Road
Bike Tyres
At Westbrook Cycles, we stock and supply an excellent range of road bike tyres - we’ve worked hard to secure the very best collection of road bike tyres, from the best brands - meaning you can enjoy the very best in contact materials between your bike and the road surface.
There’s a relatively limited number of tyre sizes available for road bikes, especially when compared to mountain bike and gravel bike tyre sizes. Some of the most common sizes are 23c, 25c and 28c. Loosely, these numbers relate to mm, so a 25c tyre will be around 25mm tall and wide. Race Road Bike Tyres are usually in 23mm and 25mm tyre sizes - which are best for minimising rolling resistance. Endurance Road Bike Tyres are usually 28mm - allowing for increased comfort over longer distances, these wider tyres handle rough terrain and roads much easier - and endurance road tyres can run up to 30mm and 32mm tyres, gravel bikes run larger tyres still.
As well as choosing between different tyre sizes - there’s also a number of different tread patterns and styles to choose from - providing different performance characteristics. Most road bike tyres have a slick and smooth tread pattern, which reduces resistance and helps increase grip, there are also specialist wet weather road bike tyres which use grooves and tread patterns to dispel water from the surface of the tyre, maximising grip in wet conditions.
Another road bike tyre variable is the tyre compound - a softer compound provides greater grip, but wears out quicker compared to a harder compound, which wears slower but provides less grip. Most road bike tyres combine both a soft and hard compound. Maxxis tyres provide a great example of this, with their 3C triple compound using a hard, fast rolling compound in the centre of the tyre, and a softer compound on the tyre edges for maximum grip.
Another consideration for road bike tyre manufacturers is the level of puncture resistance and protection that their tyres offer. Many road bike tyres have additional protection internally, to help protect against the risk of punctures - the downside of this is an increase in tyre weight and much of this risk can be offset by choosing tubeless road bike tyres. Above, you can find our complete range of Road Bike Tyres which are available to buy online.