Originally Posted by
biknbrian
Changing from heavy studded winter tires to lightweight XC tires was the only time I've ever changed a part and felt the weight difference. There was such an obvious difference in increased acceleration and sharper handling. Rotational mass matters, espesially in situations with lots of direction and speed changes like mountain biking. Perhaps it makes a bit less difference on the road, but it is still important.
Yes, it does make a difference. It's not just the weight though, churning those lumps of rubber sticking out the surface of the tire ( knobbies ) takes some effort too. The difference between two types of road tire would be less I think.
A lot of this is subjective, without something like power measuring cranks, it's difficult to get an objective reading. I recently switched from semi studs to Big Apples, they're faster, but not as fast as slicks at high pressure, but I'm having difficulty defining exactly how much slower.
One thing is definite, they are much more comfortable, they are also faster than other tires would be at the current pressures, ( 35PSI ) I'm going to be playing around with pressures and see what they feel like. To give some idea of the ride difference, one short cut takes me over some hard packed grass tracks, the semi studs had the fender rattling constantly, with the BA's they hardly rattle at all, and when they do it's brief and muted. Like riding a new bike.