Thursday, November 12, 2015

VeloNews: What Makes Cycling Tires Fast?


photo copyright VeloNews/VeloNews.com
The short answer: It's complicated. I had skimmed this article a few days ago in the print version of VeloNews. Jeff sent me the link to the online version today and drew my attention back to it. For the technologically inclined among our readers, I would highly recommend reading the full article. Speaking very broadly, wider, more supple tires roll faster. But as it turns out, the most important variable may be the exact rubber compound of each individual tire. The most remarkable finding from VN strict laboratory testing of 34 popular tire models is that the rolling resistance of the worst tires was almost double that of the best (roughly 60 vs 30 watts per tire). Times two tires, that is a difference of 60 watts which multiplied over distance is enormous. 

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