Quote:
Originally Posted by veggieburger
I usually ride to work on 32w Panaracer tires, which are great and flat-free...but slow and heavy. This morning I replaced my rear tire with a 25w 240 gram tire and the difference was remarkable. I felt like I had lost 20lbs.
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The biggest performance difference between light and heavy tires usually isn't due to the change in mass - its due to the difference in rolling resistance. Tire rolling resistance comes primarily from the energy lost in flexing the tread and casing. A lighter tire will have less tread and casing to flex, and a tire that has less tread and casing to flex will create less rolling resistance.
Here's a
chart of road tire rolling resistance that shows a difference of up to 18 watts between the best and worst 25mm wide tires - depending on how hard you are going, that could easily be a 10% difference in total power.