3 ms·
Rotational mass is important if you're doing lots of accelerations, but for almost all riders the real killer is rolling resistance. The difference between good
by bigfudge 11y ago
Rotational mass is important if you're doing lots of accelerations, but for almost all riders the real killer is rolling resistance. The difference between good tyres and bad is light and day. And note, narrower+harder != better... tests have shown that wider tyres running low pressures but with supple side walls can be as fast or faster than narrower tyres, and are much more comfortable to boot.
- fulafel 11y ago> for almost all riders the real killer is rolling resistance Aerodynamic resistance becomes greater than rolling resistance very early. See eg. http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/aero/formulas.htm http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/aero/formulas.htm You may argue that people riding upright on city ("dutch") bikes make up the majority of bike riders, but their possibly heavy-rolling tires are made up for their aerodynamically pessimal riding posture! (Of course often it's easier to do something about rolling resistance than aerodynamics, despite being a smaller component)