Rolling resistance of bicycle tires
Measuring Crr is technically difficult, so one should always keep an
critical mind when judging Crr measurement results. The results gathered on
this page have all been measured on different surfaces with different
methods, so the results are not necesseraly directly comparable. The
results have mostly been gathered in one place to give some pointers
about the relative rolling resistance merits of different tires and not
to claim absolute values for Crr.
Here is a link
to some recent measurements of Crr.
From hpv-owner@zippy.sonoma.EDU Wed Jul 21 10:22:36 1993
From: "Ronald Glatz, Vienna"
To: hpv@sonoma.edu
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1993 19:22:43 CET
Message-Id:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
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Subject: Tires
Hi,
since there is some talk about tires you might be interested in data that I
came across in the German Bicycle/HPV magazine "Pro Velo". The article is
written by somebody from the Oldenburg University's bicycle research group
(does anybody know if they can be reached via Internet?).
They tested quite a few different tires at different pressures and found that
rolling resistance decreased with tire diameter and tire width for otherwise
identical tires. The lowest rolling drag could be achieved with the handmade
Rinkowsky belt tires (as opposed to tires with diagonal cords).
Tire size is given in mm (nominal tire width and rim bead diameter). We really
should avoid to use the old "inch" tire sizes because they are pretty
meaningless. For instance there are at least three different 26" tires
available and at least two different 20" sizes. In Europe many people call the
700C (622 mm) size 28" -- which means that a 27" (630 mm) is bigger than a 28".
BTW, is 406 mm the standard BMX size?
The following data give the coefficient of rolling resistance (multiply by
10e-5) for various tires at different pressures (100kPa=1Bar=14.5psi, i.e.
700kPa=~100psi).
Pressure
Tire 300kPa 500kPa 700kPa Width Size
---- ------ ------ ------ ----- ----
Schwalbe Standard GW. HS159 47-305 394 47 305
Rinkowski Typ 1 47-406 219 160 47 406
Rinkowski Typ 2 47-406 261 195 47 406
Continental Nylon S 47-406 392 47 406
ACS RL-Edge 47-406 394 47 406
Avocet Fasgrip Freestyle 47-406 394 47 406
Tioga Competition Steg 47-406 394 47 406
Tioga Competition Stollen 47-406 419 47 406
Schwalbe Standard GW HS 159 47-406 455 47 406
Schwalbe City Jet 32-406 568 467 32 406
Schwalbe Standard GW HS 188 47-406 526 47 406
Schwalbe Standard SK HS 188 47-406 685 47 406
Michelin Standard 28-440 534 28 440
Conti Tour de Sol 32-451 446 360 32 451
Hudyn HPV 32-451 446 360 32 451
Schwalbe Standard GW HS 159 47-507 408 47 507
Continental Avenue 47-559 267* 47 559
Schwalbe Standard GW HS 159 47-559 332 47 559
Continental Supercross 50-559 696 643* 50 559
Continental Top Touring Skinwall 32-622 278 32 622
Vredestein Runner 25-622 312 25 622
Vredestein Monte Carlo 37-622 319 37 622
Schwalbe Blizzard HS190 25-622 573 389 321 25 622
Schwalbe Standard GW HS 159 47-622 336 47 622
Continental Top Touring weiss 37-622 448 341 37 622
Schwalbe Blizzard HS190 22-622 432 342 22 622
Avocet Slick 28-622 596 402 349 28 622
Continental Supersport 28-622 351 28 622
Schwalbe City Jet HS257 47-622 446 351 47 622
Avocet Slick 32-622 513 361 32 622
Schwalbe City Jet HS257 37-622 522 362 37 622
Avocet Slick 20-622 477 376 20 622
Semperit Long Life 28-622 393 28 622
Schwalbe Hurricane 44-622 397 44 622
Schwalbe Blizzard HS190 18-622 496 405 18 622
Schwalbe Marathon 32-622 474 32 622
Panaracer Tour Guard 25-622 537 25 622
--Ron.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Ronald Glatz E-Mail: glatz@ps1.iaee.tuwien.ac.at
Techn. Univ. Vienna/Austria CIS: 100064,27
Tel: +43 1 58801 3988 Fax: +43 1 505 26 66
* = 450 kPa
The relative error on the measurements is < 2%.
Thomas Senkel, Plädoyer fur einen guten Reifen, ProVelo 32 (1993)
Cycling Plus ?/199x
The following table is taken from a roll out test made by the english
magazine Cycling Plus. The tested tires were road tires for mountain
bikes. This table shows only the relative rolling resistance of these
tires. The article did not tell how the percentage given as a merit of
rolling resistance actually was computed, but I guess it is just the
roll out distance relative to a reference tire.
The accuracy of this test was probably rather low, since all tested
tires fall in only three different categories.
The table is a bit more interesting, when one notes that the Continental
Avenue Semislick is found in the C+ data and in the Pro Velo table.
Brand & Model Size Weight / g Rolling resistance
------------- ---- ---------- ------------------
Specialized Turbo 559-22 202 95 %
Nokia City Runner 559-34 534 90 %
Ritchey Crossbites 559-29 281 90 %
Continental Avenue Semislick 559-41 528 85 % = 0,00267
Nokia Rollspeed Trek 559-34 551 85 %
Michelin Idilis 559-40 540 85 %
Avocet City Fasgrip 559-33 458 85 %
Michelin Overland 559-41 544 85 %
Avocet Cross 559-29 428 85 %
Tekniikan Maailma 15/92
The finnish magazine Tekniikan Maailma did also perform a roll out test
to compare the rolling resistance of mountain bike tires (559 mm). Note
that there is one studded winter tire in the table. The results are
sorted by increasing tire pressure and by decreasing roll out distance.
Brand & Model Size Weight / g p/kPa Distance
------------- ----- ---------- ----- --------
Nokia Mount & City 559-48 755 300 28,2 m
Nokia Mount & Ground 559-48 795 300 27,8 m
Ritchey Megabite Z-Max 559-53 705 300 26,4 m
Mitsuboshi Hilltop 5100 559-50 640 300 25,6 m
Onza Porc's II Racin. 559-53 710 300 25,2 m
Mitsuboshi Hilltop 1300 559-50 660 300 24,1 m
Nokia Mount & Ground/W 559-48 955 300 22,5 m studded!
Panaracer Smoke Lite C. 559-48 495 300 21,8 m
Panaracer Smoke Magnum 559-56 730 300 21,3 m
Joe Murray Propulsion 559-51 650 300 21,0 m
Panaracer Hi-Road S 559-44 540 300 20,1 m
SemperitTop Traction 559-48 720 300 15,0 m
Nokia Mount & City 559-48 755 400 31,8 m
Panaracer Hi-Road S 559-44 540 450 25,7 m