Carbonfiberboy 

I seems to me that the OP's question is a simple one, and that is: What makes a tire roll more easily?

There are basic qualities. The idea is that a tire with low rolling resistance on a smooth surface generates less internal heat by flexing. So that's a function of the materials in the tire, rubber, cords, and whatever else they use. Energy turns into heat. The more heat, the more energy lost. Tire manufacturers spend a lot of money trying to optimize rolling resistance. The downside of lowering rolling resistance is that puncture resistance goes down as rolling resistance decreases. That's not exact but that's why tires which are harder to flat have more rolling resistance. It's a tradeoff.

Besides rolling resistance on a smooth surface, there are also vertical accelerations which absorb energy, which energy was supposed be for straight forward motion. High pressures increase these losses. At the same time, high pressures reduce losses on smooth surfaces. so every tire and pressure will be a compromise between the surfaces on which it will be ridden.

I agree that the Conti 3000 tires were POS. Terrible tires. Conti tires today are nothing like that, very nice tires. I've been told that tire technology has been the greatest advance in bike tech since the Wright Brothers.

As said above, it's very difficult to form a correct opinion about a tire's rolling resistance by riding on it.

ofajen

I tend to agree. I ride old bikes and old tech but I really like the modern tires. And LED USB bike lights. 😊

Otto

Erzulis Boat 

I sure can tell the difference between "training" and full on race tires. I get maybe 400 miles out of a top shelf race tire, but boy, the ride is sweet.

seypat

The current trend is wide rims and bigger, fatter tires. For that reason, I don't think tires fast anymore to stay skinny.

Branko D

How? Which tires?

dmanthree

Interesting, since I recently switched from a set of GP 5000s to GP 4 Season. Both 700 x 28, both mounted on Roval SLX 24 wheels. So far, virtually no change in average speed. So I'm wondering if that's due to me and my riding abilities, or that there just isn't that much difference until you reach higher speeds. I normally average about 17 MPH, so I'm not fast at all. So I'm guessing the difference in RR diminishes at lower speeds. Either that or I'm insane.

jimbossa

I was also skeptical of tires making a huge difference in speed. However, last year I was given a pair of slightly used Continental Gatorskins. I typically run Continental GP4000s on my bike but decided to try out the Gatorskins, specially after a rung of bad luck with flats.

I typically do laps of Central Park and was clocking in 17-18min laps with the GP4000s. My lap times were around 30seconds slower with the Gatorskins. I tried my best to match weather, time of day, energy output (no power meter). Both sets of tires are 700x23, paired with butyl inner tubes, pumped to 110 psi.

dmanthree

I always wondered how much tech info goes into that decision; choosing tires for a pro team? Or does sponsorship play a bigger role? But I agree, that decision is not up to the riders. They ride what they're given.

burnthesheep

I do.

burnthesheep

Some pro tires are pretty junk. It's about the sponsorship money for some teams, just to be able to garner sponsorship to be a UCI team the next year. Qubecka lost that this year (spelling?). Like, losing 10w+ in CRR. Per tire. God bless the poor souls destined to hell riding Kendas as a pro. Especially for a TT.

On the TT note, you'll see teams take sharpie marker to the tires or the wheels to run faster kit. It can mean a lot of watts, watts that for them mean time in the GC or winning the TT.

Importantly, tire brands that don't pay attention to inflated width versus rim width. So that those pro 23's or 25's bulge like balloons past the wheel and kill any useful aero of the wheels.

Gaimon pissed about his Kenda sponsorship a lot in his books. I know literally zero amateur riders that use Kendas, no sponsor obligation.

dmanthree

A sharpie? OK, I'll bite: how does that work?

burnthesheep

The pro wants to run a TT tire that isn't a sponsor tire due to the aero or CRR difference, so they take a black permanent marker and cover up the logos on the tire so you can't see at a 10 foot distance what it is...with a camera or tv camera.........so that the sponsor doesn't get angry at an obvious "snub" on live tv or an internet article. That's how it works. They also will pull decals off of TT wheels sometimes or run non-sponsor shoes under their TT shoe covers for TT if the sponsor shoes have a bunch of trash Boa dials sticking out in the wind.

This is pretty common practice.

Pros will run "limited run" Conti GP TT tires with the GP5000 tread stamped on them for the aero benefit and black out the Conti logos with a marker if their sponsor isn't Conti. Pros have pulled decals off of the 100mm and trispoke Revolver wheels for TT's before also. Revolver sponsors nobody I know of in the UCI World Tour. And it is a Chinese open mold TT trispoke. God forbid.

dmanthree

Ah, OK, I thought there was some sharpie magic involved other than just blasting the name of the tire. Of course, I don't need to do this since I ride the Conti GP 4 Season.

;-)