The 7 Best Road Bike Tires For Training and Race Day (2024)

The importance of your tires can’t be overstated. Connecting the bike and rider to the road, that thin layer of rubber plays a critical role in the performance and safety of your bike. That’s why picking the right type of tire is so important: Racing tires roll faster, but are more delicate and prone to flats. Training tires are more durable, but don’t deliver the same performance and grip. Read on to learn more about what makes a good tire, and how to select the best road bike tires for any kind of cycling.

Put Your Tires on These Bikes: The Bike Awards 2023 ● Best Road Bikes ● Best Race Bikes

The Best Road Bike Tires

• Best Overall: Continental Grand Prix 5000 All-Season TR
• Best Value: Continental Grand Prix 5000 Clincher
• Easy-to-Setup Tubeless Tire: Schwalbe Pro One TLE
• Best All-Road Tires: Panaracer GravelKing Slick
• Best Training Tire: Continental Gator Hardshell Road Tire
• Best Racing Tire: Vittoria Corsa Pro
• Best Racing Tire for Wet Conditions: Specialized S-Works Turbo 2BR

The Expert: I have been riding and racing all manner of bikes for over 30 years, from road to cyclocross, gravel racing to bikepacking. I served as managing editor of VeloNews magazine for eight years, testing hundreds of bikes, equipment, and components. I maintained a fleet of bicycles as operations director of DuVine Cycling + Adventure Co. I currently guide challenging gravel cycling and bikepacking tours with my company, Alter Exploration, where each piece of gear is chosen for performance and durability.

After decades of riding bikes equipped with every type of tire—clinchers, tubulars, and tubeless—and cycling over everything from the smoothest tarmac to the roughest, pothole-strewn backroads, I have extensive personal experience with nuances of road bike tires.

What to Consider in a Set of Road Bike Tires

Tires serve many functions. They are the means by which your power is transformed into as much speed as possible on the pavement. This is a function of rolling resistance. The higher the resistance, the more relative power it takes to maintain a certain speed.

Simultaneously, tires provide grip, so you can corner with speed and confidence. This is not just a function of the tread, but also of flexibility or “suppleness,” which influences comfort. The small cushion of air inside a tire, a function of tire pressure and the malleability of the casing, can make the difference between absorbing the many imperfections in the surface of the asphalt, or getting rattled by the road.

Finally, any good tire should have some degree of durability and puncture resistance. Even the fastest, most race-oriented tires must have the ability to withstand punctures and slices from the grit and debris on roads—what good is a fast tire if you’re standing on the side of the road with a flat? Other tires sacrifice some performance for the sake of durability and puncture resistance.

These are the broad ideas behind what makes a great road bike tire. Now, let’s take a closer look at the factors that you can check to pick the perfect set.

Tire Construction

Road bike tires are manufactured using a wide variety of rubber compounds, anti-puncture technologies, tread patterns, casings, and additives for improved grip and/or durability. Each of these elements has a significant impact on the characteristics of the tire and its performance on the road.

A tire’s tread pattern functions to grip the terrain underneath it. That influences everything from rolling resistance, to wear, to flexibility and surface penetration. Road bike tires get these qualities from their inverse tread, or “siping.” Deeper treads provide more grip, at the expense of pure speed. If you often ride in wet conditions, look for a tire with siping that will improve traction on slippery surfaces. If you are shopping for race day and you’re certain it won’t rain, look for a tire with a perfectly smooth, thin tread.

You should also pay attention to the rubber compound used to make your tires. While the exact recipe for a brand’s compound is a carefully guarded secret, you can check for additives like silica or graphene that help reduce friction and improve speed. Tires made with different compounds for different sections of the tire often grip better in corners and roll faster in a straight line.

When choosing your tires, consider how, when, and where you plan to ride. The first consideration is the application. Ask yourself: “Will I be racing or simply training/riding?” If I’m racing, speed and road feel are higher priorities than other factors–to a point. So, take into account the course, road surface, and your willingness to risk speed over puncture resistance.

For general riding and training, I look for a tire that equally prioritizes durability and performance. I hate fixing flats, so I’ll sacrifice a bit of speed and suppleness for puncture resistance. On dirt roads, I’ll double down on durability and increase the volume–say, 30-32c–to improve comfort on bumpier terrain.

Clincher Vs. Tubeless

Clincher tires, which use a tube, have been the traditional choice of road cyclists for the last few decades. However, more cyclists are learning that tubeless tires have some advantages that can’t be ignored. But they aren’t without their issues.

Clinchers have an open casing and rely on an inner tube to hold air. The pressure inside the tube forces the tire bead to seat on the rim, holding it securely. The main advantage here is that if you do puncture, you just take one tube out and put a new one in. (Remember to check for thorns in the tire casing, inside and out, before inserting a new tube.)

Tubeless tires eliminate the need for that inner tube. Instead, they fit on specialized rims that create an airtight seal. Special tubeless sealant helps keep that seal, and helps prevent punctures. Removing the tube reduces weight, rolling resistance, and the possibility of “pinch-flatting.” Tubeless tires can run at lower pressures, which improves comfort and grip.

They aren’t without their issues, though. In order to increase air retention inside the tire, the casings are typically thicker and heavier than on a clincher tire. Tubeless tires can also be difficult to install, depending on your bike’s rims. The necessity for tighter tolerances means that, sometimes, it can be very challenging to get the tire to “seat” properly and create a seal. There’s an art to it.

Width

Until recently, most cyclists preferred tires between 23- and 25mm wide. Nowadays, research and experience have convinced riders to equip wider tires, as they’re often faster and more comfortable. It also makes the tire more resilient to small surface variations, as it’s less likely to change shape as it rolls.