See what your tires cost you in watts at your speed and weight, and compare tire types side by side.
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Compare tires at this speed and weight
| Tire | Watts |
|---|---|
| Road race (e.g. GP5000) | 23.4 W |
| Road winter/training | 44.1 W |
| Gravel, fast tread | 52.5 W |
| Gravel, aggressive tread | 58.9 W |
Tire Crr values are commonly-cited category defaults, not a measurement of your specific tire and pressure. For the full power picture (rolling resistance plus aerodynamic drag and gravity), use the full power breakdown.
Every time a tire rolls, it flexes against the road, and that flexing turns some of your effort into heat instead of forward motion. The table converts the coefficient of rolling resistance (Crr) of each tire type into watts at 30 km/h for a 75 kg rider on a 9 kg bike on flat, paved road:
| Tire | Crr | Watts at 30 km/h | Extra vs race tire |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fast road race tire | 0.00321 | 22 W | baseline |
| Winter / training road tire | 0.00606 | 41.6 W | +19.6 W |
| Fast gravel tire | 0.00722 | 49.6 W | +27.5 W |
| Aggressive gravel tread | 0.00809 | 55.5 W | +33.5 W |
Crr values come from independent tire testing published at BicycleRollingResistance.com, on a paved surface at typical pressure.
The calculator uses exactly the rolling term from the site's physics engine, not a separate equation:
Crr is the coefficient of rolling resistance and is looked up from the tire you pick. It multiplies weight, not speed, so the force is constant and the power it costs grows linearly with speed.
Minutes are easier to picture than watts. At a steady 200 W on the flat, the same rider on each tire type holds:
| Tire | Speed at 200 W | Time for 40 km |
|---|---|---|
| Fast road race tire | 33.93 km/h | 1:10:44 |
| Winter / training road tire | 32.5 km/h | 1:13:51 |
| Fast gravel tire | 31.92 km/h | 1:15:11 |
| Aggressive gravel tread | 31.49 km/h | 1:16:13 |
The slowest tire here loses 2.44 km/h, or about 5.5 minutes over 40 km. For the same question with the route, wind and position included, the total cycling power calculator on the homepage takes tire choice as one of many inputs.
Rolling resistance scales with both, so the heavier you are and the faster you go, the more it costs. On a fast race tire, in watts:
| Speed | 60 kg rider | 75 kg rider | 90 kg rider |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 km/h | 9.1 W | 11 W | 13 W |
| 25 km/h | 15.1 W | 18.4 W | 21.6 W |
| 35 km/h | 21.1 W | 25.7 W | 30.3 W |
| 45 km/h | 27.2 W | 33.1 W | 39 W |
Doubling speed doubles the tire cost, where it would multiply air resistance roughly eightfold. That is why tires matter relatively more on climbs and at touring speeds.
A single Crr per tire is a simplification. Real rolling resistance also depends on tire width, pressure, casing construction, inner tube or tubeless setup, road surface and even temperature. On smooth pavement a higher pressure generally rolls better up to a point; on rough roads a lower pressure can be faster because the tire absorbs vibration instead of bouncing you. If tire choice is a serious part of your setup, lab results for your exact tire at your exact pressure beat any category default, and you can type them into the Crr field of advanced mode on the watts calculator.
Tire losses rise linearly with speed while drag rises with its cube, so the tire share shrinks as you speed up. For the air side of the comparison, the watts lost to air resistance at your own speed are one page away, and the CdA calculator helps you work out the drag area that drives them.
The page reuses the same classical-mechanics rolling term documented for the cycling watts calculator, as used by Analytic Cycling and similar bike-power tools, and introduces no new physics. The Crr values are commonly cited category defaults rather than lab measurements of a specific product, so treat them as a reasonable estimate for your exact tire and pressure.
