Quote:
Originally Posted by zjrog
I must ask, how do these tires fair in inclement weather (snow)? And will they hold a wet road in corners? I'm going to guess that to aceive low rolling resistaqnce they are a harder compound and require a little higher pressure?
Really, I don't know how else to get lower rolling resistance... Is there a good website to see all these characteristics?
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Sidewall stiffness, internal friction. Anything that prevents the tire from deforming as it contacts the ground will reduce rolling resistance. Harder compound materials do this by reducing how completely the rubber fills the "roughness" of the ground surface. A stiffer carcass (the guts underneath the rubber and tread) will deform less for a given load/pressure and generate less internal friction. Higher air pressure is just one method for reducing carcass deformation. Material choice will help, such as not using carbon black to color the tire but other materials that produce less internal friction as the tire does deform (I think Michelin pioneered the use of silicon in the MXV4 tires to do this)
Even tread design can help reduce rolling resistance since a tall/skinny tread block will squirm as it hits the ground and generate friction. Making the tread blocks themselves stiff and stable helps, and any design that reduces noise generation is more efficient since noise is just one other way energy is dissipated by tires.