How much less rolling resistance do you get as tyres wear do you think?

Got an almost bald racing ralph on the back at the moment, all the tread is still there but worn down to well less than a mm in the centre I reckon and rounded rather thna square edges. Got a spanking fresh one sitting ready to go on, but part of me thinks keep the old one running through my next race for fast rolling.

However I think the tyre is more thorns than rubber and I can see a criss-cross in the side walls, which makes me think it might be time to switch! would loose more time from a tyre malfunction than a few seconds difference in rolling

Interesting question!

I’d think very little though on a tyre like a RR where the knobs are small and it’s low to start with. Most of the rr is due to the carcass deforming rather than the knobs. Personally I used to run semi-slicks back in the day – Conti Double Fighters were nice tyres – but RRs actually have less rolling resistance than those.

I’d put the new tyre on.

I’d be more concerned about the state of the side walls myself.

Cheers both, I hadn’t realized that about carcass deformation.

I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion the new tyre is a better option, better safe than sorry and all that. It’ll will be interesting to see if I notice any difference. I think I’ll certainly notice increased braking, had got used to accepting very reduced effect of the rear brake (set loads of sphincter clenching PBs because of it 🙂 )

ferrals – Member
…Got an almost bald racing ralph on the back at the moment, all the tread is still there but worn down to well less than a mm in the centre I reckon and rounded rather thna square edges. …

Sounds like you have inadvertently invented the “Furious Fred” 🙂

epicyclo – Member

Sounds like you have inadvertently invented the “Furious Fred”

maybe I should try to sell the design to Schwalbe, there must be some performance benefit of the embedded brambles, I’ll propose it as the ‘Thorny Theobald’

As the tyre wears the rolling radius will also reduce altering your gearing (by a minuscule amount but even so..)

Tread adds weight 😀

Ah, so a new tyre will make the trails come alive?