For overland flows transporting predominantly bed load over rough mobile beds without rainfall, resistance to flow f may be divided into four components: surface resistance fs, formresistance ff, wave resistance fw, and bed-mobility resistance fm. In this study it is assumed that f = fs + ff + fw + fm, and an equation is developed for each component. The equations forfs and ff are borrowed from the literature, while those for fw and fm are developed from two series of flume experiments in which the beds are covered with various concentrations oflarge-scale roughness elements. The first series consists of 65 experiments on fixed beds, while the second series contains 194 experiments on mobile beds. All experiments wereperformed on the same slope (S = 0·114) and with the same size of sediment (D = 0·00074 m). The equations for fw and fm are derived by a combination of dimensional analysis andregression analysis. The analyses reveal that the major controls of fw and fm are the Froude number F and the concentration of the roughness elements Cr. When the equations for fwand fm are summed, the Cr terms cancel out, leaving fw+m = 0·63F-2. An equation is developed that predicts total f, and the contributions of fs, ff, fw and fm to f are computed from the series1 and 2 experiments. An analysis of the first series reveals that in clear-water flows over fixed beds, fw accounts for 52 per cent of f. A similar analysis of the second series indicates that insediment-laden flows over mobile beds fw comprises 37 per cent and fm 32 per cent of f, so that together fw and fm account for almost 70 per cent of f. Finally, regression analysesindicate that where F >·5, fw and fm each vary with F -2 and fw/fm = 1·18. The equation developed here for predicting total f applies only to the range of hydraulic, sediment, andbed roughness conditions represented by the experimental data. With additional data from a broader range of conditions the same methodology as employed here could be used to developa more general equation. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.