In Reply To:
I only had a moment to give this a quick glance before dashing out the door, but:
What's up with the tire pressures used in the study? Only 101 for the clinchers is a bit below what most folks would run. 101 and 87 is significantly below what most folks would put in a tubular. I thought part of the advantage of the tubular was that you could generally run a higher psi. Why didn't they test and compare at a higher psi?
I think this comparison is probably relevant to compare one clincher to another. As for comparing tubulars to clinchers, or tubulars to other tubulars, they're so far below the manufacturers recommended psi levels the data could be rather worthless.
Bob C.
Higher pressures than that, with that sort of weight, would make the tires slower on roads. Responsible manufacturers print "maximum" pressures on their tires, not "recommended." The people at Michelin and Vittoria recommend pressures in the 100-120 range for road riding. As you can see on the tubular chart, increasing the pressure made only a
very tiny difference (in watts), and that's on a testing rig. The difference is nil, or negative, on an asphalt road.
It's an urban myth that high pressure tires are faster. They're not -- only on the track does high pressure work.