With fatter tyres on smaller wheels, the 650B standard gives the same rolling size as regular 700C wheels with more cushion and grip. Should you consider a bike with this reborn wheel spec?

What is 650B?

This is a wheel size with smaller rims than the 700C road bike standard, but larger than the 26-inch size that was the standard for mountain bikes until a few years ago. Because the rims are smaller, fitting 650B wheels into road and gravel bikes that usually take 700C wheels allows the use of fatter tyres with little or no alteration to the frame design, assuming you have disc brakes.

There used to be loads of French wheel sizes, designated by the rolling diameter of the tyre in millimetres, and a letter. The road bike standard 700C is one of these sizes; it originally had quite fat tyres that bulked things out to a rolling diameter of 700mm.

Wheel size designations are a proper omnishambles. The only way to be sure a tyre will fit a particular rim is to look at the size of the bead seat, the part of the rim where the tyre fits when inflated. Your 700C wheels have a bead seat diameter of 622mm; for 650B it's 584mm.

The 650B size was popular with French touring cyclists back in the 60s, and has been brought back from the brink of extinction by the mountain bike industry. It has pretty much replaced the original mountain bike 26-inch wheels, which have a bead seat diameter of 559mm. Also referred to as 27.5in, the wheel size is now found on bikes from entry-level hardtails to downhill bikes.

But 650B is no longer just on mountain bikes. Road bike manufacturers from small independent frame builders like Hallett Handbuilt Cycles to mainstream brands like Cannondale have adopted it for all-purpose and gravel bikes.

The combination of a 650B wheel's 584mm rim and a tyre width of between 30 and 50mm gives about the same overall wheel size as a regular 700C rim and 25mm tyre, so the rolling speed and handling characteristics will be similar to a regular road bike.

- Trend spotting: Why you need to switch to wider tyres

Benefits include additional cushioning from the bigger volume of air, providing a smoother ride, and a larger contact patch which boosts traction, ideal for mixed terrain and slippery roads.

Do we need a new wheel size?

There has been a move to wider tyres on endurance and sportives bikes over the past few years, with bikes like the Cannondale Synapse and Giant Defy, which both cater for up to 28mm tyres, proving incredibly popular with cyclists that want a bit of extra comfort.

- Buyer's guide: sportive and endurance road bikes + 15 of the Best

Even professional road race cyclists, once wedded to skinny 22 and 23mm tyres, are now switching to 25mm and 26mm tyres as standard. But it's arguably cyclists seeking comfort, especially with road conditions deteriorating due to lack of maintenance, that have been pushing manufacturers to develop bikes with space for wider tyres.

The adoption of wider tyres has been swift. With many cyclists cottoning onto the benefits of wider tyres, many are seeking bikes capable of taking even wider tyres. A mere 28mm just doesn't cut it anymore. The latest crop of gravel and adventure bikes massively increase clearance over the endurance bikes, accepting tyre widths between 30 and 50mm.

- Buyer’s guide to gravel and adventure bikes plus 13 of the best

One significant benefit of 650B is to do with geometry. A 42mm tyre on a 650B rim provides about the same outside diameter as a 23mm tyre on a 700C wheel, so you can fit much wider tyres to the bike without requiring any drastic changes to the geometry of the frame and fork.

A bigger tyre on a 700C rim requires changes to the frame and geometry. The chainstays need to be longer, and with it the wheelbase and the fork needs to be taller. This can impact the handling of the bike and takes it further away from the responsiveness and agility that is the hallmark of a road bike.

Why now?

Wider tyres are becoming more and more popular. Gravel and adventure bikes offer a new option for the growing number of cyclists that want a versatile bike to cover different road surfaces and terrain (and previously might have chosen a cyclocross bike) and with 650B is back in fashion in the mountain bike world. All of that has made bike makers look again at a wheel size alternative.

With the mountain bike industry geared up to developing 650B bikes, there’s now a lot bigger choice of wheels. There’s also a cross-pollination of ideas and engineering, especially with the growing gravel and adventure bike sector, which owes a lot to the mountain bike world. It was really only a matter of time.

How Cannondale went 650B with the Slate

When it launched the Slate a couple of years ago, Cannondale reckoned that a 650B rim with a 42mm tyre was the perfect pairing for a bike designed to be fast and agile on the road, like a regular road bike, but capable when the surface turns to dirt and gravel.

- Cannondale Slate - First Ride Review

“On Slate, the decision to go for 650B was natural for us,” Cannondale's David Devine says. “We knew which tyre size we wanted, 42mm. We knew which chainstay length we wanted, 405mm. When we discovered the rollout of 700x22mm and 650x42mm were roughly the same, we decided it was the best wheel size for achieving our desired tyre volume within the set geometry. Traditional 700C wheels, paired with the 42mm tyre would have driven a longer chainstay length, and would have necessitated a higher frame stack while maintaining the same 30mm Lefty Oliver Suspension fork.

“650B wheels offer our desired geometry and tyre volume together in one package, rather than having to make a compromise with smaller tyres or longer chainstays,” explains Devine.

The bespoke option

It’s not just the big players in the cycling industry that are paying attention to the benefits of 650B. Bespoke frame builders have been closer to the cutting-edge of bicycle design than many of the bigger corporations for some time, with a closer relationship to their customers and able to produce one-off frames much more quickly.

Richard Hallett of Hallett Handbuilt Cycles has been dabbling with the 650B wheel size and appears convinced of the benefits, saying that ride comfort and grip are the big advantages.

“650B road tyres such as the Grand Bois Cypres and Hetre offer demonstrable improvements over 700C tyres up to 28c in rolling resistance, ride comfort, grip, all-roads riding and, importantly, safety,” says Hallett, “so using 650B wheel and tyres I can build a touring, audax, utility or training bike that offers superior performance in these respects.

“There is a weight penalty, the amount depending on tyre size, which is why they aren't used in racing. If someone wants a racing or sportive bike, I recommend 700C, up to 25mm.”

Road.cc took a closer look at one of Richard Hallett’s bespoke bikes last year, a steel frame and fork with 650B wheels and 42mm tyres. His aim was to build a fast, comfortable and fine-handling bike and put it through its paces in the 300km Dragon Ride sportive, a stern test indeed for any road bike.

We’ve been here before haven’t we?

Sort of, yes. Using smaller mountain bike wheels on a road bike is nothing new of course. There have been many road bikes designed with 26-inch mountain bike wheels that allow clearance for larger tyres: the Surly Long Haul Trucker is one such bike that can, as well as regular 700C wheels, take a 26in rim with a tyre width up to 62mm.

While such bikes have been a quirky oddity to most regular road cyclists, the growing popularity of wider tyres on all road bikes and a shift towards comfort over outright speed, could mean we'll be seeing a lot more new bikes that take a fresh look at the advantage of combining a smaller wheel with a bigger tyres.

Was Cannondale’s Slate the start of a new trend or simply a one-off? David Devine thought at the time that we were likely to see more manufacturers take an interest.

“I do anticipate that other bike companies will trend toward making 650B road bikes,” said Devine. “Already, we have some tyre manufacturers approaching us to make sure they are opening moulds that will be compatible with Slate. In addition to the tyres available from Panaracer, you will see tyres from some of the main brands already coming to the market in this size. The Slate will help broaden the tyre selection for 650B x 42mm tubeless, all-road tyres. It’s something that has been around in the hand built community for some time.”

While there are clearly some very good reasons for going to a 650B wheel sizes, there are some downsides. A 42mm tyre is heavy, about 400g, about twice the weight of a regular narrow road tyre, and that can extra weight at the outside of the wheel could impact acceleration and speed. Those concerns might be easily outweighed by the comfort, durability and robustness for tackling rough roads and gravel paths and off-road tracks, though. 650B could make sense to a lot of cyclists.

Perhaps the mainstream bike brands won’t have it all to themselves, argued Richard Hallett.

“The large-scale manufacturers seem to have put all their eggs in the 700C wheel basket so we see everything from race and sportive bikes on 700Cx23/25 to gravel and adventure bikes with 700Cx32/35 tyres,” he said. “These are inevitably heavier than 650Bx32 with no appreciable performance advantage, but investment in 650B would cost money, so I suspect 650B road bikes will remain a small part of the market for the moment.”

The latest 650B bikes

Three years later, it looks like Hallett was more or less right, but a few more manufacturers have taken the plunge and added a 650B-shod bike to their ranges. Canadian brands Kona and Norco both have gravel bikes with 650B wheels, as do the UK's Genesis, Chain Reaction Cycles house brand Vitus and boutique marque Mason Cycles.

And after being very hard to find, the Slate is back in the UK for 2019 with two models, both with SRAM 1 X 11 transmissions and the Lefty 30mm suspension fork. Cannondale still describes the Slate as "a full-tilt road bike with legit off-road chops" a rather confusing line, but at least the new models come with knobbly tyres.

Open WI.DE — £3,200 (frameset only)

The WI.DE (Winding Detours) gravel bike from Open takes wider tyres than the company’s original UP from 2015 and is all the better for it, with supreme speed over all sorts of surfaces, infused with great handling and low weight.

Gravel bikes have been edging closer to the territory occupied by mountain bikes for a few years now, leading to many accusations they are nothing but glorified rigid mountain bikes with curly bars. The WI.DE suggests there's some truth in these accusations; it has space for up to 60mm (2.3in) tyres on 650b rims, as wide as many cross-country mountain bikes.

Our David Arthur rode the WI.DE with 57mm tyres and reports that it was nimble at low speed when swerving around trees on singletrack, while stable at higher speeds on loose gravel tracks. The steering is calm at high speeds making it a relaxing bike to ride on long distances because it’s not twitchy.

If you think the big tyres will mean a sluggish ride, think again. The WI.DE is stupendously quick over all terrain, whether it’s a road where it manages to not give out much speed to a pure road bike, or along rough gravel roads or forest tracks. The speed of the Open was its defining feature. The high stiffness of the frame delivers a sprightly uptake of speed and the low weight - 8.75kg for the pictured size medium test bike - ensures there’s no hill too steep or tough for the WI.DE to conquer.

Read our review of the Open WI.DE

Saracen Levarg — £1,099.99 - £2,299.99

The name is 'gravel' backwards, but there's actually nothing backwards about Saracen's 650B-shod gravel bikes. The Levargs are fast and fun bikes, well-suited to taming the UK’s poorly surfaced roads and bashing along dirt and gravel tracks.

Read our review of the Saracen Levarg SL

Genesis Fugio — £1,317 & £1,869

The Genesis Fugio, above, is solidly a gravel bike, with 50mm tyres. It’s almost a mountain bike with drop bars, and fits the growing trend for big tyred drop bar road bikes that can go almost anywhere. The frame is made from Mjölnir chromoly double butted tubing, with a full carbon fibre fork.

There are two models for 2019, Fugio 20 and Fugio 30. Both have SRAM 1 X 11 transmissions with 42-tooth chainrings and 11-42 cassettes. The Fugio 20 has SRAM Apex components, cable-actuated disc brakes and Donnelly X'Plor MSO tyres, while the more expensive Fugio 30 gets SRAM Rival parts, hydraulic brakes and WTB Byway tyres.

A Fugio frameset is £719.99 if you want to start from scratch and build your own.

Find a Genesis dealer

Kona Rove 2020 — £1,139-£3,399

Four models of Kona's venerable Rove adventure/touring bike come with 650B wheels, though the frame will also accommodate 700C wheels. There are two aluminium-framed bikes, including the Rove NRB, above, and two with steel frames, including the range-topping Rove LTD in Reynolds 853.

Can't live without composites? Kona's Libre carbon gravel bike has switched to 650B for 2020.

Vitus Substance CRX Apex — £1,599.99

This update of the gravel/adventure bike Vitus launched in 2018, the latest Substance has a carbon fibre frame and fork and SRAM Apex 1X11 gearing.

Ibis Hakka MX — from £3,349

The Ibis Hakka MX is a descendant of the US company’s previous Hakkalugi cyclocross bike but geared much more towards the gravel and adventure riding, rather than racing in the mud. Like most of the bikes here it will take 650B or 700C wheels, though you get the fattest tyre option with 650B: the stock Schwalbe Thunder Burt tyres are 54mm wide. It's a long way from cheap even in the base SRAM Rival 1X spec above, but you're getting a frame from one of the best-regarded carbon shops in the business.

Read our review of the Ibis Hakka MX

Mason Bokeh — from £2,795

From the detail-obsessed mind of Dom Mason comes a highly capable adventure bike with a feature-packed aluminium frame, splendid aesthetics, and handling that ensures it's as at home on the road as it is on the trail.

Read our review of the Mason Bokeh Force

Cannondale Slate SE Apex 1 — £2,160

Cannondale offers two models of Slate, with SRAM Apex and SRAM Force at the lower and higher price points respectively, but the more expensive Slate is now practically impossible to find. Aside from the difference in groupset quality, the specs are very similar. Both have 44-tooth single chainrings with 11-42 cassettes and knobby WTB Resolute tyres.

Find a Cannondale dealer

If you're going to carry on riding through winter, the cold, wet conditions are best handled with heavier, grippier and more puncture-resistant tyres than your summer rubber. Fortunately there are plenty of winter-specific tyres out there.

You'll get more punctures in the winter thanks to the rain. It washes glass, flints and debris into the road, where they lie in wait for an unsuspecting cyclist to trundle over. Water also makes a good cutting lubricant, helping anything sharp cut into your tyres. There's nothing much worse than fixing a puncture when it's lashing down with rain, apart from waiting for a friend to fix a puncture in the rain, that is.

The first aim of winter tyres is puncture resistance. Most manufacturers offer such tyres so there's really no reason not to switch and make your winter riding low-fuss. Such tyres usually have some sort of puncture prevention layer under the tread and beefier sidewalls to stop sharp objects finding a way through.

Most winter tyres have some sort of belt under the tread to stop sharp objects from getting through to the inner tube.

There are downsides, and weight is usually one of them, but I'll take extra puncture protection over a bit more weight any day. Tyre makers usually use thicker, firmer rubber for the tread and stiffer sidewalls, which affect the rolling resistance of the tyre and ride comfort.

The sidewall contributes heavily towards the feel of the tyre and so a heavier/thicker sidewall will make for a harsher feel. That's where increasing the width of the tyre can make a difference. All other things being equal, a wider tyre has lower rolling resistance, so going fatter can compensate for the increased resistance of a stiffer tyres. You can run fat tyres at lower pressures too, regaining the comfort lost by the change to stiffer sidewalls.

Look for a tyre with a thick reinforced breaker belt sandwiched between the rubber tread and carcass. This will prevent flints and glass from puncturing the delicate inner tube. The sidewall too can often be reinforced to preview the potholes and large bits of debris ripping through. Lastly, grip is another important consideration. The rubber compound dictates the level of grip for the most part, though if you're riding rough surfaces there's some evidence that a light file tread is better than a slick tyre.

Pressure is important, and especially so in the winter when the roads are most likely to be wet. As a general rule, the wetter it is, the lower the pressure you want to run your tyres at. While it might be fine to ride tyres inflated to 120psi during the summer when the roads are dry, it's a good idea to go a little lower the wetter it is. It's not unknown to go as low as 80-90psi. Many of the tyres below are 25mm wide or fatter and you have to take into account the extra tyre volume when setting the tyre pressure.

Regular cleaning goes without saying, and when you're cleaning your bike pay particular attention to the tyres. Glass and flints can get lodged in there and it's a good idea to remove them. A top tip is to fill the now vacant hole with a little super glue to plug it.

We've focused mostly on robust, puncture-resistant tyres, but as StuInNorway points out in the comments, there are parts of the UK where snow and ice is a big factor too, so to that end we've added a couple of studded options. A tyre with a deep tread pattern will provide some grip on fresh snow, but once it's packed down hard, or turned to ice by a thaw-freeze cycle, the only thing that will grip is a studded tyre.

Schwalbe E-One — £34.99-£52.99

The E-One is designed specifically for e-bikes, but that doesn't mean it's restricted purely to bikes with batteries. With a new compound that gives excellent grip levels and durability, plus a thicker tread that benefits puncture protection, the only real trade-off is the extra weight. The new Addix Race compound is very sticky and grip is amazing in both the wet and dry. On high-speed descents the way they cling to the road allows you to really let the bike go, and the supple rubber gives plenty of feedback too.

Read our review of the Schwalbe E-One tyre
Find a Schwalbe dealer

Ritchey Alpine JB WCS Stronghold 30mm/35mm — £24-£57

Ritchey has gone inverse with the tread on its Alpine JB WCS Stronghold tyres to create a tyre that grips on light gravel and rough sections of broken country lane while also offering a smooth ride if you want to get a shift on on the tarmac. A very impressive all-round tyre choice indeed.

If youre wondering, 'JB' stands for Jobst Brandt, an engineer and author who was a big influence on Tom Ritchey. Brandt wrote the seminal book on wheelbuilding, The Bicycle Wheel, designed some of the very first electronic bike computers for Avocet, led epic rides in the Santa Cruz mountains that were famous for disregarding the traditional attachment of road cyclists to Tarmac, and spent his summers exploring the minor roads of the Alps, hence Alpine in the name of these tyres.

Brandt was also an advocate for inverted-tread tyres for dirt riding. In the days before website forums he was a prolific poster on the Usenet cycling groups where he detailed a press launch for Avocet's inverted-tread mountain bike tyres in which they proved faster in timed tests. Brandt claimed that finding was glossed over by one of the magazines and not reported at all by the others. We like to think he'd be pleased to see the idea return in these tyres.

Read our review of the Ritchey Alpine JB WCS Stronghold
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Panaracer T-Serv ProTite 32mm — £29.99

The Panaracer T-Serv PT Folding 700x32C tyres are intended for urban city use. Wefound them to be swift-rolling, comfortable, dependable, middleweight all-rounders: the sort of tyres capable of inducing plenty of smiles and with scope for weekend touring. Puncture resistance and wet grip are both very good, and of course the 32mm width makes for decent bump handling if you're unable to avoid a fresh pothole.

Read our review of the Panaracer T-Serv ProTite
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Compass Barlow Pass TC 38mm — £56-£70

The Compass Cycles Barlow Pass tyre is a tubeless-compatible (TC), ultra-supple tyre that delivers an astonishingly smooth and grippy ride. If your bike can't fit them, maybe you need a new bike. They're that good. Their width, puncture resistance and deep tread rubber make them especially suitable for winter, but they're fast and comfy enough to use year-round.

Read our review of the Compass Barlow Pass TC

Vittoria Corsa Control G+ Isotech — £39.00

The Corsa Control G+ is the beefed-up version of Vittoria's well-respected Corsa G+. It's a great alternative to many winter-specific tyres, offering levels of rolling resistance and grip seen on your summer lightweights without compromising durability.

Compared to the standard Corsa G+ the Corsa Control G+ has a wider tread to protect the sidewalls, and the tread is 0.4mm thicker. There's a breaker belt beneath the tread too, to help reduce punctures. This extra bit of depth does mean the Corsa Control G+ feels firmer to ride than the equivalent Corsa G+ model so you lose a little of the comfort. The high thread count still makes these tyres much more comfortable than many designed for poor conditions. And we had no visits from the puncture fairy during our testing.

Read our review of the Vittoria Corsa Control G+ Isotech
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Pirelli P Zero Velo 4S 28mm tyre — £31.00

The Pirelli P Zero Velo and Velo 4S tyre marks a very impressive return to cycling for Pirelli after a half-century hiatus. This tyre is fast, comfortable and long lasting.

The Velo 4S is based on the same technology used to develop the standard Velo tyre that Jack reviewed earlier this year. That includes the company's own SmartNET Silica compound, 127tpi casing and construction in the Hutchinson factory in France. This 'winter' version uses a rubber compound that has been tweaked to improve wet weather grip, and there's extra siping along the top of the tyre, though we all know that such grooves make nada difference.

Pirelli has also increased the thickness of the tread, but underneath there is the same aramid fibre puncture-resistant belt as the regular tyre. This belt is only located underneath the tread and doesn't extend to the sidewalls. This does contribute to the low weight; at 250g this 28mm tyre isn't giving away much to the regular version it's based on, but it won't offer the rugged sidewall of some other tyres.

Read our review of the Pirelli P Zero Velo 4S
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IRC Formula Pro Tubeless X-Guard — £55

RC might not be the most familiar tyre brand in the road bike market at the moment, but its Formula Pro Tubeless X-Guard road tyres offer exceptionally good performance, with easy tubeless installation and great durability. The price does put them at the top end of the tyre market, though.

The Formula Pro is the Japanese company's high-performance road bike tyre and this version gets added puncture protection. Underneath the tread is the X-Guard belt of cross-woven mesh fibres that boosts puncture protection by 47%, IRC's claim not ours, without compromising rolling resistance and performance.

Read our review of the IRC Formula Pro Fusion X-guard tyres

Schwalbe Marathon Winter Spiked — £32.99

You're going to need plenty of room in the frame for these 35mm snow and ice tyres and their steel spikes, but they're renowned for their grip on everything from snow to black ice. If you want a general-purpose winter tyre for your hybrid, crosser, or gravel/adventure bike, these are the way to go.

If you've got a mountain bike, or a gravel bike with lots and lots of room in the frame, and want to go completely hog-wild in the snow, take a look at the Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro Evolution.

If you want a budget option, there's a Schwalbe Winter with fewer spikes in a 30mm width that might even fit many modern road bikes. They'll set you back about £25 with shipping, and you can get away with just running a front studded tyre, though obviously a pair is better.

Schwalbe G-One Speed tubeless — £39.99

Previously known as the S-One, these 30mm all-rounders from Schwalbe live up to Schwalbe's billing as 'the special one'. They're light, fast and grippy, and thanks to Schwalbe's Tubeless Easy with Microskin feature, they mount tubeless with an ordinary track pump. If you can fit them, you should.

Read our review of the Schwalbe G-One Speed
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Michelin Power All Season — £32.99 - £34.95

Since 'four seasons in one day' is a description often applied to the British weather, these Michelin Power All Season Road tyres should be right at home among UK riders. After a typical English summer we can confirm that the performance is every bit as reliable as Michelin claims.

Read our review of Michelin Power All Season tyres
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Clement Strada LLG — £14.99-19.99

The Clement Strada LLGs are good, all-round 28mm winter training tyres. They're quick, comfortable and grip well at a competitive price. They roll smoothly too, though the 60 tpi versions we tested aren't quite as smooth as the same tyre in a 120 tpi casing, but they've proven hard-wearing.

Read our review of the Clement Strada LLG

Panaracer Gravel King — £28

Fast-rolling and capable of tackling bad road conditions and even venturing away from the tarmac, Panaracer's Gravel King tyres are a really good option for the winter with rugged durability and great traction.

Panaracer initially introduced the Gravel king as a 26mm tyre, but has kept up with the times, producing fatter versions as bikes have evolved to better cope with crummy roads, and to venture away from the Tarmac. The 32mm and 38mm versions are particularly stellar.

Read our review of the 32mm Panaracer Gravel King
Read our review of the 38mm Panaracer Gravel King
Read our review of the 26mm Panaracer Gravel King
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Specialized All Condition Armadillo Elite II — £42

The Specialized All Condition Armadillo Elite II features a Kevlar layer sandwiched inside the tyre and stretches from bead to bead. It goes a long way to prevent sharp objects from penetrating the tyre carcass and deflating the delicate inner tube. This tyre uses a wire bead which does put the weight up, the 23mm is 375g. 25 and 28mm widths are also available.

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Schwalbe Marathon Plus — £23.99-£29.99

Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres are essentially heavy duty, ultra reliable commu-touring tyres that inspire unprecedented confidence without feeling sluggish or barge-like, as the 970g weight for a pair would imply.

Read our review of the Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres
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Schwalbe Durano RaceGuard — £19.99

Schwable have many options and and the Durano RaceGuard Tyres offer really good durability with plenty of grip in all conditions. The grip is good in both dry and wet conditions so would prove a useful addition to any bike during mixed conditions of a typical British winter.

Read our review of the Schwalbe Durano RaceGuard

Panaracer Race D Evo 3 — £24.99

Panaracer's Race D Evo 3 tyres feel confident in the turns and roll well enough, but don't appear to be wildly different to many other tyres with some kind of puncture resistance. Durability does seem very good, though.

The Evo 3s are an update to the Evo 2s tested on road.cc back in 2015 – the price is the same and the weight comparable too. The Evo 3 also gets the same 'hard in the middle, soft on the edge' tread compound which Panaracer is calling ZSG Dual Compound. The main difference with the Evo 3s is the way Panaracer is doing the puncture protection – something it calls 'Protite'. Rather than having a separate breaker strip layer in the tyre, the puncture protection is incorporated into the tread rubber. Panaracer claims this increases puncture protection by 25% and reduces weight.

Read our review of the Panaracer Race D Evo 3
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Bontrager AW3 Hard-Case Lite tyres — £25

Despite a puncture-resisting later, the Bontrager AW3 Hard-Case Lite tyres roll quickly and gip securely in all conditions. The tread on the sidewall gives sufficient grip in the corners and the hard case has proven more than capable of dealing with the variety of grit washed onto the roads.

Read our review of the Bontrager AW3 Hard-Case Lite
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Vredestein Fortezza Senso Xtreme tyres — £36.25

The Vredestein Fortezza Senso Xtreme tyres bill themselves, as suggested in the name, as extreme weather tyres - so perfect then, for three seasons of UK riding.

Read our review of the Vredestein Fortezza Senso Xtreme
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Continental Grand Prix 4 Season — £34.99 - £37.99

A lighter option is the Continental Grand Prix 4 Season. A tough Duraskin mesh and two Vectran anti-puncture layers beneath the tread make this a good choice. And at 280g for the 28mm version it's a good weight, for the rider wanting a fast winter tyre. Conti's max grip silica rubber compound provides a good level of grip. A good choice for winter and one that can be used in spring and autumn too. If you desire even more protection, the Gator Hardshell is a good option, with a third layer of Polyamide in the sidewalls.

Find a Continental dealer

With winter nearly upon us, and spurred by this forum discussion, it’s a good time to take a look at the current tubeless options for the winter. Swapping lightweight race tyres for sturdier rubber is a sensible idea for riding through the winter, with extra puncture protection and tread compounds designed to provide more traction in the wet. With the rise in popularity of tubeless, there's a growing choice of winter-specific tubeless tyres, we've rounded up eight for your consideration below.

Why tubeless?

Let’s get the why bit out of the way first, just in case you’re not already a fan. Almost zero punctures being the biggest advantage over a regular inner tube clincher setup, and nowhere is that more of a benefit than during winter riding. Okay, so the installation can sometimes be a tricky old mess, but it’s getting easier all the tyre with better tyres, rims, tubeless kits and pumps. This guide below takes you through the tubeless installation steps and shows it doesn't need to be all that difficult.

Read more: How to fit a tubeless tyre

I’ll happily admit to being a road tubeless convert. My personal tubeless epiphany came during one cold and wet winter ride many years ago. Riding along a busy road the rear tyre suddenly burst a leak. Fortunately, the sealant in the tyre quickly plugged the hole (and thanks to mudguards I was suitably protected from a stripe of gunk up my back) and the escaping air quickly stopped with only a small pressure drop. Importantly, I didn’t need to stop while this incident occurred and continued the ride.

Read more: Buyer's guide to tubeless tyres — all your options in new technology rubber

What are your options?

Despite the clear advantages of tubeless tyres, the choice is still somewhat limited, though it does get a bit better every year. There’s still a reluctance from some tyre brands to go near it, while others have fully embraced it, willing to invest in the technology to make it a viable alternative to regular clinchers.

What do you want from a winter road tyre? You want extra durability compared to a summer race tyre, with a carcass and tread that is more resistance to the debris that can litter wet roads during the winter months. You might want a bit of extra width, provided your bike has clearance, for additional comfort and the benefit of lower pressures. Tread materials for winter tyres are often modified to provide better traction when the going it slippery.

Read more: 18 of the best road cycling tyres

11 tubeless winter tyre options

Panaracer GravelKing Slick 38mm — £27.95

The Panaracer GravelKing will take some beating on rough roads in this whopping 38mm size. We've already reviewed both the 26mm and the 32mm versions of these tyres and this pothole-conquering, gravel-busting 38mm version in Nile Blue is just as impressive. It's light for a 38mm at 337g, is very easy to set up tubeless and comes in restrained black as well as blue, green and ivory. What more could you want?

Read our review of the Panaracer GravelKing Slick 38mm
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Pirelli Cinturato Velo — £39

The Pirelli Cinturato Velo TLR is a very good tyre, especially during the winter months, offering plenty of cold and wet weather grip while also providing loads of puncture proofing. The small cost to the rolling resistance is worth it for the durability.

Read our review of the Pirelli Cinturato Velo
Find a Pirelli dealer

Ritchey WCS Alpine JB Stronghold Tubeless Ready 35mm — ~£42

Ritchey has gone inverse with the tread on its Alpine JB WCS Stronghold tyres to create a tyre that grips on light gravel and rough sections of broken country lane while also offering a smooth ride if you want to get a shift on on the tarmac. A very impressive all-round tyre choice indeed.

You'll need room in your frame for 35mm tyres to fit the tubeless version of the Alpine JB WCS Stronghold, as the 30mm version is only available with a conventional casing.

Read our review of the Ritchey WCS Alpine JB Stronghold tyre
Find a Ritchey dealer

IRC Formula Pro Tubeless X-Guard tyres — £55

IRC might not be the most familiar tyre brand in the road bike market at the moment, but its Formula Pro Tubeless X-Guard road tyres offer exceptionally good performance, with easy tubeless installation and great durability. The price does put them at the top end of the tyre market, though.

Traction is impressive, too, whether in the dry or wet, but it's the latter where they IRC tyres pull ahead of the latest generation Schwalbes. The IRCs feel more predictable and planted in the wet, and handle fast corners superbly.

Read our review of the IRC Formula Pro Tubeless X-Guard

Bontrager R3 Hard Case TLR — £38.49

Most of the Bontrager wheels are now tubeless-ready, and to complement them the company has started adding tubeless tyres to its range, and there are now quite a few to pick from. The R3 Hard-Case Lite TLR is its flagship road tubeless offering and is designed to be durable thanks to a butyl liner providing the reliability you want and need in the winter. It’s available in 24 and 26mm width options.

We haven’t tested this tubeless tyre yet, but have tested the regular clincher version - you can read that review here

If you crave more width, the cheaper A2 Hard-Case Lite TLR tyre is offered in extra 28 and 32mm width options, and if your bike has space for them, those are probably the ones to pick for winter riding.

Specialized Roubaix Tubeless Ready — £58.90

The Roubaix Tubeless tyre from Specialized is pitched as an all-rounder and we reckon it has all the right ingredients for a reliable winter cycling tyre. Of course, we haven't tested it yet but that's something we'll be aiming to address very soon. Why we think the tyre will be good for winter cycling is because it uses the company’s Gripton compound, which we’ve found to be very grippy in a range of conditions, dry and wet, with shoulder sipes to increase traction through the corners. It features a 180 TPI casing with an Endurant flat protection and comes in 25mm width, weighing a claimed 295g.

Hutchinson Fusion 5 All-Season — £34

The Fusion 5 is a brand new tyre from the French company that pioneered Road Tubeless many years ago, and with three models to choose from the All Season 11Storm looks the ideal choice for surviving a winter of cycling.

road.cc has tested the Performance version of this tyre. We were highly impressed with the ease of tubeless installation, traction, rolling resistance and durability. The All Season version has a specific tread pattern designed to improve wet cycling performance and has Kevlar reinforcement to prevent punctures.

The new tyre is available in 25 and 28mm widths and weighs a claimed 325g for the former.

Zipp Tangente RT 25 and RT28 — £50

The new Zipp Tangente RT tyre, available in 25 and 28mm widths, isn’t expressly designed as a winter tyre but tubeless goes a long way to reducing flats and the company has added a “water-siping tread pattern” to these new tyres, though there is evidence to suggest such grooves on a road bike tyre are largely pointless.

Further boosting their puncture resistance is a polyamide layer under the tread. The tyres are reasonably light, 292g claimed for the 25mm tyre and 302g for the 28mm version.

Mavic Yksion Elite Allroad — ~£40

Not all bikes are going to have space for 30mm wide tyres, but if your bike does, these new Yksion Elite Allroad tyres from wheel specialist Mavic look like being a good option thanks to the tubeless-ready construction and bead-to-bead polyamide casing reinforcement.

The tyres also have a tread pattern designed to ramp up traction in adverse conditions, with side grooves for extra cornering grip on dirt and loose surface roads, while the centre section is smooth for fast rolling on the hard stuff.

Schwalbe G-One — £40.96

Not so much a winter tyre as an adventure and gravel tyre, but we’ve been impressed with the rolling speed of this dimpled tyre on the road, and if the roads are covered in mud thanks to local farmers then they do offer a compelling benefit over narrower slicks.

Once you're off the good roads and onto the average ones – and we have plenty of them around here – any conceivable difference in rolling speed is easily outweighed by the comfort of the big air chamber, and the fact that you don't have to ease off and pick your line: just batter on through. I've not managed to put a hole in them that the sealant hasn't immediately coped with. Plus you can take them off-road as well, and they’re right at home on the canal towpaths, bridleways and trails like the South Downs Way.

There's now a road version of the G-One Allround pictured and reviewed above, called the G-One Speed. It comes in a narrower 30mm width with V-Guard protection that could be a good choice for more road-based riding, providing your frame has space for them.

Read our review of the Schwalbe G-One

WTB Horizon TCS Road Tyre — £38.48

Throwing a bit of a curve ball into the short list here, the fat WTB Horizon is another possible contender. Granted, it won’t fit all bikes and it might require a new set of wheels, but if it fits this is a durable, grippy, comfortable and fast rolling tyre that might, as the name suggests, open up new horizons…

It’s a 47mm wide tyre which is simply massive compared to everything else in this article, but on a 650b wheel (an old French standard resurrected by the mountain bike industry) the outside diameter is roughly the same as a regular 700c wheelset.

The tread pattern is mostly slick save for a few grooves and chevrons on the shoulders, and the grip is impressive in the wet. They instil bags of confidence on treacherous roads covered in water, mud or wet leaves.

Read our review of the WTB Horizon

Related reading: How to winterproof your bike — protect your ride from the wet, salt and crud

The growing appetite for gravel and adventure bikes and the riding these bikes allows have fuelled an increase in the availability of wide gravel-specific. This guide brings together a variety of 30 to 45mm tyres designed for tackling mixed terrain with a focus on off-road capability.

All about the adventure

What's the difference between gravel and adventure? Not much… The two terms are essentially interchangeable. The US has a popular gravel bike racing scene but it’s been slow to catch on in the UK, mainly down to our lack of endless miles of gravel roads, though there are a few new events that are tapping into this appeal such as the Dirty Reiver, the Dorset Gravel Dash and others. What has caught on over here though on is the desire for adventure, with long distance rides over varying terrain and bikepacking becoming increasingly popular. Events like the Transcontinental Race have certainly helped, putting the adventure back into cycling.

Manufacturers have been quick to cotton onto this desire for bikes that offer more capability to expand riding horizons more than regular road bikes allow. Gravel and adventure bikes can accommodate bigger tyres, the geometry is influenced by endurance bikes, they offer the versatility of a touring bike and there are disc brakes for all-weather control. These traits make a gravel and adventure bike perfect for a wide range of riding, including commuting, touring, Audax, winter training and are ideal for beginners. And the bigger more aggressive tyres provide more comfort and make it possible to get away from congested roads and into the sanctuary of the open countryside. They can be ridden anywhere, and they’re adaptable and versatile.

Read more: 16 of the best 2017 gravel & adventure bikes

Growing tyre choice

And with the growing bike choice comes a growing tyre choice. The tyre you choose can dictate the sort of riding the bike can be used for. Choosing the right tyre comes down to the style of riding you have in mind. Mostly road? You want a smoother tyre that emphasises low rolling resistance. Want to ride predominantly off-road? A tyre with an aggressive tread pattern to provide grip in dirt, gravel, grass and mud is going to be preferable. And there are many tyres that attempt to bridge these two extremes, with a smooth centre section and bigger shoulder knobs, to provide road and off-road capability. The tyres in this guide lean towards off-road riding where grip on grass, gravel, mud and dirt is important, but most also offer the rolling speed you want for hardpack and tarmac roads, to provide that essential versatility.

How wide you go comes down principally to what your bike will accommodate and how wide you think is right for the riding you're doing and terrain you're tackling. At the time of writing a 38-40mm tyre is a very popular width for gravel and adventure riding, but there are many options between 30-34mm if clearance is tight on your bike, and you can go up to 50mm if you have space and want the biggest volume. We're mostly concentrating on 700c tyres here, but there's a growing interest in the smaller 650b size, which provides the benefit of a bigger tyre volume with roughly the same outside diameter as a 40mm tyre on a 700c rim.

Read more: Is 650b the future for road bikes? road.cc investigates

Let's take a look at some of your choices.

Rene Herse Juniper Ridge — £60/£74

 The Rene Herse 650x48 Juniper Ridge tyres have a knobbly tread that has been designed to roll well on the road too. We were sceptical, but to be honest they are pretty good, giving a boost to your average speed on those tarmac sections between the tracks and trails.

The Juniper Ridge is one of the new all-road tyres from Rene Herse, the tyre company formerly known as Compass. It might look like a knobbly mountain bike tyre but it's been designed to work just as well on the road as it does off the beaten track. It has the same tread as the 700x38 Steilacoom, but in a 650x48mm size.

The tread has been designed to place as much rubber on the road as possible and the result is a surprisingly grippy and fast-rolling tyre. There is a little bit of road noise once you get up to speed, but thanks to the soft compound and supple casing, they really do feel like road tyres.

Read our review of the Rene Herse Juniper Ridge

Kenda Alluvium Pro — £37.45

The Kenda Alluvium Pro hits the mark as being both a fast and grippy tyre for gravel adventures and highly capable on the road. Though they struggle a little in the mud, they hold their own on dusty dry tracks and rough, rocky trails. With easy tubeless setup and a price to match the competition, these would be a great choice if you plan some adventure miles this summer.

Read our review of the Kenda Alluvium Pro

Goodyear County Ultimate Tubeless — ~£41

The Goodyear County Ultimate gravel tyre, which uses a specially developed Silica4 compound, offers a decent performance across road and light off-road, with good puncture resistance but perhaps a bit less suppleness than the best tyres of this type.

The County is one of two treads developed for use across a range of terrain, together with the more aggressively treaded Connector. The County is best suited for rides that combine tarmac and some light off-road terrain, while the Connector is a little more off-road focused. Both are available in a couple of versions – the Ultimate and the Premium, for a tenner less.

Read our review of the Goodyear County Ultimate Tubeless

WTB ByWay 650B x 47mm — ~£36

For exploring the road less travelled WTB’s Byway is a decent choice providing fast rolling speed on road and hardpack gravel. Only wet grass and mud reveal its limits.

The 650B wheel size — a bit smaller than the standard road bike 700C — has become very popular on adventure bikes and it’s easy to see why. The smaller wheel enables a bigger volume tyre without messing around much with the frame design, providing hugely improved cushioning on badly surfaced roads, gravel tracks and dirt paths.

WTB hit the market early with its original Horizon providing stacks of comfort and off-road capability. There’s only so far you can push a slick tyre on dirt and gravel, so WTB took the Horizon and added a meaty shoulder tread pattern to provide a bit more cornering traction when you’re drifting through the bends.

Read our review of the WTB ByWay 650B x 47mm tyre
Find a WTB dealer

Panaracer GravelKing TLC — £28

The Panaracer GravelKing tyres are excellent all-winter rubber for your road bike; Big Dave Atkinson declared them his new favourite all-purpose winter tyre. They're pretty light, they're easy to set up tubeless and they roll really well. Also, they come in a range of natty colours. Well, two. Plus black.

The 32mm version isn't really a gravel tyre for the UK, but you can get them in 35mm and 38mm widths too, as well as 650B versions up to 48mm wide, so for dirt riding in non-soggy conditions, they're a light, quick option.

Read our review of the Panaracer GravelKing
Find a Panaracer dealer

Schwalbe X-One Allround — £41.99

Designed to offer off-road grip in mixed conditions and speed on the road, the Schwalbe X-One Allround is pretty much the perfect tubeless tyre for the privateer cyclo-cross rider. These provide decent grip in slick mud, but roll really well when the course is dry.

Read our review of the Schwalbe X-One Allround
Find a Schwalbe dealer

Specialized Pathfinder Pro 2Bliss Ready — £42

The Pathfinder Pro is a fast-rolling tyre that is good for tackling rough roads and dry hardpack gravel trails. With its smooth centre section surrounded by tightly packed diamond-shaped blocks, it's obviously a good choice for lots of road riding. When riding in a straight upright position, that smooth centre line is all that contacts the road, and as a result provides low rolling resistance, allowing you to zip along the road at a decent pace. It really feels little slower than a slick tyre of similar width.

Feel adventurous and want to get off the road and onto some gravel and dirt, and the remainder of the tyre provides good grip. The diamond-shaped tread combined with bigger and spaced out shoulder blocks gives you the capability to let fire into loose gravel or dirty corners, knowing the compound and blocks will find grip. You won't be tackling any muddy bogs, it's not quite that capable, but for gravelly surfaced tracks, canal towpaths and dry bridleways, it offers more grip than a slick tyre.

Read our review of the Specialized Pathfinder Pro 2Bliss Ready
Find a Specialized dealer

Ritchey WCS Alpine JB Stronghold Tubeless Ready 35mm — ~£42

Ritchey has gone inverse with the tread on its Alpine JB WCS Stronghold tyres to create a tyre that grips on light gravel and rough sections of broken country lane while also offering a smooth ride if you want to get a shift on on the tarmac. A very impressive all-round tyre choice indeed.

You'll need room in your frame for 35mm tyres to fit the tubeless version of the Alpine JB WCS Stronghold, as the 30mm version is only available with a conventional casing.

Read our review of the Ritchey WCS Alpine JB Stronghold tyre
Find a Ritchey dealer

Rene Herse Steilacoom TC — £56-£70

The Rene Herse Steilacoom TC tyre is a fabulously grippy, fast-rolling tyre off-road that displays frankly ridiculous speed on the hard stuff too, from the tyre maker previously known as Compass. The performance comes at a price you'll forget the moment you hit the first transition from tarmac to gravel.

Read our review of the Rene Herse Steilacoom TC

Schwalbe G-One Bite MicroSkin TL-Easy — £36.50

The G-One Bite is a more off-road orientated version of the acclaimed G-One All-round, with  bigger knobbles and a more pronounced shoulder making them more suited to gravel and hardpacked trails. They still roll smoothly on Tarmac but when you get to the gravel or hardpacked trails the fun really begins. We've ridden them on 40mph descents and tough climbs and the G-One Bites never put a foot wrong, no matter what type or size of gravel we were riding over.

Read our review of the Schwalbe G-One Bite MicroSkin TL-Easy
Find a Schwalbe dealer

Kenda Cholla Pro — £32.55

Kenda's Cholla Pro is a supple tubeless-ready mud-conquering tyre for skinnier-framed bikes at a fairly sensible price. If you like it mucky and flat-free, it's a great option – particularly if you have limited clearance.

The Cholla Pro has a striking squared-off tread profile, with no chance of getting tyre orientation wrong; arrows point forwards folks. Based on "the hooks and barbs of the cholla cactus", says Kenda, this is somewhat ironically not a tyre for the desert – at just under 33mm fitted to a 19mm rim, you're more likely to dig into soft sand than float over it.

Read our review of the Kenda Cholla Pro
Find a Kenda dealer

Schwalbe G-One All-Round — £21.50-£22

German tyre company Schwalbe hit a home run when it introduced the G-One. The close-packed circular knobbly tread, round profile and sticky tread compound give them prodigious levels of grip on all sorts of surfaces. They’re tubeless and we’ve never had any problems sealing them on a wide range of rims. It’s available in 35 and 40mm widths.

There's also a MicroSkin TL-Easy tubeless version for £38.99.

Read our Schwalbe G-One Review

Halo Twin Rail — £20.99

The Halo features two central rails (hence the name) along the centre section for fast rolling speed on the straight with raised square blocks of alternating size on either side. They’re directional tyres with a puncture protection system and come in all-black or with tan sidewalls.

Challenge Gravel Grinder — £35.89

Challenge offers a couple of gravel tyres but this one is actually named for the riding it’s intended for. It combines tall and long shoulder knobs for cornering grip and a low profile dimpled centre section for fast rolling speed. It’s available in 33mm, 38mm and 42mm widths.

Donnelly X’Plor MSO — £39.99

Donnelly (the new name for the tyres formerly known as Clement) has designed the X’Plor MSO for mixed conditions with a smooth rolling centre section and bigger shoulder knobs, but it looks more aggressive overall than the Challenge Gravel Grinder. It comes in 32, 36 and 40mm widths and regular clincher and tubeless varieties.

Prices above are for 36mm and 40mm variants. The change of name came about when the brand's licence to Donnelly Sports LLC ended because brand owner Pirelli was returning to the bike tyre sector.

Read our review of the Donnelly/Clement X’Plor MSO

Hutchinson Overide — £34.95/£36.95

The Overide is a brand new tyre from the French company and is its début into the burgeoning gravel and adventure bike market. It comes in 35 and 38mm widths and Hutchinson has opted for a very smooth tread design with low profile diamond shaped blocks of alternating size. It’s tubeless-ready with a dual compound construction.

Maxxis Rambler — £39.11 - £42.31

The Rambler is Maxxis’ first gravel-specific tyre and it comes in both 38 and 40mm width options with a tightly packed tread design, including ramped centre knobs for improved rolling speed when on the smooth. The side knobs have been spaced out more to improve cornering traction in the loose.

Panaracer Gravel King SK — £27.95

Panaracer has been quick to offer a wide range of suitable gravel tyres, and it keeps on adding new options. It offers tyres with a smooth file tread pattern up to more aggressive tread pattern such as the one pictured above, and a wide range of widths from 23 to 43 and 700c and 650b options. It’s recently added the first mud-specific gravel tyre we’ve come across and there are new tubeless options being added this year.

Read our Panaracer Gravelking 32mm review

Specialized Trigger Pro 2Bliss — £40

Specialized has a number of gravel and adventure bikes in its range now (Diverge and Sequoia) and so it has designed the Trigger for dealing with mixed terrain. Tightly packed diamond shape blocks make up the centre section for a fast rolling tyre on tarmac and hardpack dirt roads, and more widely spaced shoulder blocks for leaning the bike over and steering control. The Trigger is available in four widths: 33, 38, 42 and 47mm.

Read our Specialized Trigger Pro review

Surly Knard — £26.99/£44.99

Surly’s Knard has a closely spaced tread pattern for providing speed over varied terrain, and there’s enough grip for loose and slippery trail conditions. The tread pattern comprises aggressive square blocks with only the edge knobs being rectangular to allow for lean and grip in the corners. Surly offers the Knard in a variety of wheel sizes, including 650b, 26 and 29in, and a 700x41mm. The cheaper price gets you a 33 threads-per-inch casing; the spendier version is 127tpi.

Read our Surly Knard review

WTB Riddler — £34

WTB has taken its mountain bike tyre of the same name and shrunk it down to 37 and 45mm widths for gravel and adventure bikes. A fast and low profile tread pattern across the top of the tyre should provide good rolling resistance, while aggressive shoulder knobs deliver cornering grip.

• Your choice of tyres depends on the compromise of speed, longevity and puncture-resistance that works best for you.

• Light, fast tyres — especially in larger sizes like 25mm and 28mm widths — can be a huge improvement to the ride feel of your bike.

• Standard tyres with separate inner tubes — known as clinchers — are the most common type, but tubeless tyres are gaining popularity.

• One-piece tubular tyres are now used almost entirely for racing.

• Anti-puncture belts under the tread reduce flats and in some cases eliminate them almost entirely; they're the way to go for practical bikes.

The perfect tyre for road cycling would weigh nothing, have zero rolling resistance, last forever and make your bike feel like you were floating suspended above the ground. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist, but the best modern tyres manage to excel in one or more categories. Here's a selection of the best.

This selection of the best-rated tyres we've reviewed in the last few years, plus a couple of popular classics, covers the range from sturdy commuting tyres to super-fast race rubber. What features should you look for in choosing a tyre?

Tyre types

There are three types of performance bike tyres: clinchers, tubulars and tubeless. Clinchers are the regular tyre type you're almost certainly familiar with. They have a wire bead that holds their shape and fits in a hook on the rim to hold them in place.

Tubular tyres have the tyre carcass sewn around the inner tube; the whole lot is then glued to a special rim with a concave surface for the tyre. This is still the lightest way to make a tyre and rim combination, but to repair a puncture you have to unstitch and re-sew the tyre, which puts most people off.

Tubeless tyres, as the name suggests, don't have inner tubes. Air is kept in place by a sealing strip in the rim, and either a liquid sealant inside the tyre or a rubber coating.

Rolling resistance

Two main forces work against a cyclist trying to make progress along the road. Air resistance is the most famous, but the other is the rolling resistance of your tyres, and it's much less obvious.

Rolling resistance arises from the tyre flexing where it touches the road. The rubber and casing flex and unflex, and some of the energy needed to flex them is absorbed in the process and turned into heat in the process known as hysteresis. It's much more obvious where bigger forces and energies are involved; it's why your car tyres get warm as you drive.

A number of factors affect rolling resistance, including the tyre's width (see below), tread thickness and material, casing thickness and material, and tread pattern. Tyre makers spend a lot of time and money experimenting with these factors to reduce rolling resistance. Schwalbe claims to have made 50 prototypes before settling on the design of its One tyre, which is noticeably faster than many of its rivals.

Tyre colours (CC BY 2.0 FaceMePLS:Flickr)

The current best performers for rolling resistance are very light tyres with thin treads and casings. According to testing commissioned by VeloNews by the tyre experts at Wheel Energy in Finland, the best performers are various versions of the Specialized Turbo and Continental GP4000S II.

Grip

Grip depends on the rubber compound used in the tread. The rule of thumb used to be that you wanted a compound that contained carbon black — and would therefore be black — for the best grip, especially in the wet. Modern compounds that contain silica are now virtually as good, so if you must have red tyres, look for that in the compound.

Weight

On paper, the lighter a tyre is, the faster it will accelerate. But the tyres are such a tiny part of the total weight of bike and rider that it's very unlikely anyone can actually feel the difference between, say, a 250g tyre and a 200g tyre. However, in their quest for light weight, tyre manufacturers use light casing and thin tread rubber layers, which reduce rolling resistance and that can make a tyre feel faster.

That can mean very light tyres are not very durable, or are so thin they puncture easily. You might be prepared to put up with that for the extra turn of speed when racing, or for that special ride in the sunshine on perfect roads, but most of the time you'll want something beefier.

Folding vs rigid

Lightweight tyres almost all have beads made from Kevlar, which allows them to be folded for easy storage and transport. Kevlar is lighter than the traditional steel wire bead, but its resistance to stretch can make folding tyres harder to fit.

Puncture resistance

To stop foreign objects getting through the tyre to the inner tube, tyre manufacturers use various barriers in addition to the tread and tyre carcass. Layers of Kevlar or a related fabric called Vectran are used in lightweight tyres, and when weight is less of a consideration, manufacturers put an extra layer of resistant rubber under the tread. This works well; if you're not in a hurry, tyres like the Schwalbe Marathon are great for round-town peace of mind.

Tread pattern

Unlike this motorcycle tyre, bicycle tyres don't need water-dispersing patterns. (CC BY-SA 2.0 dvanzuijlekom/Flickr)

On tarmac, it really doesn't make any difference to grip what shapes the designer has carved into the tread. Bike tyres are too narrow to aquaplane at speeds below about 200mph. But the lumps of tread in between sipes and shapes can squirm, and that increases rolling resistance. The best tread pattern is therefore a smooth, slick surface, but with rare exceptions tyre company marketing departments can't seem to get their heads around this.

Width

Fatter tyres can be run at lower pressures and therefore give a smoother ride, and better grip on bad surfaces. Road tyres have long been 23mm wide, but that standard has given way to 25mm and even wider in recent years. Those extra millimetres make a noticeable difference in ride feel, and aside from a small weight penalty there's no downside.

Many people think fat tyres must be slower, but all other things being equal, the wider a tyre is, the lower its rolling resistance. This may be counter-intuitive, but it's been demonstrated time and again in rolling resistance tests.

For any given tyre pressure, the size of the tyre's contact patch will be the same. But the wide contact patch of a fat tyre has a lower circumference than the long, thin contact patch of a skinny tyre. Because less of a fat tyre flexes, rolling resistance is reduced.

Tube choice

Tubes can make a significant difference to tyre performance. The thinner, lighter and more flexible the tube, the less effect it will have on rolling resistance. That's why high-end tubular tyres have latex tubes instead of the familiar black butyl rubber. Latex tubes also provide a bit of puncture resistance as they are flexible enough to stretch round a sharp object rather than being punctured by it. However, latex is porous and needs pumping up before every ride.

Other inner tube materials occasionally crop up. Polyurethane is the most common and is currently available in tubes from Panaracer and — for mountain bikes — Schwalbe. It has the advantage of being very light and retaining air well, but it's not as stretchy as butyl or latex so needs more precise matching to tyre size. Schwalbe's polyurethane tubes use a BASF plastic called Elastollan which appears from BASF's claims to be stretchier that traditional polyurethane. Schwalbe calls it Aerothan and says 35g road bike tubes are in development, but only for disc-braked bikes.

Shopping

Tyres are typically a bit cheaper in winter. When the good weather arrives prices go up a bit.

35 of the best tyres

Schwalbe Pro One — £35.60-£44.99

The Schwalbe Pro One Tubeless Easy (TLE) folding tyre is up there with the best race tyres on the market. Grippy, fast rolling and simple to fit, with or without a tube, they're a great choice for your race bike. If durability is your main goal, though, you might want to look elsewhere in the range.

As part of its top end Evo Line, the Pro Ones use Schwalbe's Triple compound which is soft and much grippier than the Onestar compound found on the standard non-tubeless One.

Chucking the bike into tight corners or roundabouts at speed shows the level of grip on offer in both the wet and dry, plus the tyres give a really direct feel of the road thanks to the suppleness of the rubber.

Read our review of the Schwalbe Pro One
Find a Schwalbe dealer

Panaracer GravelKing Slick Tread 38 — £28.99

The Panaracer GravelKing will take some beating on rough roads in this whopping 38mm size. We've already reviewed both the 26mm and the 32mm versions of these tyres and this pothole-conquering, gravel-busting 38mm version in Nile Blue is just as impressive. It's light for a 38mm at 337g, is very easy to set up tubeless and comes in restrained black as well as blue, green and ivory. What more could you want?

These tyres need a lot of space. They are listed as 38mm but when fitted to some new wider rimed Halo Evaura wheels, they came up to closer to 40 (39.52mm) so make sure your frame can take them before taking the plunge.

Read our review of the Panaracer GravelKing Slick Tread 38
Find a Panaracer dealer

Continental Grand Prix 5000 TL — ~£40

Continental's Grand Prix 5000 tubeless tyres take everything that is improved with these latest generation tyres and add tubeless compatibility for improved puncture resistance. They're relatively painless to set up and provide excellent performance in all conditions with low rolling resistance, good grip and durability.

German tyre giant Continental revamped its long-running and hugely popular GP4000 tyre last year with the GP5000, and in the process developed its first road tubeless offering. It shares all the same features as the non-tubeless version with updated Black Chilli rubber compound, Vectran breaker, Active Comfort Technology and Lazer Grip.

It's a case of lots of small changes adding up to make an improved tyre, and the good news is that on the road the new tyre has all the hallmarks of the old GP4000, but is better in every way. It's fast, grippy and puncture resistant, simply a very high-quality tyre that has no compromises.

Read our review of the Continental Grand Prix 5000 TL

Specialized Turbo Cotton — £42.69

Specialized's Turbo Cotton clinchers are some of the best tyres that we've ever had the pleasure of riding. The supple casing and Gripton rubber compound combine to give a fast and smooth ride that is perfect for racing.

Read our review of the Specialized Turbo Cotton
Find a Specialized dealer

Vittoria Corsa Speed G+ Isotech — £40

Vittoria's Corsa Speed G+ Tubeless tyre is a great choice for summer and race use. The casing and tread are much softer than some previous tubeless tyres, giving these a much better feeling on the road.

Tyres can completely change the ride quality of a bike, influencing the way that you can ride in different conditions. These Vittorias – the fastest tyre tested by bicyclerollingresistance.com – offer easy tubeless setup and a much superior ride.

Read our review of the Vittoria Corsa Speed G+ Isotech
Find a Vittoria dealer

Panaracer GravelKing 32 — £27.95

The 32mm Panaracer GravelKing tyres are excellent all-winter rubber for your road bike and tester Dave Atkinson's new favourite all-purpose winter tyre. They're pretty light for a 32mm tyre, they're easy to set up tubeless and they roll really well. Also, they come in a range of natty colours. Well, two. Plus black. Are they gravel tyres? Not really for the UK, in this size. But for winter road riding they're ace.

You might think these tyres look a bit like a plus-sized version of Vittoria's Open Pave with their file tread and green bits. And that's a fair comparison a lot of the time. Okay, they don't have the Open Pave's supple 320TPI casing, but the AX-Alpha Cord construction is still supple and you can run them tubeless which makes them even more so. The extra air in the carcass over a standard road width means there's comfort on tap for filthy back lanes and unsurfaced sections.

Read our review of the Panaracer GravelKing 32
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Rene Herse Bon Jon Pass TC Extralight — £67

The Rene Herse (formerly Compass) Bon Jon Pass TC Extralight is the lightest and narrowest of its tyres that can be set up tubeless. It's good. Very good. Rene Herse calls it its 'Goldilocks' tyre, and for going fast or far on rubbish British roads or gravel, in all weathers, it is indeed Just Right.

Rene Herse has its handmade tyres manufactured in Japan by Panaracer, but the process and materials are unique to Rene Herse. These tyres indeed cost a pretty penny, but if you want the pinnacle of real-world performance over varied surfaces, they're worth the cash.

Read our review of the Rene Herse Bon Jon Pass TC Extralight

Bontrager R4 Classics Hard-Case Lite — £54.99

Bontrager’s R4 Classics tyres are beautiful handmade clinchers that offer a smooth and very quick ride. You get great cornering grip and such a supple casing really helps on rougher roads.

The R4 Classics have, as the name suggests, been designed to tackle the road conditions commonly found in the spring races. They boast many of the features found in the tubular version that is used by Trek Segafredo for those very races. In fact, this is exactly the same tyre, with the only difference being that it isn't sewn around an inner tube

Read our review of the Bontrager R4 Classics Hard-Case Lite
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Challenge Strada Pro Open Tubular — £38

Challenge's Strada Pro Open Tubular is a super-supple tyre designed for racing on rough roads. It's not the quickest tyre we've ridden, but for the battered B roads of Britain these are ideal for racing, fast riding and even as a summer training tyre.

Read our review of the Challenge Strada Pro Open Tubular
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Rene Herse Switchback Hill Extralight TC 650B x 48mm — £75

How wide is too wide? The 48mm Switchback Hill is the widest 650B tyre that Rene Herse (formerly Compass) makes, and too wide it ain't. It's super-comfortable, fast-rolling, tubeless-compatible, off-road-capable and light. There's really not a lot wrong here. At a time when people are doing roll-down tests to see if it's worth switching to 28mm tyres from 25s, my advice would be to skip a few sizes and fit a pair of these, if you can. They're great.

Read our review of the Rene Herse Switchback Hill Extralight TC 650B x 48mm

Hutchinson Fusion 5 11Storm Tubeless Performance — £34.99

The latest tyre from tubeless pioneer Hutchinson might just have knocked the Schwalbe Pro One out of the role of benchmark performance tubeless tyre. The traction of the Fusion 5s out of the box in a range of conditions, especially in the wet, surpasses the Pro One's. Factors like speed and rolling resistance are trickier to compare, but they certainly don't feel any slower at all, and puncture resistance is superb.In a nutshell, they're fast, grippy, supple, durable and easy to fit, and a rival for any other tubeless tyre currently available.

That's down to The new ElevenStorm rubber compound that provides the tread for the very latest version of this tyre. Warning to the wise: there are versions of the Hutchinson Fusion 5 available with Hutchinson's old HDF>5.2 tread compound. They're good tyres, but if you want the latest and greatest, look for the 11Storm.

Going tubeless for the first time? Hutchinson offers a pair of these tyres with sealant, valves and rim tape for £86.

Read our review of the Hutchinson Fusion 5 ElevenStorm Tubeless Performance tyre
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Mavic Yksion Pro Road UST — £37

The UST version of Mavic's Yksion Pro tyre is a massive improvement on the previous, frankly indifferent, tyres that Mavic used to ship with their wheels. It's made in France for Mavic by Hutchinson, who know a thing or two about tubeless tyres, and scores well in Jarno Bierman's rolling resistance and puncture prevention tests. You get a pair of Yksion Pros with all of the Tarmac-orientated wheels in Mavic's new Road UST range, from the £269 Aksium Elite UST and up.

The tread is made from the same rubber — Hutchinson calls it ElevenStorm — as the super-grippy Fusion 5 tyres, so looks an awful lot like Mavic is throwing in a pair of Fusion 5s with its Road UST wheels.

The old Yksions seriously lacked grip, especially in the wet, and puncture proofing was pretty poor. These UST versions are way, way better, offering loads of grip even in the wet and and if they do break traction, a little shift in power or body position easily brings them back under control.

Read our review of the Mavic Yksion Pro tyres on Ksyrium Elite UST wheels

Read about Mavic's Road UST wheels and tyres

Schwalbe G-One Speed MicroSkin TL-Easy 650B — £34.99

Back in 2015 we first reviewed the Schwalbe S-One as it was then called, and it was a revelation: fast, grippy, comfortable. As a 30mm tyre it wouldn't fit in every frame, but our advice was: If you can fit 'em, buy 'em. Fast forward to 2018 and we're riding the new 40mm, 650B G-One Speed, which is every bit as good, and highlights the benefits of Road Plus, as we're now contractually obliged to call 650B, as well as any tyre we've tried.

Read our review of the 650B Schwalbe G-One Speed MicroSkin TL-Easy Folding
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Vittoria Corsa Control G+ Isotech — £42.50

The Corsa Control G+ is the beefed-up version of Vittoria's well-respected Corsa G+. They're a great alternative to many winter-specific tyres, offering levels of rolling resistance and grip seen on your summer lightweights without compromising durability.

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Read our review of the Vittoria Corsa Control G+ Isotech

Pirelli P Zero Velo — £32

The Pirelli P Zero Velo tyre marks a very impressive return to cycling for Pirelli after a half-century hiatus. This tyre is fast, comfortable and long lasting, making for a great all-round ride experience on the road.

Out on the road, they are thoroughly impressive at all times, feeling fast and slippery (through the air, not on the road surface!), yet able to take on the often poorly maintained roads that I'm accustomed to in the south west. Cornering in the wet never feels sketchy, and they zip along very nicely on flat roads without giving any unwanted feedback.

I know that they have bad weather in Italy, but I'm still very impressed with how much Pirelli has obviously thought about adverse conditions when developing these tyres. I saw Pirelli testing the wet grip of the tyres on the test track outside of Milan at the launch, and it certainly appears to have paid off.

Read our review of the Pirelli P Zero Velo
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Panaracer GravelKing SK — £27.95

Japanese tyre company Panaracer has been quick to offer a range of gravel-specific tyres, becoming a significant player in the burgeoning market. Measuring 43mm wide, these GravelKing SK tyres are tubeless compatible and feature a tread pattern that excels both on and off road, with a tough carcass that can withstand some abuse.

The GravelKing comes in a variety of widths and tread patterns, but this SK (Small Knob) is probably the pick of the range for the latest generation of adventure bikes like the Kinesis Tripster AT, Mason Bokeh or Open UP. As well as the 43mm tested here (which was called 40 but actually measures 43mm, and is now labelled as such), the same tread pattern is offered on 26, 32 and 35mm width options if your frame doesn't offer enough clearance.

Read our review of the Panaracer GravelKing SK
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Bontrager R3 Hard-Case Lite 700C 32mm — £25

Wider road bike tyres are gaining an almost unstoppable momentum as people discover they can be both fast and comfortable, and with the emergence of the endurance road bike genre, Rubenesque road rubber is only going to become more common as bikes are designed to fit fat slicks. The Bontrager R3 Hard-Case Lite 700x32c pushes the plump limit to the point where once upon a time it might have been considered a humourously slick cyclo-cross tyre.

The R3 Hard-Case Lite comes in 23, 25, 28 and 32mm widths, and the full fat version here is something to behold, turning your road bike (if the rubber will fit) into something like a SuperMoto bike, although sideways drifts are not required on every corner, however tempting.

Read our review of the Bontrager R3 Hard-Case Lite 700C 32mm
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WTB Horizon TCS 650B — £35.99

WTB's Horizon TCS is a fast-rolling, super-grippy and super-comfortable tyre that excels on the road and is capable of tackling dry off-road trails to inject some adventure into your routes.

Tyres have been getting wider over the years, and this trend for chunkier tyres and a growing interest in gravel and dirt riding on road bikes has given rise to the return of 650B, an old standard once favoured by French touring cyclists because it allowed bigger volume tyres for more cushioning on rough and badly surfaced roads. (By shrinking the rim size you can use the bigger volume tyre.)

Read our review of the WTB Horizon TCS
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Donnelly X'Plor MSO — £48.75

The Donnelly (formerly Clemént) X'Plor MSO Tubeless Folding Adventure Tyre is an excellent tubeless-ready choice for venturing off the beaten track, at speed. At £60 RRP in its tubeless-ready guise it's not cheap, but you definitely get what you pay for.

The 36mm MSO measures 35mm wide on a 19mm internal-width rim. Whilst this may seem short change, unless you are 100% certain your frame is capacious enough, being a smidge under is definitely better than over, which may see your frame clogged or rubbed.

Able to be set up tubeless or tubed, there are two sizes of the tubeless MSO variant available: the tested 36mm, and a soon-to-be-launched and frankly whopping 50mm (that's 2in to you mountain bike folks). Also in the MSO range (but not tubeless) are the following variants: 32, 40 & 50mm sizes, available as both single-compound 60TPI (threads per inch) and dual-compound 120TPI casings. There's a 120TPI dual-compound 36mm MSO coming later this year. With so many variants, be sure you're ordering the right tyre.

Read our review of the Clement X'Plor MSO

Donnelly LCV — £60

The LCV is the latest high performance tyre from Donnelly (formerly known as Clement) and with an RRP of 60 quid it's gunning for the big boys like Schwalbe and Continental. Those are pretty huge reputations to challenge, but do you know what? The LCV has them well in its sights.

The LCV is designed for all-out performance, and the moment you pull it out of the box you can feel the stickiness of the rubber so you're pretty much expecting a very grippy ride, and it doesn't disappoint.

Read our review of the Donnelly/Clement LCV
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Michelin Power All Season — £32.95 - £33.59

Since 'four seasons in one day' is a description often applied to the British weather, these Michelin Power All Season Road tyres should be right at home among UK riders. After a typical English June, we're pleased to confirm that the performance is every bit as reliable as Michelin claims.

The All Season is one of three tyres in the Michelin Power range, each promising better performance with less drag than its predecessors, the Pro4 series. In the case of the All Season, it's grip that's the focus of performance claims, and Michelin promises 15% more grip 'on slippery surfaces' but 5% less resistance than the Pro4 Grip. Of course, this is neither here nor there if the Pro4 Grip was a pile of dingoes' kidneys, but back in 2014 our own David Arthur gave them a solid four star rating (read that review here).

At nearly 260g for the 25mm version (slightly less than officially claimed), these are hardly lightweight, but a lot of this is in the thick tread with its Aramid 'Protek +' protection layer. Over the test period I had no punctures and the tyres shrugged off some bad treatment, such as miles of freshly dressed country lanes that had gravel rattling off the down tube.

The only time you should be noticing your tyres when you are out riding is when they are failing you in some way – a puncture, a loss of grip, a noisy tread or a leaden, draggy feel. So perhaps the best thing we can say about these is that I never really noticed them.

Read our review of the Michelin Power All Season
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Schwalbe G-One — £34.99

If you can fit the Schwalbe G-One tyres in your frame, you should get some. As genuine all-rounders they're impossible to beat right now: fast rolling on tarmac and properly capable off-road. They're really, really good.

The G-One is a gravel tyre, according to Schwalbe. It's available in 35mm and 40mm widths and uses Schwalbe's Tubeless Easy construction, which the company claims makes them – you've guessed, right? – easy to set up. And they are. They went on first time every time with a Bontrager Flash Charger pump. And I even fitted them with a track pump, just so I could say I did. And that was fine too.

The close-packed knobbly tread, round profile and sticky tread compound give them prodigious levels of grip on all sorts of surfaces. You can lean them right over into the the bends on the road, and they'll grab all sorts when climbing off-road.

We know plenty of people who've tried these tyres now, and we don't know anyone who doesn't love them. Try them. You'll love them.

Read our review of the Schwalbe G-One
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IRC Formula RBCC — £55

IRC’s Formula RBCC Tubeless tyres provide outstanding grip in dry and wet conditions.

Fitting and inflation are straightforward, and once the sealant is in and distributed around the inside of the tyre, all is secure and airtight.

The round-profile tyres sit pleasantly plumply on the rim; and measured with the callipers across their widest point came up at 25.5mm. The large-volume casing certainly holds a lot of air, which is very noticeable in the ride quality. We thought for a while the council had been round fixing the roads, but that was just a dream.

The other great quality in these tyres is the grip. We took them to northwest Scotland for a few days' testing on the steepest, twistiest, wettest, gravelliest, farm-manuriest roads we could find and, honestly, it was all we could do to get them to step out of line. Only when we deliberately braked late and hard into a sharp left-hander at the bottom of a steep hill did we finally coax the back tyre into some sort of skid, and even then it was more of a correction of direction than any cause for alarm. It feels like your brakes have had an overhaul. Most impressive.

Read our review of the IRC Formula RBCC

Schwalbe Pro One tubeless — £29.99 - £32.00

Schwalbe bills this — the improved, lighter and faster-rolling version of the One — as 'tubeless easy', and some people even claim they have managed to get these to go up with a track pump. We found them easy to fit as tubeless tyres go, but they still needed a high-pressure blast to seat them.

As far as tubeless tyres go, though, these were very easy to fit – as long as you've got some compressed air to hand, in the form of some magic pump, a CO2 inflator or a compressor.

At 291g each (claimed weight 275g each), the Pro One takes tubeless tyres a step closer to rivalling the weight of the lighter clincher and inner tube setups. They feel light and accelerate well.

They needed 60 miles or so to wear in, but then the grip increases to very reassuring levels indeed. Blatting around our local race circuit these tyres go around the very tight corners confidently at any speed.

Read our review of the Schwalbe Pro One tubeless
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Specialized S-Works Turbo — £24.49

Very fast and very light, the S-Works Turbos are tyres you'll want to save for race day or an attempt on a sportive personal best. The Blackbelt puncture protection does a reasonable job of stopping small objects from getting through the tread, but the featherweight sidewalls are easily cut. Jo Burt found that a problem when he reviewed them and I've recently had to bin a pair after forgetfully using them on less-than-perfect roads.

On a sunny day, on good Tarmac, though, they're lovely. The 28mm version could be the perfect UK summer tyre, and they're a bargain at this sale price.

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Read our review of the Specialized S-Works Turbo

Vee Tire Co Road Runner — £34.99

Fast-rolling, supple tyres that offer confidence-inspiring cornering grip, and sensibly priced. Rubbing your thumb over the Road Runner from Vee Tire Co when it's in its box, you just know it's going to be grippy – the compound feels practically tacky against your skin. And it doesn't disappoint once you put tyre to tarmac.

In the dry they really grip well and give you loads of confidence to keep banking the bike over. Mini roundabouts and the like can be taken flat out and we've yet to find their limits of adhesion.

Read our review of the Vee Tire Co Road Runner
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Continental Grand Prix 4000s II 28mm — £35.75

The much-loved Grand Prix 4000s II is getting hard to find as it's been replaced by the GP5000, but they're still worth considering if you can find them at a good price, especially in this 28mm version. The Continental Grand Prix 4000S II 28mm is a great example of why tyres getting fatter is A Good Thing. Assuming you can fit these tyres into your frame, there are plenty of reasons why you should. They're excellent.

Big doesn't necessarily mean slow. It certainly doesn't here. You don't notice the extra bulk of the tyre when accelerating, and once up to speed they have a very supple feel and excellent all-round grip.

Read our review of the Continental Grand Prix 4000s II 28mm
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Zipp Tangente Speed — £50 - £66

Zipp Tangentes are pitched as race-day tyres with an impressively low 196g weight in a 25mm size. They are very responsive and fast-rolling tyres, ideal for racing and Sunday best bikes.

They have a 220 tpi rubber/nylon casing, and weight is saved with the absence of the puncture belt that features on Zipp's two other tyres, the Course and SLSpeed tubular. We had no flats during testing. That doesn't tell you much - luck has a huge part to play in punctures as much as anything - but the clean tread with a noticeable lack of cuts and marks suggest good durability from the rubber compound.

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Read our review of the Zipp Tangente Speed

Vredestein Fortezza Senso Xtreme 28mm — £24.95

The Vredestein Fortezza Senso Xtreme tyres bill themselves as Xtreme (sorry) weather tyres - so perfect, then, for three seasons of UK riding.

They have managed several thousand kilometres without any punctures or slide-outs in the wet, despite our tester donning his old college volleyball knee-pads and seeing if he could lose the front wheel on fast roundabouts. Come rain or shine, they have provided comfortable riding, with smooth rolling and decent acceleration, and while they are not the lightest tyres on the market, they don't seem to suffer because of the extra weight.

Read our review of the Vredestein Fortezza Senso Xtreme
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Challenge Strada Bianca 700C 30mm — £49

The Strade Bianche race uses the white gravel roads of Tuscany and this 30mm racing tyre is just what you need for that kind of thing. It's a brilliant all-rounder that's fast enough for nearly any road use, but with hugely improved comfort.

Out on the road they're fantastic. You can run them at hitherto-untried low pressures with little or no danger of flatting them on potholes. They roll extremely well and at 358g they're not heavyweights. It's not like sticking a set of Marathons on. These feel like race tyres, they really do, except loads more comfortable. If you want comfort on long rides but still want to go fairly fast, there aren't many better tyres we can name.

Read our review of the Challenge Strada Bianca 700C 30mm
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Schwalbe One V-Guard — £29.99

Schwalbe makes the bold claim that its One tyres are the fastest the company has ever manufactured. Our roll-down testing confirms that they're fast and they feel extremely rapid with good traction in a range of conditions, with impressive puncture protection and durability.

They're now available in a wide range of sizes, up to 28mm and in clincher, tubular and tubeless. In normal use, riding the tyres daily in training, the 167km Liege-Bastogne-Liege sportive and a road race, the tyres really impress. It's the sensation of speed and lack of resistance that is most noticeable. In a range of conditions too, they show incredible performance, from sun-baked to rain-sodden roads.

Read our review of the Schwalbe One V-Guard
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Bontrager AW3 Hard-Case Lite — £27.49

Despite a puncture-resisting layer, the Bontrager AW3 Hard-Case Lite tyres roll quickly and grip securely in all conditions.

They're secure in wet corners and the Hard Case puncture protection has proved more than capable of dealing with the variety of grit washed onto the roads.

Read our review of the Bontrager AW3 Hard-Case Lite
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Schwalbe Marathon Plus — £26

Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres are essentially heavy duty, ultra reliable commu-touring tyres that inspire unprecedented confidence without feeling sluggish or barge-like, as the 970g weight for a pair would imply.

Much of this is attributable to the Smart Guard system. This is essentially a clever subsection of supple rubber designed to force sharps out, rather than drawing them in as deep-treaded Kevlar types can, especially with age.

Read our review of the Schwalbe Marathon Plus
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Vittoria Pave CG Open Clincher — £24.99 - £27.99

Designed for comfort, wet grip and resistance to punctures and impacts, this is a lightweight fat tyre for riders who want speed on poor roads and don't care about a little extra mass.

It uses Vittoria's extremely supple 320tpi casing, Isogrip tread compound and is constructed like a tubular, hence the 'open' designation, short for 'open tubular'. Vittoria tags it as a tyre for extreme conditions, but as far as we're concerned that means British roads all year round, especially in the 27mm version.

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Continental Grand Prix 4 Season — £37.99 - £38.99

These popular puncture-resistant tyres from Conti have a Duraskin® cut-resistant layer from bead to bead, and two extra Vectran breakers help increase puncture protection.

They're billed as suitable for wet weather. Call us pessimistic, but to us, European wet weather tyres means year-round UK use, and the GP 4 Seasons are excellent do-everything tyres.

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With winter nearly upon us, and spurred by this forum discussion, it’s a good time to take a look at the current tubeless options for the winter. Swapping lightweight race tyres for sturdier rubber is a sensible idea for riding through the winter, with extra puncture protection and tread compounds designed to provide more traction in the wet. With the rise in popularity of tubeless, there's a growing choice of winter-specific tubeless tyres, we've rounded up eight for your consideration below.

Why tubeless?

Let’s get the why bit out of the way first, just in case you’re not already a fan. Almost zero punctures being the biggest advantage over a regular inner tube clincher setup, and nowhere is that more of a benefit than during winter riding. Okay, so the installation can sometimes be a tricky old mess, but it’s getting easier all the tyre with better tyres, rims, tubeless kits and pumps. This guide below takes you through the tubeless installation steps and shows it doesn't need to be all that difficult.

Read more: How to fit a tubeless tyre

I’ll happily admit to being a road tubeless convert. My personal tubeless epiphany came during one cold and wet winter ride many years ago. Riding along a busy road the rear tyre suddenly burst a leak. Fortunately, the sealant in the tyre quickly plugged the hole (and thanks to mudguards I was suitably protected from a stripe of gunk up my back) and the escaping air quickly stopped with only a small pressure drop. Importantly, I didn’t need to stop while this incident occurred and continued the ride.

Read more: Buyer's guide to tubeless tyres — all your options in new technology rubber

What are your options?

Despite the clear advantages of tubeless tyres, the choice is still somewhat limited, though it does get a bit better every year. There’s still a reluctance from some tyre brands to go near it, while others have fully embraced it, willing to invest in the technology to make it a viable alternative to regular clinchers.

What do you want from a winter road tyre? You want extra durability compared to a summer race tyre, with a carcass and tread that is more resistance to the debris that can litter wet roads during the winter months. You might want a bit of extra width, provided your bike has clearance, for additional comfort and the benefit of lower pressures. Tread materials for winter tyres are often modified to provide better traction when the going it slippery.

Read more: 18 of the best road cycling tyres

11 tubeless winter tyre options

Panaracer GravelKing Slick 38mm — £27.95

The Panaracer GravelKing will take some beating on rough roads in this whopping 38mm size. We've already reviewed both the 26mm and the 32mm versions of these tyres and this pothole-conquering, gravel-busting 38mm version in Nile Blue is just as impressive. It's light for a 38mm at 337g, is very easy to set up tubeless and comes in restrained black as well as blue, green and ivory. What more could you want?

Read our review of the Panaracer GravelKing Slick 38mm
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Pirelli Cinturato Velo — £39

The Pirelli Cinturato Velo TLR is a very good tyre, especially during the winter months, offering plenty of cold and wet weather grip while also providing loads of puncture proofing. The small cost to the rolling resistance is worth it for the durability.

Read our review of the Pirelli Cinturato Velo
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Ritchey WCS Alpine JB Stronghold Tubeless Ready 35mm — ~£42

Ritchey has gone inverse with the tread on its Alpine JB WCS Stronghold tyres to create a tyre that grips on light gravel and rough sections of broken country lane while also offering a smooth ride if you want to get a shift on on the tarmac. A very impressive all-round tyre choice indeed.

You'll need room in your frame for 35mm tyres to fit the tubeless version of the Alpine JB WCS Stronghold, as the 30mm version is only available with a conventional casing.

Read our review of the Ritchey WCS Alpine JB Stronghold tyre
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IRC Formula Pro Tubeless X-Guard tyres — £55

IRC might not be the most familiar tyre brand in the road bike market at the moment, but its Formula Pro Tubeless X-Guard road tyres offer exceptionally good performance, with easy tubeless installation and great durability. The price does put them at the top end of the tyre market, though.

Traction is impressive, too, whether in the dry or wet, but it's the latter where they IRC tyres pull ahead of the latest generation Schwalbes. The IRCs feel more predictable and planted in the wet, and handle fast corners superbly.

Read our review of the IRC Formula Pro Tubeless X-Guard

Bontrager R3 Hard Case TLR — £38.49

Most of the Bontrager wheels are now tubeless-ready, and to complement them the company has started adding tubeless tyres to its range, and there are now quite a few to pick from. The R3 Hard-Case Lite TLR is its flagship road tubeless offering and is designed to be durable thanks to a butyl liner providing the reliability you want and need in the winter. It’s available in 24 and 26mm width options.

We haven’t tested this tubeless tyre yet, but have tested the regular clincher version - you can read that review here

If you crave more width, the cheaper A2 Hard-Case Lite TLR tyre is offered in extra 28 and 32mm width options, and if your bike has space for them, those are probably the ones to pick for winter riding.

Specialized Roubaix Tubeless Ready — £310

The Roubaix Tubeless tyre from Specialized is pitched as an all-rounder and we reckon it has all the right ingredients for a reliable winter cycling tyre. Of course, we haven't tested it yet but that's something we'll be aiming to address very soon. Why we think the tyre will be good for winter cycling is because it uses the company’s Gripton compound, which we’ve found to be very grippy in a range of conditions, dry and wet, with shoulder sipes to increase traction through the corners. It features a 180 TPI casing with an Endurant flat protection and comes in 31mm width, weighing a claimed 375g.

Hutchinson Fusion 5 All-Season — £32

The Fusion 5 is a brand new tyre from the French company that pioneered Road Tubeless many years ago, and with three models to choose from the All Season 11Storm looks the ideal choice for surviving a winter of cycling.

road.cc has tested the Performance version of this tyre. We were highly impressed with the ease of tubeless installation, traction, rolling resistance and durability. The All Season version has a specific tread pattern designed to improve wet cycling performance and has Kevlar reinforcement to prevent punctures.

The new tyre is available in 25 and 28mm widths and weighs a claimed 325g for the former.

Zipp Tangente RT 25 and RT28 — £50

The new Zipp Tangente RT tyre, available in 25 and 28mm widths, isn’t expressly designed as a winter tyre but tubeless goes a long way to reducing flats and the company has added a “water-siping tread pattern” to these new tyres, though there is evidence to suggest such grooves on a road bike tyre are largely pointless.

Further boosting their puncture resistance is a polyamide layer under the tread. The tyres are reasonably light, 292g claimed for the 25mm tyre and 302g for the 28mm version.

Mavic Yksion Elite Allroad — ~£40

Not all bikes are going to have space for 30mm wide tyres, but if your bike does, these new Yksion Elite Allroad tyres from wheel specialist Mavic look like being a good option thanks to the tubeless-ready construction and bead-to-bead polyamide casing reinforcement.

The tyres also have a tread pattern designed to ramp up traction in adverse conditions, with side grooves for extra cornering grip on dirt and loose surface roads, while the centre section is smooth for fast rolling on the hard stuff.

Schwalbe G-One — £40.99

Not so much a winter tyre as an adventure and gravel tyre, but we’ve been impressed with the rolling speed of this dimpled tyre on the road, and if the roads are covered in mud thanks to local farmers then they do offer a compelling benefit over narrower slicks.

Once you're off the good roads and onto the average ones – and we have plenty of them around here – any conceivable difference in rolling speed is easily outweighed by the comfort of the big air chamber, and the fact that you don't have to ease off and pick your line: just batter on through. I've not managed to put a hole in them that the sealant hasn't immediately coped with. Plus you can take them off-road as well, and they’re right at home on the canal towpaths, bridleways and trails like the South Downs Way.

There's now a road version of the G-One Allround pictured and reviewed above, called the G-One Speed. It comes in a narrower 30mm width with V-Guard protection that could be a good choice for more road-based riding, providing your frame has space for them.

Read our review of the Schwalbe G-One

WTB Horizon TCS Road Tyre — £35.99

Throwing a bit of a curve ball into the short list here, the fat WTB Horizon is another possible contender. Granted, it won’t fit all bikes and it might require a new set of wheels, but if it fits this is a durable, grippy, comfortable and fast rolling tyre that might, as the name suggests, open up new horizons…

It’s a 47mm wide tyre which is simply massive compared to everything else in this article, but on a 650b wheel (an old French standard resurrected by the mountain bike industry) the outside diameter is roughly the same as a regular 700c wheelset.

The tread pattern is mostly slick save for a few grooves and chevrons on the shoulders, and the grip is impressive in the wet. They instil bags of confidence on treacherous roads covered in water, mud or wet leaves.

Read our review of the WTB Horizon

Related reading: How to winterproof your bike — protect your ride from the wet, salt and crud

• Your choice of tyres depends on the compromise of speed, longevity and puncture-resistance that works best for you.

• Light, fast tyres — especially in larger sizes like 25mm and 28mm widths — can be a huge improvement to the ride feel of your bike.

• Standard tyres with separate inner tubes — known as clinchers — are the most common type, but tubeless tyres are gaining popularity.

• One-piece tubular tyres are now used almost entirely for racing.

• Anti-puncture belts under the tread reduce flats and in some cases eliminate them almost entirely; they're the way to go for practical bikes.

The perfect tyre for road cycling would weigh nothing, have zero rolling resistance, last forever and make your bike feel like you were floating suspended above the ground. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist, but the best modern tyres manage to excel in one or more categories. Here's a selection of the best.

This selection of the best-rated tyres we've reviewed in the last few years, plus a couple of popular classics, covers the range from sturdy commuting tyres to super-fast race rubber. What features should you look for in choosing a tyre?

Tyre types

There are three types of performance bike tyres: clinchers, tubulars and tubeless. Clinchers are the regular tyre type you're almost certainly familiar with. They have a wire bead that holds their shape and fits in a hook on the rim to hold them in place.

Tubular tyres have the tyre carcass sewn around the inner tube; the whole lot is then glued to a special rim with a concave surface for the tyre. This is still the lightest way to make a tyre and rim combination, but to repair a puncture you have to unstitch and re-sew the tyre, which puts most people off.

Tubeless tyres, as the name suggests, don't have inner tubes. Air is kept in place by a sealing strip in the rim, and either a liquid sealant inside the tyre or a rubber coating.

Rolling resistance

Two main forces work against a cyclist trying to make progress along the road. Air resistance is the most famous, but the other is the rolling resistance of your tyres, and it's much less obvious.

Rolling resistance arises from the tyre flexing where it touches the road. The rubber and casing flex and unflex, and some of the energy needed to flex them is absorbed in the process and turned into heat in the process known as hysteresis. It's much more obvious where bigger forces and energies are involved; it's why your car tyres get warm as you drive.

A number of factors affect rolling resistance, including the tyre's width (see below), tread thickness and material, casing thickness and material, and tread pattern. Tyre makers spend a lot of time and money experimenting with these factors to reduce rolling resistance. Schwalbe claims to have made 50 prototypes before settling on the design of its One tyre, which is noticeably faster than many of its rivals.

Tyre colours (CC BY 2.0 FaceMePLS:Flickr)

The current best performers for rolling resistance are very light tyres with thin treads and casings. According to testing commissioned by VeloNews by the tyre experts at Wheel Energy in Finland, the best performers are various versions of the Specialized Turbo and Continental GP4000S II.

Grip

Grip depends on the rubber compound used in the tread. The rule of thumb used to be that you wanted a compound that contained carbon black — and would therefore be black — for the best grip, especially in the wet. Modern compounds that contain silica are now virtually as good, so if you must have red tyres, look for that in the compound.

Weight

On paper, the lighter a tyre is, the faster it will accelerate. But the tyres are such a tiny part of the total weight of bike and rider that it's very unlikely anyone can actually feel the difference between, say, a 250g tyre and a 200g tyre. However, in their quest for light weight, tyre manufacturers use light casing and thin tread rubber layers, which reduce rolling resistance and that can make a tyre feel faster.

That can mean very light tyres are not very durable, or are so thin they puncture easily. You might be prepared to put up with that for the extra turn of speed when racing, or for that special ride in the sunshine on perfect roads, but most of the time you'll want something beefier.

Folding vs rigid

Lightweight tyres almost all have beads made from Kevlar, which allows them to be folded for easy storage and transport. Kevlar is lighter than the traditional steel wire bead, but its resistance to stretch can make folding tyres harder to fit.

Puncture resistance

To stop foreign objects getting through the tyre to the inner tube, tyre manufacturers use various barriers in addition to the tread and tyre carcass. Layers of Kevlar or a related fabric called Vectran are used in lightweight tyres, and when weight is less of a consideration, manufacturers put an extra layer of resistant rubber under the tread. This works well; if you're not in a hurry, tyres like the Schwalbe Marathon are great for round-town peace of mind.

Tread pattern

Unlike this motorcycle tyre, bicycle tyres don't need water-dispersing patterns. (CC BY-SA 2.0 dvanzuijlekom/Flickr)

On tarmac, it really doesn't make any difference to grip what shapes the designer has carved into the tread. Bike tyres are too narrow to aquaplane at speeds below about 200mph. But the lumps of tread in between sipes and shapes can squirm, and that increases rolling resistance. The best tread pattern is therefore a smooth, slick surface, but with rare exceptions tyre company marketing departments can't seem to get their heads around this.

Width

Fatter tyres can be run at lower pressures and therefore give a smoother ride, and better grip on bad surfaces. Road tyres have long been 23mm wide, but that standard has given way to 25mm and even wider in recent years. Those extra millimetres make a noticeable difference in ride feel, and aside from a small weight penalty there's no downside.

Many people think fat tyres must be slower, but all other things being equal, the wider a tyre is, the lower its rolling resistance. This may be counter-intuitive, but it's been demonstrated time and again in rolling resistance tests.

For any given tyre pressure, the size of the tyre's contact patch will be the same. But the wide contact patch of a fat tyre has a lower circumference than the long, thin contact patch of a skinny tyre. Because less of a fat tyre flexes, rolling resistance is reduced.

Tube choice

Tubes can make a significant difference to tyre performance. The thinner, lighter and more flexible the tube, the less effect it will have on rolling resistance. That's why high-end tubular tyres have latex tubes instead of the familiar black butyl rubber. Latex tubes also provide a bit of puncture resistance as they are flexible enough to stretch round a sharp object rather than being punctured by it. However, latex is porous and needs pumping up before every ride.

Other inner tube materials occasionally crop up. Polyurethane is the most common and is currently available in tubes from Panaracer and — for mountain bikes — Schwalbe. It has the advantage of being very light and retaining air well, but it's not as stretchy as butyl or latex so needs more precise matching to tyre size. Schwalbe's polyurethane tubes use a BASF plastic called Elastollan which appears from BASF's claims to be stretchier that traditional polyurethane. Schwalbe calls it Aerothan and says 35g road bike tubes are in development, but only for disc-braked bikes.

Shopping

Tyres are typically a bit cheaper in winter. When the good weather arrives prices go up a bit.

34 of the best tyres

Schwalbe Pro One — £26.49 - £28.99

The Schwalbe Pro One Tubeless Easy (TLE) folding tyre is up there with the best race tyres on the market. Grippy, fast rolling and simple to fit, with or without a tube, they're a great choice for your race bike. If durability is your main goal, though, you might want to look elsewhere in the range.

As part of its top end Evo Line, the Pro Ones use Schwalbe's Triple compound which is soft and much grippier than the Onestar compound found on the standard non-tubeless One.

Chucking the bike into tight corners or roundabouts at speed shows the level of grip on offer in both the wet and dry, plus the tyres give a really direct feel of the road thanks to the suppleness of the rubber.

Read our review of the Schwalbe Pro One
Find a Schwalbe dealer

Panaracer GravelKing Slick Tread 38 — £28.99

The Panaracer GravelKing will take some beating on rough roads in this whopping 38mm size. We've already reviewed both the 26mm and the 32mm versions of these tyres and this pothole-conquering, gravel-busting 38mm version in Nile Blue is just as impressive. It's light for a 38mm at 337g, is very easy to set up tubeless and comes in restrained black as well as blue, green and ivory. What more could you want?

These tyres need a lot of space. They are listed as 38mm but when fitted to some new wider rimed Halo Evaura wheels, they came up to closer to 40 (39.52mm) so make sure your frame can take them before taking the plunge.

Read our review of the Panaracer GravelKing Slick Tread 38
Find a Panaracer dealer

Continental Grand Prix 5000 TL — ~£40

Continental's Grand Prix 5000 tubeless tyres take everything that is improved with these latest generation tyres and add tubeless compatibility for improved puncture resistance. They're relatively painless to set up and provide excellent performance in all conditions with low rolling resistance, good grip and durability.

German tyre giant Continental revamped its long-running and hugely popular GP4000 tyre last year with the GP5000, and in the process developed its first road tubeless offering. It shares all the same features as the non-tubeless version with updated Black Chilli rubber compound, Vectran breaker, Active Comfort Technology and Lazer Grip.

It's a case of lots of small changes adding up to make an improved tyre, and the good news is that on the road the new tyre has all the hallmarks of the old GP4000, but is better in every way. It's fast, grippy and puncture resistant, simply a very high-quality tyre that has no compromises.

Read our review of the Continental Grand Prix 5000 TL

Specialized Turbo Cotton — £49.49

Specialized's Turbo Cotton clinchers are some of the best tyres that we've ever had the pleasure of riding. The supple casing and Gripton rubber compound combine to give a fast and smooth ride that is perfect for racing.

Read our review of the Specialized Turbo Cotton
Find a Specialized dealer

Vittoria Corsa Speed G+ Isotech — £40

Vittoria's Corsa Speed G+ Tubeless tyre is a great choice for summer and race use. The casing and tread are much softer than some previous tubeless tyres, giving these a much better feeling on the road.

Tyres can completely change the ride quality of a bike, influencing the way that you can ride in different conditions. These Vittorias – the fastest tyre tested by bicyclerollingresistance.com – offer easy tubeless setup and a much superior ride.

Read our review of the Vittoria Corsa Speed G+ Isotech
Find a Vittoria dealer

Panaracer GravelKing 32 — £27.95

The 32mm Panaracer GravelKing tyres are excellent all-winter rubber for your road bike and tester Dave Atkinson's new favourite all-purpose winter tyre. They're pretty light for a 32mm tyre, they're easy to set up tubeless and they roll really well. Also, they come in a range of natty colours. Well, two. Plus black. Are they gravel tyres? Not really for the UK, in this size. But for winter road riding they're ace.

You might think these tyres look a bit like a plus-sized version of Vittoria's Open Pave with their file tread and green bits. And that's a fair comparison a lot of the time. Okay, they don't have the Open Pave's supple 320TPI casing, but the AX-Alpha Cord construction is still supple and you can run them tubeless which makes them even more so. The extra air in the carcass over a standard road width means there's comfort on tap for filthy back lanes and unsurfaced sections.

Read our review of the Panaracer GravelKing 32
Find a Panaracer dealer

Rene Herse Bon Jon Pass TC Extralight — £67

The Rene Herse (formerly Compass) Bon Jon Pass TC Extralight is the lightest and narrowest of its tyres that can be set up tubeless. It's good. Very good. Rene Herse calls it its 'Goldilocks' tyre, and for going fast or far on rubbish British roads or gravel, in all weathers, it is indeed Just Right.

Rene Herse has its handmade tyres manufactured in Japan by Panaracer, but the process and materials are unique to Rene Herse. These tyres indeed cost a pretty penny, but if you want the pinnacle of real-world performance over varied surfaces, they're worth the cash.

Read our review of the Rene Herse Bon Jon Pass TC Extralight

Bontrager R4 Classics Hard-Case Lite — £54.99

Bontrager’s R4 Classics tyres are beautiful handmade clinchers that offer a smooth and very quick ride. You get great cornering grip and such a supple casing really helps on rougher roads.

The R4 Classics have, as the name suggests, been designed to tackle the road conditions commonly found in the spring races. They boast many of the features found in the tubular version that is used by Trek Segafredo for those very races. In fact, this is exactly the same tyre, with the only difference being that it isn't sewn around an inner tube

Read our review of the Bontrager R4 Classics Hard-Case Lite
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Challenge Strada Pro Open Tubular — £38

Challenge's Strada Pro Open Tubular is a super-supple tyre designed for racing on rough roads. It's not the quickest tyre we've ridden, but for the battered B roads of Britain these are ideal for racing, fast riding and even as a summer training tyre.

Read our review of the Challenge Strada Pro Open Tubular
Find a Challenge dealer

Rene Herse Switchback Hill Extralight TC 650B x 48mm — £75

How wide is too wide? The 48mm Switchback Hill is the widest 650B tyre that Rene Herse (formerly Compass) makes, and too wide it ain't. It's super-comfortable, fast-rolling, tubeless-compatible, off-road-capable and light. There's really not a lot wrong here. At a time when people are doing roll-down tests to see if it's worth switching to 28mm tyres from 25s, my advice would be to skip a few sizes and fit a pair of these, if you can. They're great.

Read our review of the Rene Herse Switchback Hill Extralight TC 650B x 48mm

Hutchinson Fusion 5 11Storm Tubeless Performance — £34.00

The latest tyre from tubeless pioneer Hutchinson might just have knocked the Schwalbe Pro One out of the role of benchmark performance tubeless tyre. The traction of the Fusion 5s out of the box in a range of conditions, especially in the wet, surpasses the Pro One's. Factors like speed and rolling resistance are trickier to compare, but they certainly don't feel any slower at all, and puncture resistance is superb.In a nutshell, they're fast, grippy, supple, durable and easy to fit, and a rival for any other tubeless tyre currently available.

That's down to The new ElevenStorm rubber compound that provides the tread for the very latest version of this tyre. Warning to the wise: there are versions of the Hutchinson Fusion 5 available with Hutchinson's old HDF>5.2 tread compound. They're good tyres, but if you want the latest and greatest, look for the 11Storm.

Going tubeless for the first time? Hutchinson offers a pair of these tyres with sealant, valves and rim tape for £86.

Read our review of the Hutchinson Fusion 5 ElevenStorm Tubeless Performance tyre
Find a Hutchinson dealer

Mavic Yksion Pro Road UST — £37

The UST version of Mavic's Yksion Pro tyre is a massive improvement on the previous, frankly indifferent, tyres that Mavic used to ship with their wheels. It's made in France for Mavic by Hutchinson, who know a thing or two about tubeless tyres, and scores well in Jarno Bierman's rolling resistance and puncture prevention tests. You get a pair of Yksion Pros with all of the Tarmac-orientated wheels in Mavic's new Road UST range, from the £269 Aksium Elite UST and up.

The tread is made from the same rubber — Hutchinson calls it ElevenStorm — as the super-grippy Fusion 5 tyres, so looks an awful lot like Mavic is throwing in a pair of Fusion 5s with its Road UST wheels.

The old Yksions seriously lacked grip, especially in the wet, and puncture proofing was pretty poor. These UST versions are way, way better, offering loads of grip even in the wet and and if they do break traction, a little shift in power or body position easily brings them back under control.

Read our review of the Mavic Yksion Pro tyres on Ksyrium Elite UST wheels

Read about Mavic's Road UST wheels and tyres

Schwalbe G-One Speed MicroSkin TL-Easy 650B — £34.99

Back in 2015 we first reviewed the Schwalbe S-One as it was then called, and it was a revelation: fast, grippy, comfortable. As a 30mm tyre it wouldn't fit in every frame, but our advice was: If you can fit 'em, buy 'em. Fast forward to 2018 and we're riding the new 40mm, 650B G-One Speed, which is every bit as good, and highlights the benefits of Road Plus, as we're now contractually obliged to call 650B, as well as any tyre we've tried.

Read our review of the 650B Schwalbe G-One Speed MicroSkin TL-Easy Folding
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Vittoria Corsa Control G+ Isotech — £42.50

The Corsa Control G+ is the beefed-up version of Vittoria's well-respected Corsa G+. They're a great alternative to many winter-specific tyres, offering levels of rolling resistance and grip seen on your summer lightweights without compromising durability.

Find a Vittoria dealer
Read our review of the Vittoria Corsa Control G+ Isotech

Pirelli P Zero Velo — £27.99

The Pirelli P Zero Velo tyre marks a very impressive return to cycling for Pirelli after a half-century hiatus. This tyre is fast, comfortable and long lasting, making for a great all-round ride experience on the road.

Out on the road, they are thoroughly impressive at all times, feeling fast and slippery (through the air, not on the road surface!), yet able to take on the often poorly maintained roads that I'm accustomed to in the south west. Cornering in the wet never feels sketchy, and they zip along very nicely on flat roads without giving any unwanted feedback.

I know that they have bad weather in Italy, but I'm still very impressed with how much Pirelli has obviously thought about adverse conditions when developing these tyres. I saw Pirelli testing the wet grip of the tyres on the test track outside of Milan at the launch, and it certainly appears to have paid off.

Read our review of the Pirelli P Zero Velo
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Panaracer GravelKing SK — £27.95

Japanese tyre company Panaracer has been quick to offer a range of gravel-specific tyres, becoming a significant player in the burgeoning market. Measuring 43mm wide, these GravelKing SK tyres are tubeless compatible and feature a tread pattern that excels both on and off road, with a tough carcass that can withstand some abuse.

The GravelKing comes in a variety of widths and tread patterns, but this SK (Small Knob) is probably the pick of the range for the latest generation of adventure bikes like the Kinesis Tripster AT, Mason Bokeh or Open UP. As well as the 43mm tested here (which was called 40 but actually measures 43mm, and is now labelled as such), the same tread pattern is offered on 26, 32 and 35mm width options if your frame doesn't offer enough clearance.

Read our review of the Panaracer GravelKing SK
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Bontrager R3 Hard-Case Lite 700C 32mm — £35

Wider road bike tyres are gaining an almost unstoppable momentum as people discover they can be both fast and comfortable, and with the emergence of the endurance road bike genre, Rubenesque road rubber is only going to become more common as bikes are designed to fit fat slicks. The Bontrager R3 Hard-Case Lite 700x32c pushes the plump limit to the point where once upon a time it might have been considered a humourously slick cyclo-cross tyre.

The R3 Hard-Case Lite comes in 23, 25, 28 and 32mm widths, and the full fat version here is something to behold, turning your road bike (if the rubber will fit) into something like a SuperMoto bike, although sideways drifts are not required on every corner, however tempting.

Read our review of the Bontrager R3 Hard-Case Lite 700C 32mm
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WTB Horizon TCS 650B — £35.99

WTB's Horizon TCS is a fast-rolling, super-grippy and super-comfortable tyre that excels on the road and is capable of tackling dry off-road trails to inject some adventure into your routes.

Tyres have been getting wider over the years, and this trend for chunkier tyres and a growing interest in gravel and dirt riding on road bikes has given rise to the return of 650B, an old standard once favoured by French touring cyclists because it allowed bigger volume tyres for more cushioning on rough and badly surfaced roads. (By shrinking the rim size you can use the bigger volume tyre.)

Read our review of the WTB Horizon TCS
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Donnelly X'Plor MSO — £48.75

The Donnelly (formerly Clemént) X'Plor MSO Tubeless Folding Adventure Tyre is an excellent tubeless-ready choice for venturing off the beaten track, at speed. At £60 RRP in its tubeless-ready guise it's not cheap, but you definitely get what you pay for.

The 36mm MSO measures 35mm wide on a 19mm internal-width rim. Whilst this may seem short change, unless you are 100% certain your frame is capacious enough, being a smidge under is definitely better than over, which may see your frame clogged or rubbed.

Able to be set up tubeless or tubed, there are two sizes of the tubeless MSO variant available: the tested 36mm, and a soon-to-be-launched and frankly whopping 50mm (that's 2in to you mountain bike folks). Also in the MSO range (but not tubeless) are the following variants: 32, 40 & 50mm sizes, available as both single-compound 60TPI (threads per inch) and dual-compound 120TPI casings. There's a 120TPI dual-compound 36mm MSO coming later this year. With so many variants, be sure you're ordering the right tyre.

Read our review of the Clement X'Plor MSO

Donnelly LCV — £45

The LCV is the latest high performance tyre from Donnelly (formerly known as Clement) and with an RRP of 60 quid it's gunning for the big boys like Schwalbe and Continental. Those are pretty huge reputations to challenge, but do you know what? The LCV has them well in its sights.

The LCV is designed for all-out performance, and the moment you pull it out of the box you can feel the stickiness of the rubber so you're pretty much expecting a very grippy ride, and it doesn't disappoint.

Read our review of the Donnelly/Clement LCV
Find a Donnelly dealer

Michelin Power All Season — £28.99 - £31.99

Since 'four seasons in one day' is a description often applied to the British weather, these Michelin Power All Season Road tyres should be right at home among UK riders. After a typical English June, we're pleased to confirm that the performance is every bit as reliable as Michelin claims.

The All Season is one of three tyres in the Michelin Power range, each promising better performance with less drag than its predecessors, the Pro4 series. In the case of the All Season, it's grip that's the focus of performance claims, and Michelin promises 15% more grip 'on slippery surfaces' but 5% less resistance than the Pro4 Grip. Of course, this is neither here nor there if the Pro4 Grip was a pile of dingoes' kidneys, but back in 2014 our own David Arthur gave them a solid four star rating (read that review here).

At nearly 260g for the 25mm version (slightly less than officially claimed), these are hardly lightweight, but a lot of this is in the thick tread with its Aramid 'Protek +' protection layer. Over the test period I had no punctures and the tyres shrugged off some bad treatment, such as miles of freshly dressed country lanes that had gravel rattling off the down tube.

The only time you should be noticing your tyres when you are out riding is when they are failing you in some way – a puncture, a loss of grip, a noisy tread or a leaden, draggy feel. So perhaps the best thing we can say about these is that I never really noticed them.

Read our review of the Michelin Power All Season
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Schwalbe G-One — £32.99

If you can fit the Schwalbe G-One tyres in your frame, you should get some. As genuine all-rounders they're impossible to beat right now: fast rolling on tarmac and properly capable off-road. They're really, really good.

The G-One is a gravel tyre, according to Schwalbe. It's available in 35mm and 40mm widths and uses Schwalbe's Tubeless Easy construction, which the company claims makes them – you've guessed, right? – easy to set up. And they are. They went on first time every time with a Bontrager Flash Charger pump. And I even fitted them with a track pump, just so I could say I did. And that was fine too.

The close-packed knobbly tread, round profile and sticky tread compound give them prodigious levels of grip on all sorts of surfaces. You can lean them right over into the the bends on the road, and they'll grab all sorts when climbing off-road.

We know plenty of people who've tried these tyres now, and we don't know anyone who doesn't love them. Try them. You'll love them.

Read our review of the Schwalbe G-One
Find a Schwalbe dealer

IRC Formula RBCC — £55

IRC’s Formula RBCC Tubeless tyres provide outstanding grip in dry and wet conditions.

Fitting and inflation are straightforward, and once the sealant is in and distributed around the inside of the tyre, all is secure and airtight.

The round-profile tyres sit pleasantly plumply on the rim; and measured with the callipers across their widest point came up at 25.5mm. The large-volume casing certainly holds a lot of air, which is very noticeable in the ride quality. We thought for a while the council had been round fixing the roads, but that was just a dream.

The other great quality in these tyres is the grip. We took them to northwest Scotland for a few days' testing on the steepest, twistiest, wettest, gravelliest, farm-manuriest roads we could find and, honestly, it was all we could do to get them to step out of line. Only when we deliberately braked late and hard into a sharp left-hander at the bottom of a steep hill did we finally coax the back tyre into some sort of skid, and even then it was more of a correction of direction than any cause for alarm. It feels like your brakes have had an overhaul. Most impressive.

Read our review of the IRC Formula RBCC

Specialized S-Works Turbo — £29.99

Very fast and very light, the S-Works Turbos are tyres you'll want to save for race day or an attempt on a sportive personal best. The Blackbelt puncture protection does a reasonable job of stopping small objects from getting through the tread, but the featherweight sidewalls are easily cut. Jo Burt found that a problem when he reviewed them and I've recently had to bin a pair after forgetfully using them on less-than-perfect roads.

On a sunny day, on good Tarmac, though, they're lovely. The 28mm version could be the perfect UK summer tyre, and they're a bargain at this sale price.

Find a Specialized dealer
Read our review of the Specialized S-Works Turbo

Vee Tire Co Road Runner — £34.99

Fast-rolling, supple tyres that offer confidence-inspiring cornering grip, and sensibly priced. Rubbing your thumb over the Road Runner from Vee Tire Co when it's in its box, you just know it's going to be grippy – the compound feels practically tacky against your skin. And it doesn't disappoint once you put tyre to tarmac.

In the dry they really grip well and give you loads of confidence to keep banking the bike over. Mini roundabouts and the like can be taken flat out and we've yet to find their limits of adhesion.

Read our review of the Vee Tire Co Road Runner
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Continental Grand Prix 4000s II 28mm — £31.99

The much-loved Grand Prix 4000s II is getting hard to find as it's been replaced by the GP5000, but they're still worth considering if you can find them at a good price, especially in this 28mm version. The Continental Grand Prix 4000S II 28mm is a great example of why tyres getting fatter is A Good Thing. Assuming you can fit these tyres into your frame, there are plenty of reasons why you should. They're excellent.

Big doesn't necessarily mean slow. It certainly doesn't here. You don't notice the extra bulk of the tyre when accelerating, and once up to speed they have a very supple feel and excellent all-round grip.

Read our review of the Continental Grand Prix 4000s II 28mm
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Zipp Tangente Speed — £50

Zipp Tangentes are pitched as race-day tyres with an impressively low 196g weight in a 25mm size. They are very responsive and fast-rolling tyres, ideal for racing and Sunday best bikes.

They have a 220 tpi rubber/nylon casing, and weight is saved with the absence of the puncture belt that features on Zipp's two other tyres, the Course and SLSpeed tubular. We had no flats during testing. That doesn't tell you much - luck has a huge part to play in punctures as much as anything - but the clean tread with a noticeable lack of cuts and marks suggest good durability from the rubber compound.

Find a Zipp dealer

Read our review of the Zipp Tangente Speed

Vredestein Fortezza Senso Xtreme 28mm — £24.95

The Vredestein Fortezza Senso Xtreme tyres bill themselves as Xtreme (sorry) weather tyres - so perfect, then, for three seasons of UK riding.

They have managed several thousand kilometres without any punctures or slide-outs in the wet, despite our tester donning his old college volleyball knee-pads and seeing if he could lose the front wheel on fast roundabouts. Come rain or shine, they have provided comfortable riding, with smooth rolling and decent acceleration, and while they are not the lightest tyres on the market, they don't seem to suffer because of the extra weight.

Read our review of the Vredestein Fortezza Senso Xtreme
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Challenge Strada Bianca 700C 30mm — £40.99

The Strade Bianche race uses the white gravel roads of Tuscany and this 30mm racing tyre is just what you need for that kind of thing. It's a brilliant all-rounder that's fast enough for nearly any road use, but with hugely improved comfort.

Out on the road they're fantastic. You can run them at hitherto-untried low pressures with little or no danger of flatting them on potholes. They roll extremely well and at 358g they're not heavyweights. It's not like sticking a set of Marathons on. These feel like race tyres, they really do, except loads more comfortable. If you want comfort on long rides but still want to go fairly fast, there aren't many better tyres we can name.

Read our review of the Challenge Strada Bianca 700C 30mm
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Schwalbe One V-Guard — £29.99

Schwalbe makes the bold claim that its One tyres are the fastest the company has ever manufactured. Our roll-down testing confirms that they're fast and they feel extremely rapid with good traction in a range of conditions, with impressive puncture protection and durability.

They're now available in a wide range of sizes, up to 28mm and in clincher, tubular and tubeless. In normal use, riding the tyres daily in training, the 167km Liege-Bastogne-Liege sportive and a road race, the tyres really impress. It's the sensation of speed and lack of resistance that is most noticeable. In a range of conditions too, they show incredible performance, from sun-baked to rain-sodden roads.

Read our review of the Schwalbe One V-Guard
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Bontrager AW3 Hard-Case Lite — £27.49

Despite a puncture-resisting layer, the Bontrager AW3 Hard-Case Lite tyres roll quickly and grip securely in all conditions.

They're secure in wet corners and the Hard Case puncture protection has proved more than capable of dealing with the variety of grit washed onto the roads.

Read our review of the Bontrager AW3 Hard-Case Lite
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Schwalbe Marathon Plus — £26

Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres are essentially heavy duty, ultra reliable commu-touring tyres that inspire unprecedented confidence without feeling sluggish or barge-like, as the 970g weight for a pair would imply.

Much of this is attributable to the Smart Guard system. This is essentially a clever subsection of supple rubber designed to force sharps out, rather than drawing them in as deep-treaded Kevlar types can, especially with age.

Read our review of the Schwalbe Marathon Plus
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Vittoria Pave CG Open Clincher — £22.99 - £27.99

Designed for comfort, wet grip and resistance to punctures and impacts, this is a lightweight fat tyre for riders who want speed on poor roads and don't care about a little extra mass.

It uses Vittoria's extremely supple 320tpi casing, Isogrip tread compound and is constructed like a tubular, hence the 'open' designation, short for 'open tubular'. Vittoria tags it as a tyre for extreme conditions, but as far as we're concerned that means British roads all year round, especially in the 27mm version.

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Continental Grand Prix 4 Season — £39.99 - £44.99

These popular puncture-resistant tyres from Conti have a Duraskin® cut-resistant layer from bead to bead, and two extra Vectran breakers help increase puncture protection.

They're billed as suitable for wet weather. Call us pessimistic, but to us, European wet weather tyres means year-round UK use, and the GP 4 Seasons are excellent do-everything tyres.

Read our review of the Continental Grand Prix 4 Season
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