Types of road bike tyre

The most common type of tyre found on a road bike, clincher tyres get their name from the way the bead (edge of the clincher tyre) hooks, or 'clinches', onto the inside of a wheel's rim using air pressure. They require an inner tube and come in two types; folding and rigid.

Rigid tyres have a bead made from steel, whereas folding tyres have a bead made from Kevlar. The advantage of folding tyres is that they're lighter, they can be easier to fit, and they're easier to carry. However, the trade-off is that they're more expensive than a tyre with a wire bead.

Overall, clinchers are popular amongst road bikes because they’re extremely easy to replace if you get a puncture and provide decent protection against tyre blowout as they can be inflated to twice their recommended maximum air pressure levels. The downside is that they’re heavier than a tubular tyre because they use both the tube and the bead, and they can also get a puncture quicker than a tubular or tubeless tyre.

Tubeless tyres are a more recent development from the world of mountain biking, but they're fast gaining traction in the road cycling community. While they're similar to clinchers, they don't use an inner tube. This means they need a specific rim to create an airtight seal, and they often use sealant inside the tyre to fill any holes.

There are two different types of tubeless road tyres: full tubeless and tubeless-ready. Full tubeless tyres have air retaining capabilities due to the layer of rubber inside of the tyre. Tubeless-ready tyres have a bead shape that seals against a tubeless compatible rim and with an addition of sealant, they can be lighter than a standard tyre and tube.

The advantage of tubeless bike tyres is that they tend to be lighter, have more puncture resistance as you can’t suffer a pinch puncture, and can be run at lower pressures for increased grip. This also reduces the risk of a tyre blowout as there is no tube. But if you’re ever faced with a flat tubeless road tyre, check out our expert advice on how to fix it.

However, it can be difficult to install and remove the tyre to/from the rim due to the fine tolerance between the rim and the tyre to make sure there’s an airtight seal. Additionally, tubeless tyres are used for both mountain bikes and road bikes. Mountain bikes generally require low tyre pressure, but the higher pressure of road bikes makes it crucial for the tubeless tyre to have an accurate fit.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the range of tubeless tyre options is not as comprehensive as clinchers as there hasn’t been a push from the industry to adopt the system.

Tubular tyres use an inner tube inside a sewn-up tyre, which is then glued to the rim. Although a tubular tyre looks simple from the outside, the construction of the tyre is very complex.

These are the lightest form of a tyre as they come without a tyre bead or a rim hook of a clincher but are less used than clinchers. Instead, they're preferred by high-end performance racers because they don’t easily get a puncture but if they do, you can still carry on riding while a support vehicle gets you and hence why they’re most often seen in racing.

However, the downside to tubular tyres is that you'll need to replace the entire tyre if you get a puncture out on the road. Properly repairing the tyre involves finding the puncture, removing the backing glue, unstitching the tyre, pulling out a section of the tube, patching the tube and reversing the process to put it together again – which is another reason why they aren't really seen outside of racing.