construction, tread pattern, compound, pressure, surface, speed, and other factors, so it isn't accurate to assume that every fat tire is automatically inefficient.

However, large tires with aggressive tread designed partly for loose terrain may involve weight and rolling characteristics that provide relatively little benefit to someone riding almost exclusively on pavement. For city commuting, it's usually more useful to select tires designed around the surfaces you actually use than to maximize width.

Do Fat Tires Use More E-Bike Battery?

They can influence energy consumption, but tire width alone doesn't determine battery range. Tire pressure, construction, tread, total bike weight, rider and cargo weight, speed, hills, wind, temperature, motor efficiency, assistance level, and road surface all affect how much energy an e-bike uses.

For that reason, you shouldn't assume a specific range penalty based only on tire width. Compare the complete bike and realistic riding conditions instead.

Are Fat Tires Better in Rain?

A wider tire doesn't automatically mean better wet-pavement grip. Rubber compound, tread design, tire condition, appropriate pressure, road surface, braking technique, and speed all matter.

Wet pavement can reduce available traction regardless of tire size, and painted road markings, metal surfaces, leaves, and other materials can become particularly slippery. Riders should adjust speed and braking to the conditions rather than relying on tire width alone.

Are Fat Tires Better for a Folding E-Bike?

That depends on what you want the folding bike to do. Fat tires may provide benefits if you regularly ride rough or loose surfaces, but they can also contribute to a larger and potentially heavier overall package. That matters because portability is often one of the main reasons to choose a folding e-bike.

If your folding bike is regularly carried upstairs, placed in a vehicle, or stored in a small space, a more moderate tire setup may provide a better balance between urban comfort and portability. If terrain capability matters more than low weight or compactness, a wider setup may be worth the tradeoff.

Final Verdict: Do You Need Fat Tires for City E-Bike Riding?

For most people riding primarily on paved city streets, no—you don't need fat tires simply because you're riding an e-bike in the city.

That doesn't mean fat tires are unnecessary in every urban environment, and it certainly doesn't mean they're bad. Their larger air volume can provide useful cushioning, and they may make sense for riders who regularly deal with rough roads, loose surfaces, unpaved shortcuts, or mixed-terrain routes. Some riders also simply prefer the planted feel and appearance of a fat-tire e-bike, which is a perfectly reasonable preference when the associated size and weight aren't concerns.

The mistake is assuming that more tire automatically means a better city bike.

Most urban riders spend the majority of their time on pavement. Their normal ride may include cracks, repaired asphalt, manhole covers, construction patches, and occasional potholes, but that isn't the same as continuously riding off-road terrain. A suitable urban tire can provide enough volume, grip, and cushioning for these conditions without necessarily moving into the fat-tire category.

Potholes are a good example of why this distinction matters. A larger tire can help absorb some road irregularities, but no tire makes a deep pothole something you should deliberately hit at speed. Good city riding still requires looking ahead, adjusting speed, and safely avoiding serious road hazards when possible. If rough pavement is a major part of your daily route, tire volume becomes more important; if poor surfaces represent only a small portion of the ride, they shouldn't necessarily dictate the design of your entire e-bike.

Comfort needs the same balanced thinking. Fat tires can contribute to a cushioned ride, but comfort isn't created by tire width alone. Rider fit, saddle adjustment, riding position, wheel size, tire construction and pressure, road surface, speed, and overall bicycle design all play a role. A bike with enormous tires can still be uncomfortable if it doesn't fit you, while a properly fitted city e-bike with more moderate tires can remain comfortable for a normal commute.

For folding e-bike riders, there is another dimension to the decision: portability.

A folding bike needs to work when it's folded as well as when it's being ridden. If you carry the bike upstairs, put it into a car, bring it into an office, or store it in an apartment, weight and physical size become part of the ownership experience. Very wide tires can work against some of those priorities by contributing to a bulkier overall package.

This is where a lightweight folding e-bike such as the ZevyBike Go Z1, at approximately 32 lbs, represents a different design philosophy. The point isn't that moderate tires are universally superior to fat tires. It's that a city-focused folding e-bike can prioritize the conditions urban riders encounter most frequently while also keeping weight and portability in mind.

A rider who spends every day on rough mixed surfaces may reasonably choose differently. A rider whose normal routine is paved streets, bike lanes, an apartment, an elevator, and an office may get much more value from a lighter and more compact setup.

So before choosing a fat-tire e-bike, ask yourself four practical questions: What percentage of my normal ride is paved? How rough are the roads I actually use every day? How often will I carry or fold the bike? And do I genuinely need loose-surface capability?

If you regularly ride rough, loose, or mixed surfaces and rarely need to carry the bicycle, fat tires may be a worthwhile choice. If nearly all your miles are on paved city streets and portability matters, you probably don't need to maximize tire width just to feel prepared for the occasional crack or pothole.

The goal isn't to choose the biggest tire that will fit on an e-bike.

It's to choose enough tire for the city you actually ride.