Inner tube rolling resistance

Vredestein Superlite latex: 53g

Vittoria latex: 72g

Challenge latex: 74g

Michelin Aircomp latex: 81g

Continental Race Supersonic: 55g

Continental Race light: 78g 

Continental Race: 104g

Michelin Ultralight: 76g

Schwalbe Extralight: 80g

Hutchinson Airlight: 80g

Revoloop Ultra Race: 25g

Schwalbe Aerothan: 46g

Tubolito Road: 40g

Tubolito S Tubo: 22g (disc brake only)

WEIGHT

The Tubolito S Tubo (disc brake only) inner tube was the lightest on test, weighing just 22g, which is 33g less than a Continental Race Supersonic inner tube, and 82g less than the heaviest tube (a Continental Race 28). 82g saved per wheel over a Continental Race tube gives a wheelset saving of 164g, which irrespective of rolling resistance will be a little faster - for a flat course 164g will be a minimal to no real saving, but if travelling uphill at 16kph on a 10% gradient, a 164g weight saving would equate to 0.8w saved, or a speed increase of 0.03kph. However - rolling resistance has much more of an impact than weight, read on to see the difference in rolling resistance.

In order to test rolling resistance, we swapped between the tubes as a rider rode a bike on rollers, measuring power output and speed, as well as atmospheric conditions and bike/rider weight, repeated over a number of days testing. This allows us to calculate what is known as the Coefficient of Rolling Resistance (or "Crr"), which can be used to model the power output required to travel on a normal road. A lower Crr is better - in that it requires less power to travel at the same speed.

All the inner tubes and tyres were mounted on a shallow section aluminium rim, with an external rim width of 24.7mm and an internal rim width of 19.6mm, and inflated to 90psi. The tyre used was a 25mm Continental GP5000 clincher.

The Vredestein latex tube was the fastest (lowest rolling resistance), followed closely by the Vittoria latex tube and the Challenge latex tubes. This saved over 7w for a pair of wheels compared with a standard butyl Continental Race inner tube at 45kph.

The plasticised Revoloop Ultra Race was incredibly light at 25g and was faster than a Michelin latex tube. The Schwalbe Aerothan plasticised tube was a little slower than the Michelin latex tube.

An extremely light Continental Race Supersonic was heavier than a Tubolito S Tubo / Road tube, but faster overall as the rolling resistance was less. The difference between a Continental Supersonic / Continental Race was 4w for a pair of wheels.

At 45kph, the difference between the fastest and slowest inner tubes would equate to around 12sec over 16km/10 miles.

In this updated test we found that there was a large difference in rolling resistance between different models of inner tubes, with standard butyl tubes being the heaviest and the slowest on test.

Latex inner tubes have a small weight penalty compared with ultra light tubes like Tubolitos or Revoloop Ultra Race but have better rolling resistance. Due to this weight difference, the Revoloop Ultra Race is only faster than a Vredestein Superlite latex once the gradient reaches around 15%.

One small drawback with latex tubes is that they lose air overnight and require pumping up before a ride - so if you want to have an inner tube that's a little bit faster than a standard butyl tube and doesn't require daily inflation, the plasticised inner tubes such as Tubolito, Schwalbe Aerothan or Revoloop (or Continental Race Supersonic) would be two alternatives.