Crr and Watt Savings of Zwift Wheel Types

December 11, 2019

Zwift introduced varied rolling resistance in October 2019, adding a new level of variation to the performance of virtual wheels across various riding surfaces. Smart racers should take care to think strategically when choosing frames and wheels for mixed surface routes like Road to Ruins.

Here’s a complete rundown of all the rolling resistance numbers and resulting wattage affects for Zwift wheelsets.

(Note: we update this page as new wheelsets are released–see the changelog at the bottom for a list of changes.)

Zwift’s Road Surfaces

Zwift worlds use several different road surfaces. Here’s the complete list from fastest to slowest:

Pavement
Brick (example: part of downtown Innsbruck just before the Leg Snapper)
Cobbles (example: Italian Villas)
Wood (examples: Watopia fishing village piers and bridges)
Ice/Snow (found only on the Radio Tower climb, as far as we know)
Dirt (example: Mayan Jungle)
Grass (found only on Repack Ridge, as far as we know)

Zwift has built the game so each wheelset can have its own Crr (rolling resistance) value for each road surface type. So a set of TT disc wheels may roll super fast on pavement, but terribly on dirt. Just like you’d expect outside.

When the Crr increases, two things happen in game: your speed drops, and resistance increases on your smart trainer.

Zwift Wheel Categories

Right now, there are three categories of wheelsets in Zwift:

Gravel: includes only the “Zwift Gravel” wheelset
Mountain: includes only the “Zwift Mountain” wheelset
Road: includes all wheelsets except the “Zwift Gravel” and “Zwift Mountain” wheels

See the full list of Zwift wheelsets >

Each of the wheel categories has its own Crr values for each surface in Zwift. This makes each type of wheel perform differently across different surfaces.

Example: on pavement, Road wheels have a Crr of .004 while Gravel wheels have a Crr of .008 and Mountain wheels have a Crr of .01. This means Mountain wheels will roll slower than Gravel wheels which roll slower than Road wheels.

Wheelset Crr Values

We’ve done some testing to determine the Crr of all the wheelsets on each of Zwift’s surface types. Here are the current numbers:

Surface	Road Wheels Crr	MTB Wheels Crr	Gravel Wheels Crr
Pavement	.004	.01	.008
Brick	.0055	.01	.008
Wood	.0065	.01	.008
Cobbles	.0065	.01	.008
Ice/Snow	.0075	.014	.018
Dirt	.025	.014	.018
Grass		.042

You can see why the jungle dirt feels much tougher on a road bike than a mountain bike. Because it is! The rolling resistance is nearly double!

It’s also worth noting that the Crr value for road tires on pavement (.004) is quite low. We’re virtually rolling quality tires on fresh tarmac. Living the dream!

Wheelset Wattage

If you know the Crr value of a particular tire/wheel, you can extrapolate the wattage required to overcome the rolling resistance at a particular speed. This is commonly done outdoors, and in our tests, it seems to work with Zwift’s physics as well (nice work, Zwift programmers).

Doing this tells us how much of our power is going toward overcoming rolling resistance. In turn, this tells us how many watts we can save just by moving to a wheelset with lower rolling resistance.

Here are those values, assuming a 75kg rider on a 7kg bike traveling at 40kmh (24.9mph).

Surface	Road Wheels Wattage at 40kmh	MTB Wheels Wattage at 40kmh	Gravel Wheels Wattage at 40kmh
Pavement	36	89	72
Brick	49	89	72
Wood	58	89	72
Cobbles	58	89	72
Ice/Snow	67	125	161
Dirt	223	125	161
Grass		375

Now things are getting interesting. So if you’re in a race on Watopia tarmac traveling at 40kmh, and you’re on a road bike while the guy next to you is on the Gravel bike, he has to put out 72-36=36 watts more than you just to overcome rolling resistance.

But if we move to the Jungle Circuit, suddenly that Gravel rider has the advantage, able to keep up with you while doing 223-161=62 fewer watts! (Of course, in the jungle nowadays we don’t usually go as fast as 40kmh, so this difference would decrease a bit.)

The numbers will get wild once we have more wheelsets with different Crr’s available. Pull out your calculators, kids!

Note: the wattage numbers in these examples don’t take into account additional differences that could occur based on varying rider weights, heights, drafting status, bike frame used, etc.

Fighting Resistance

Of course, rolling resistance isn’t the only thing you’re feeling on your smart trainer. In fact, it’s typically the least of the three factors which determine overall trainer resistance. Just like outdoors, we know that wind resistance and/or gravitational force are usually the biggest things slowing our avatars down on Zwift.