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Also why is a thinner tyre faster than a thicker one
What do you mean by thinner and thicker?
Since we're on a bicycle forum, I'm assuming you're only talking about tyres of essentially circular cross section with very compliant carcasses,allmost bets are off once you switch to square rigid tyres.
As other respondents have already intimated, there's a lot of difference between pure rolling resistance (mostly hysteresis, measured on a steel roller) and resistance to forward motion on a practical surface, where suspension losses become a significant or, in some situations, dominant factor.
gbj_tester-
Thinner, not narrower.
- I'm guessing that this is down to the energy loss over small bumps like everyone's mentioned and a thinner tyre filled with high pressure air, coming out as being harder on the surface than one with a couple mm more rubber.
I was talking about ~circular tyres yes.
Again, I'm not talking about a rocky trail or a gravel path but specifically road tyres so no point in talking about polished floors either.
- I'm guessing that this is down to the energy loss over small bumps like everyone's mentioned and a thinner tyre filled with high pressure air, coming out as being harder on the surface than one with a couple mm more rubber.
PhilDAS
If high tyre pressure is faster due to a decreased contact patch and therefore less friction, why are softer compound tyres faster than hard?
Also why is a thinner tyre faster than a thicker one when the road-rubber contact would seemingly be the same