You are reading a single comment by @andyfallsoff and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@andyfallsoff
Not an engineer / physicist but isn't it because the bumps up and down that you get with harder compound materials are effectively lost energy - effort is used in pushing the bike up over the object, or deforming the tyre around it. If the tyre is harder, more energy is needed to deform it vs. a softer material which will yield more easily.
Maybe? (I am interested to hear the right answer as that is based on some pretty distant recollection of mechanics / physics 20 yrs ago)