Think much about your tires? You really should, because your choice of tire can make a huge difference in the amount of power you have available for speed. After overcoming air resistance, your biggest foe is rolling resistance, and depending on the tire you ride, that can vary by as much as 59 watts!

Yep, nearly 60 watts more can be squandered through a poor tire choice.

Velo News went to the top lab in the world for testing rolling resistance, the labs of Wheel Energy Oy, and tested 34 popular tires to see how they perform at 25 mph under load.

The results are interesting. The difference between the best performing tire (Specialized S-Works Turbo Road Tubeless) and the worst (Schwalbe Durano) is 28 watts. But wait, there’s more! Since you have two tires, that’s only half the story, so double that… you have nearly 60 watts more power required to maintain 25 mph.

Before I switched to tubulars, I used to love Vittoria’s Corsa EVO CX open tubular, they felt fast and handled well, but they were expensive and I had bad luck with them and split a tire too often so went back to Michelin Pros. Big mistake, they’re way down the list at #27. Over the course of an hour long race where speeds are around 30 mph, that must have cost me quite a bit in watts. Compared to the top tire it’s a 30 watts penalty. At race speeds a lot more.

Of course it’s not all about rolling resistance. On my TT bike I did make an effort to choose low rolling resistance tires. On my road bike I would look for handling and durability, and switch to my Easton Carbon wheels sporting tubulars for racing. But rolling resistance is still a huge factor in racing or riding at your limits. If you’re in a break and rotating how’s an extra boost of 20, 30, maybe 40 watts going to feel? Pretty damn good. And could well mean the difference between staying in or dropping out.

BTW, I learned the hard way, Rule #1 of Racing: Never, ever, EVER… get dropped from the f&%#ing break!

The article is fairly technical, but worth a read if you want to appreciate the what goes into a good tire. the bottom line?

“If you want reliability and good rolling resistance, wide tubeless tires with sealant are the way to go. If punctures are not an issue, and you want pure speed and grip without having to worry too much about tire pressure, go with an open tubular with a great tread compound.”

What Makes Tires Fast?

Get Even Faster….

And if you want to save not just 30 watts, but get faster and save $83 dollars, then check this out. I have a CompuTrainer and I love it, but if I was starting over, I’d save a bundle and get this, and then join Zwift which provides a much better ride experience than CompuTrainer, and at a 1/3 of the price.