Calculate the rolling-resistance power cost of your speed, weight and tire choice, and compare tires side by side.
| Tire | Watts |
|---|---|
| Road race (e.g. GP5000) | 23.4 W |
| Road winter/training | 44.1 W |
| Gravel, fast tread | 52.5 W |
| Gravel, aggressive tread | 58.9 W |
Tire Crr values are commonly-cited category defaults, not a measurement of your specific tire and pressure. For the full power picture (rolling resistance plus aerodynamic drag and gravity), use the Cycling Watts Calculator.
Rolling resistance is the power lost to tire deformation as it rolls — energy that flexes the rubber and casing rather than moving you forward. Alongside aerodynamic drag and gravity, it's one of the three forces the Cycling Watts Calculator combines into total power; this page isolates that one component so you can see it — and the effect of tire choice — on its own.
This calculator uses the exact rolling-resistance term from this site's physics engine, not a separate formula:
Rolling-resistance power is then that force multiplied by speed. Crr (coefficient of rolling resistance) comes from the tire selected, using the same lookup table used across this site.
Take a 165 lb rider on an 18 lb bike with fast road-race tires, riding at 20 mph on flat ground:
Enter your own speed, weight and tire choice above to see your own number, and how it changes across tire types.
At the same speed and weight, a tire's Crr is the only thing that changes — a lower-Crr race tire costs fewer watts than a higher-Crr winter or aggressive gravel tread. That difference is why racers choose fast, supple tires for road racing but accept higher rolling resistance from a more durable or puncture-resistant tire for training or rough surfaces — a deliberate trade-off, not a free upgrade.
Rolling resistance scales linearly with speed; aerodynamic drag scales with the cube of speed. That means rolling resistance is relatively more significant at lower speeds (climbing, touring), while drag dominates at race pace. To see the drag side of the same comparison, use the Aero Watts Calculator, or get the full combined breakdown from the Cycling Watts Calculator.
This calculator reuses the same classical-mechanics rolling- resistance term documented for the Cycling Watts Calculator (the approach used by Analytic Cycling and similar bike-power calculators) — no new physics model is introduced. Crr values are the same commonly-cited category defaults used across this site, not independently lab-verified for any specific product — treat them as a reasonable estimate, not a measured value for your exact tire and pressure.
