Originally Posted by
MinnMan
Can I quibble with your order? I'm just not convinced that the tires do quite that much. Positioning on the bike can be huge.
I've recently been working to optimize my hand and arm position, hands on the hoods, elbows a little below the hands and in. The gains are noticeable. My upgrade from Conti- 4-seasons to GP5000s? Yeah, that helped too, but I don't think as much.
Just my opinion.
Besides the engine which is the main source of power, all others are "marginal gains" in comparison. For most of riding more riders do, the name of the game is be aero, which includes reduce frontal area (e.g. bike position) and reduce drag (e.g. rolling resistance and tire/wheel interface). You can work on both the engine and aero at the same time if you want to optimize performance. The order of priority doesn't really matter, IHMO.