The best road bike tyres for 2019

Arguably, tyres are the most important component on your bicycle: they’re the only part in contact with the ground, they keep you upright in the corners and have a significant influence on rolling speed.

For this reason, tyres come in many different variations. Some are hard wearing and prioritise puncture resistance, others are weaker but roll faster, adding speed to you ride. Generally, UK riders will want the former in winter, and the latter in summer.

Wider tyres have become more popular across the seasons. Where once 23mm rubber was the uniform issue ‘choice’, now 25mm is the norm but many riders go for 28mm to better maximise the added cornering grip and comfort on offer from this once scandalous choice.

Paired with the right rim, wider tyres can be more aerodynamic, too. However, it is important to check the capacity of your frame before investing.

We’ve rounded up a selection of the tyres that we’d recommend.

With each product is a ‘Buy Now’ link. If you click on this then we may receive a small amount of money from the retailer when you purchase the item. This doesn’t affect the amount you pay.

Puncture resistant road bike tyres for winter

Specialized Roubaix Pro road bike tyre

Specialized Roubaix Pro road bike tyre

 

Balancing ride quality with puncture protection and weather proofing is an art, and we feel Specialized has cracked it with the Roubaix Pro.

The 120 TPI count sets it out as an endurance option, and the compound used is the brand’s own in-house ‘Gripton’.

Bead-to-bead Endurant Casing provides puncture protection which is lighter than the Kevlar and Nylon used elsewhere, and this is paired with BlackBelt technology (a strip of woven material running under the tread).

Pirelli Cinturato road bike tyre

Pirelli Cinturato road bike tyre

Pirelli impressed us no end with the PZero Velo tyres, and the Cinturato tyre is its first tubeless ready option from the brand.

Designed to be hardy – suiting everything from gravel rides to commutes – these come in four widths from 26mm to 35mm. We found they felt swift enough on the road and coped well with rocky off-road sections.

Pirelli’s Smartnet Silica tech offers grip in the wet whilst Armour Tech fends off punctures with extra sidewall protection.

We’ve yet to get a pair on long term test – but you can check out our first impressions here. UK availability is limited at the moment – so keep your eyes peeled for these later in the year.

Read more: Schwalbe Durano review here

The Durano is a longstanding offer from Schwalbe and they’ll be a longlasting set of tyres for your road bike.

The Durano’s roll well for a winter tyre, and we found a slight give in the bead made life easier for our thumbs getting them on the wheel.

While the RaceGuard protection belt made for a harsher ride than the other tyres on test, we were confident that these wouldn’t easily puncture and didn’t compromise grip in any way.

Vittoria Zaffiro Pro road tyre

Vittoria Zaffiro Pro 700C Folding Road Tyre

The Zaffiro tyre from Vittoria is not a ‘high end’ option – but it is exceptionally durable and a tough casing means that we’v enjoyed many a puncture free long ride aboard these.

They’re also significantly cheaper than the more supple options out there – the trade off is that they don’t roll quite so quickly and feel a little bit more clunky in the corners – but if you’re not targeting speed on your winter rides, that shouldn’t be too great an issue.

They come in three sizes: 23mm, 25mm and 28mm.

The fastest road bike tyres for summer riding

Schwalbe Pro One tyres

Read more: Schwalbe Pro One Tyres review

The Pro One’s replaced the very popular ZX tyre from Schwalbe – they’re fast but a little tougher and more reliable than the ZX option, which was responsible for many a pre/mid race flat.

This is a lightweight, fast-rolling tyre that’s easy to set up tubeless. The carcass is quite wide and on wider modern rims – so expect the Schwalbe Pro One tosize up quite a bit wider than 25mm.

Maxxis High Road tyres

A tyre tested by what was then Canyon Eisberg, over the course of the 2018 season, this is a fast road racing tyre which is supple and lightweight.

Not the cheapest, but a capable tyre which we found to be confidence inspiring.

Specialized Turbo Cotton

One of the grippiest and fastest feeling tyres that we’ve tested, the Turbo Cotton tyres really put meaning into ‘confidence inspiring’.

The Turbo Cottons are now available in 24, 26 and 28mm widths and each tyre uses 320 TPI polycotton which makes them very supple and they also use a Gripton compound. In testing we found that the tyres rolled extremely well and that they felt super fast.

We like them so much that we awarded them a spot on our Editor’s Choice list. They come in three different sizes (24, 26 and 28mm) so there’s something for everyone.

Continental Grand Prix 5000 (clincher)

We could actually include these tyres in the winter or summer section. The Grand Prix 5000 replaces the popular GP 4000 (or GP 4000 S II) and it’s an all-weather, all-condition Jack of all trades tyre.

It may not be as fast as the Turbo Cottons or the Vittora Corsas, but a very effective Vectran Breaker layer keeps punctures at bay whilst the famous BlackChili Compound and new ‘LazerGrip’ keep you planted. The latest iteration includes an extra layer for comfort, and claims to be 12 per cent faster and 20 per cent tougher than the outgoing model.

These are now available tubeless, but we felt that the clinchers were more supple.

Michelin Power Competition road bike tyres

Read more: Michelin Power Competition tyres

Michelin claims that the Power Competition saves 10 watts of power over the company’s previous top-end model and bases this claim on tests done by third-party tyre specialists, Finnish Energy.

A replacement for the Michelin Pro4 Service Course are quick tyres that are also light, coming in at 200g. We’ve found that they offer excellent durability and despite their featherweight nature that they offer impressive durability.

Despite being some of the few road tyres that are no longer tubeless ready we rated them very highly, awarding them a spot on our Editor’s Choice list.

Panaracer Race A Evo 3 road bike tyres

Panaracer Race A Evo 3 road bike tyres

Read more: Panaracer Race A Evo 3 tyres review 

Panaracer has over 50 years of experience making high performance tyres. The Panaracer Race A Evo 3 is a tyre intended for all-weather use, with a good degree of puncture protection while still offering good rolling resistance, good grip and a supple feel.

A good value option that we found provided a fast ride thanks to low rolling resistance. They also stood up well to over a 1000kms on the terrible winter lanes of the Cotswolds.

Michelin Pro4 ENDURANCE V2 road bike tyres

Michelin Pro4 ENDURANCE road bike tyres

Read more: Michelin Pro4 ENDURANCE review

Looking for a comfortable tyre that will suit long days in the saddle over questionable surfaces? These tyres from Michelin could be the answer. We loved the cushioning of the 28mm version (23mm and 25mm also available), but also felt that there wasn’t too greater speed penalty.

Hitting the gruelling cobbles of the Hell of the North, these dual-compound tyres noticeably dampened the impact of the infamous pavé and never lost their grip — instilling confidence for the rest of the tough sportive.

Puncture resistance and grip were good, too.

Vittoria Open Corsa G+ road bike tyres

Vittoria Open Corsa G+ road bike tyres

Read more: Vittoria Open Corsa G+

Without shadow of a doubt these are tyres for racing. The G+ stands for Graphene, which Vittoria have incorporated into the tread of this tyre.

We did find that the width of this tyre was greater than listed, and we did find that it seemed to be a bit of a magnet for road debris. However, it’s super fast and provided plenty of resistance to punctures.

Types of road bike tyre

There are three types of bike tyres on the market – clinchers, tubulars and tubeless – they each have their pros and cons:

Clincher road bike tyres

First up is the clincher, the choice of the majority of road riders. This features a bead around the outside of the tyre which hooks under a lip on the rim, with a separate inner tube running inside. The main advantage of this system is convenience, with the inner tube being easy to change in the event of a puncture.

Tubular tyres road bike tyres

Next is the tubular tyre. With this design the inner tube is sewn into the tyre, with the whole thing then attached to the wheel using glue or rim tape. This is the choice of a lot of racers due to the generally lower rolling resistance and weight, but can be impractical when you puncture.

Tubeless road bike tyres

Finally you’ve got tubeless tyres. These are similar to clinchers, but with the tyre sitting firmly enough against the rim to hold the tyre’s pressure, eliminating the need for an inner tube all together. The tyre is then filled with sealant, which plugs cuts or gashes in the rubber.

This system greatly reduces the chance of punctures, although the snug fit that is required between the tyre and the rim can make tubeless tyres fiddly to fit.

The puncture protection offered by tubeless tyres is very impressive. To see how impressive watch the video below where we hammer nails into a tyre!

Rolling resistance vs puncture protection in road bike tyres

The three main categories to look out for are: puncture proofing, the tyres’ rolling ability and grip levels. Whilst in an ideal world we’d have all three, in reality we have to limit one to increase another.

In order to boost puncture protection, manufacturers will usually add an extra layer – a Kevlar or Vectran breaker in most cases – to catch foreign objects before they reach the tube.  The tougher these layers are, the heavier and more sturdy they’ll make the overall rubber – hence the trade off.

Ultimately, you need to decide what’s more important to you. Riders commuting on less than perfect road surfaces – especially during the winter – will mean you favour puncture protection, whilst a rider racing on a closed circuit may be more concerned with rolling resistance and grip.

Tougher road bike tyres will mean less time mending punctures but they’re not as fast to ride

Road bike tyre width

We have a couple of things to consider before we go in-depth. A standard road wheel size is 700c with the more common options of 23, 25 or 28mm widths.

Traditionally, 23mm widths are put on race bikes, 25mm for training and 28mm widths for a mixture of hard and rough roads.

Indeed with modern technology allowing for better tyre construction, we’ve seen a definite shift in how different width tyres are used. For example most road riders now like to use 25mm tyres as they handle better in the corners and can lower rolling resistance by dampening out uneven surfaces.

Generally speaking, the narrower the tyres the less comfort is on offer, with decreased rolling resistance providing a faster experience for dry, summer cycling.

Wider tyres can deliver better comfort; puncture protection and grip, mainly at the cost of weight, and are better for the wintry roads.

Whilst 23c road bike tyres have long been the traditional favourite, 25c tyres are now popular

Adjusting road bike tyres for the season

Summer brings good weather, clean roads and nicer bikes so it seems ludicrous that we would stick a slow rolling and heavy-duty tyre on our bikes.

If a fast racing tyre is your thing you’ll be expected to have lowered protection from punctures with a thinner puncture protection belt to help reduce weight and rolling resistance, which will help that fast feeling we all desire.

However, come the colder months many riders will opt for winter road bike tyres to counter the associated bad weather and gritty harsh roads, to save them from being victims of the dreaded flint or glass puncture.

Larger tyres allow for lower pressures that help absorb the bumps, increasing grip and comfort too. Watch out for mudguard clearance though as larger tyres could be limited if you have minimal clearance.

Check mudguard clearance when choosing wider road bike tyres

Choosing road bike tyres for your terrain

If you commute in town – you’re likely to need a more heavy duty option. Broken glass and general debris mean you’re way more likely to slit your tyres.

Zip isn’t everything here so you’ll want to look out for a hardwearing tyre too that will give you some longevity for the money you outlay.

You’ll need hardwearing road bike tyres for your commute

Road bike tyres and price

What are we really paying for? In basic terms we pay for technology in the rubber, quality of the construction and weight.

Cheaper options tend to lack in grip, puncture protection and are usually supplied with a heavier, steal bead. Rigid steal beaded tyres, other than being harder to transfer around off the bike, are heavier than folding alternatives.

Though cheaper, they can also be a pain to put on and pull off the wheel, mostly at the expense of your thumbs!

Although you may feel that a cheaper option is ok for you, some tyre manufacturers ensure their compounds work well in a good range of temperatures, meaning either grip, protection or longevity works better all year round.

It may be a big outlay but might pay to save money in the long run.

Tyre wear and tear

Keeping an eye on your tread is important too. Not only for the life of the tyre, but watching out for stuck glass or flints that haven’t penetrated just yet.

Ideally, cleaning your bike regularly and giving your tyres a quick once over before each outing could save you a puncture during your ride, unless you pick something up en route of course.

Some tyres come with wear markers. These can be small dotted grooves in the middle of the tyre itself that will slowly disappear overtime. If you have no wear markers, you may need to think about replacing the tyres.

Wider tyres are great for winter riding, but keep an eye on wear and tear

The fastest road bike tyres tested

In addition to field testing out on the road, engineer and elite rider, Dan Bigham has helped Cycling Weekly calculate the rolling resistance of the different sets of road bike tyres. The lower the rolling resistance, the faster the tyre and the difference can be huge.

To do this, each set of tyres were ridden on rollers, allowing us to record the speed achieved for a given power output. For consistency, the tyres were all inflated to 100psi using a digital gauge and ridden on flat rollers.

For the test we exclusively used new tyres and a PowerTap hub was calibrated and used for power measurement.

Each tyre was ridden at 280W for 5 minutes to allow it it warm up, whereupon they were ridden at a constant power of 300W for 5 minutes.

To ensure even weight distribution, the rider maintained a constant position on the hoods and the weight of the bike and rider was recorded before each test.

Any slight differences in weight or power output were factored into the final calculations. The Fit. Files were put into Matlab and the inertia was corrected for each tyre.

The results of different tyres are tabulated below.

Tyre Max PSI Weight (g) Width (mm) (measured) TPI Watts at 40kph* Rolling ranking
Bontrager R4 180 232 24 320 34.1 1
Michelin Power Race 116 217 26 180 35.2 3
Vittoria Corsa G+ 145 239 27 320 35.1 2
Schwalbe One Tubeless 130 231 26 127 35.6 4
Conti GP4000 120 234 26 3×110 37.6 6
Hutchinson Fusion** 125 213 25 3 37.5(23mm) 5
Maxxis Columbiere 130 210 26 120 37.7 7
Challenge Criterium 145 241 26 230 38.7 8
Mitas Syrinx Racing Pro 120 245 25 127 43.6 9
Vredestein Fortezza Senso 130 237 25.5 120 45.1 10

*Travelling at 40kph with system weight of 85kg

** For the rolling resistance test all tyres were 25mm apart from Hutchinson which were 23mm

As you’ll know, it doesn’t matter how well you prepare, you’ll inevitably get a puncture… there, we’ve said the P word!

In your pocket or seatpack you should carry at least a set of tyre levers, puncture repair kit, two tubes, a mini-pump and a business card just incase you have a complete blow out, it does happen.

This content was originally published here.

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