I'm hoping somebody can help me interpret some results from bicyclerollingresistance.com . These Continental Race King Protection tires are shown to have significantly lower rolling resistance than these Continental Gatorskins which are essentially slick. It looks like the tests are being run on a fairly smooth surface, and it kind of baffles me that a knobby tire could be that much faster than a slick tire. Are the gatorskins just really that slow, or am I fundamentally misunderstanding something?
by launchoverittt
9 Comments
I wouldn’t be surprised, the gatorskins are an incredibly slow fire and conti has very fast rolling rubber compound.
Sidewall has a huge impact on rolling resistance. Race kings are one of if not *the* fastest MTB tires and gator skins are on the opposite end of the rolling resistance spectrum but for road tires.
One is a 25 mm tire being run at 80 psi. The other is a 54 mm tire being run at 25 psi.
As others have said, the hardshells are quite hard and rank poorly compared to similar sized tires.
It wouldn’t surprise me. A significant share of rolling resistance comes from the tire sidewall, and some racing-focused MTB tires have sidewalls that are paper thin.
Gatorskin on the other hand has a thick sidewall as its main selling point, and its rolling resistance is a lot worse than what you might expect by just looking at it.
Gatorskins are awesome because they save wear and tear on your brakes.
With the gator skins at 80 psi and the race kings at 58psi I do believe it.
The Continental rep once told me that the Gatorskin (he also mentioned the Marathon) was designed to take a German office worker 7 km from their home to the train station in the morning, and back again in the evening.
You’re comparing that to a race tire.
on the steel drum yes apparently. but in real surfaces it may or may not be the same. every surface is different. not all tarmac is the same, especially since the term gravel covers such a vast variety of surfaces not all gravel is even close to being the same.
When people are out on road rides running mountain bike tires and dropping all their buddies I’ll believe it!
The Gatorskins also show as having better puncture resistance than a lot of gravel tires. But I’m not taking any on any rocky roads!
The BRR tests are most useful when you’re comparing like for like. Compare 32mm Gatorskins vs 32mm Mondos.