Best Tyres at the Best Price - cycleto.co.uk

Read more below about these different types of tyres, and use the links there or from the menu to take you to our comparison page for that type of tyre. Once on that page, you can search for more specific items such as a brand name.

Or use the menu to go directly to one brand, or to one retailer.

Alternatively, go straight to the on-line shop portal itself, and put your own keywords in the search box.


Please note: All prices, product names and descriptions summarised for the comparison are written by the retailers. The summaries may have errors so check the detail by clicking through to the product page.

Tyre types

There are two main types:

  • Road use - usually a low profile tread, or sometimes no tread
  • Off-road use - often more knobbly for grip when riding muddy trails. Some tyres have studs or spikes for wintry weather, for grip in ice and snow

You can ride the roads with knobbly tyres but there's more friction and drag to slow you down. Fortunately there are now hybrid tyres or semi-slicks to suit both conditions.


Road use

Sometimes road-use tyres are labelled 'slick', but are more likely to be labeled as road tyres. See Slick tyres or see Road Tyres (including slicks)



Off-road use including knobbly and fat tyres

These tyres are wider than conventional tyres, giving a far greater surface area for extra grippiness, and may have a deep/wide tread pattern too. Fat tyres are what they say they are, very wide, and used at various pressures for different conditions, providing more or less cushioning of lumps and bumps, and more or less ground contact. See Off-road Tyres and Fat Tyres



Winter tyres

Winter ice or snow tyres have to be used at a low pressure to expose the stud or spike - you have to experiment to get this right. There's limited availability too, so order well in advance of winter. 26in and 28in are commonly available, but other sizes are made - ask the retailer to order them in for you, or contact the manufacturer direct. See Winter Tyres


Tyre sizes – overview

Tyre sizes – identifying the tyre you need

Confused by tyre sizes? You're not the only one! History, marketing and a mix of imperial and metric measurements have made it all ridiculously confusing. ISO sizes help when making comparisons, but don't exist for older size systems.



If you've already got a tyre fitted to the wheel, and it fits properly, use this as your guide. Look at what's stamped on the tyre need to replace - then find the size in our cycleto shop.


Whichever size you need, look for tyres with Kevlar puncture prevention, as it really does make a difference to the number of punctures you suffer from.


If you really want/need to fathom the bizarre world of tyre sizes and imperial/metric conversions there is more detail on tyre sizes from: Cycling UK’s guide (https://www.cyclinguk.org/cyclists-library/components/wheels-tyres/tyre-sizes) The late and great Sheldon Brown's guide (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html) And for wheel sizes: Bike Cult's (http://bikecult.com/works/wheelsizes.html)

Inner tubes

Additionally, you'll need the correct fitting inner tube inside your tyre, unless you are a competitive rider, where you have a further choice of a tubular tyre, which is a combination tube and tyre, for road or cyclo-cross events.

Available tyre sizes

12 , 12.5 , 14 , 16 , 18 , 20 and 24 Inch Tyres:

Tyres for folder bikes, trailers, recumbents and children's bikes are available in 12, 12.5, 14, 16, 18 and 20 inch diameter.

20 inch tyres fit BMX bike wheels and other bikes (including some folding bikes such as Bike Friday), and are available as slicks and for off-road use. Some 20 inch tyres will fold for ease of carrying as a spare.

24 inch

These sizes fit mountain bike dirt jumpers and trials bikes.

26 Inch Mountain Bike Tyres and 26 Inch Slick Cycle Tyres:

26in has become a very common wheel size, first for mountain bikes (MTBs) and then for hybrid and town bikes. Now also for fat bikes, with much greater width from 3.8 to 4.8 inches to fit the wider wheel rims.

NB Tyre-size-wise, 26 inch and 650C are the same thing (mostly).


All 26 inch Tyres

26 inch MTB Tyres

26 inch off road MTB Tyres

26 inch slick MTB Tyres

26 inch folding MTB Tyres

26x1.5 inch Tyres

26x11/2 inch Tyres

27 Inch Slick Cycle Tyres:

For traditional touring bikes. Some widths are harder to find, but 27in tyre from Chain Reaction and 27in tyre from Wiggle stock Continental Ultra Sport Road Tyres in 27 x 1 1/8in and 27 x 1 1/4ina for tourers.

700C Cycle Tyres:

700C tyres are the French equivalent of the 27in beloved of the British, and this size was beginning to dominate the road bike sector until the 26in mountain bike (MTB) family came along to steal the show. 700C is not exactly the same as 27in, so don't try to fit a 700C tyre to a 27in wheel. It won't.


All 700c Tyres

700c folding Tyres

700x18C Tyres

700x23C Tyres

700x25C Tyres

700x28C Tyres

700x32C Tyres

700x35C Tyres

700x37C Tyres

28 Inch Cycle Tyres:

28 inch bike tyres are the ones you'll probably need for that vintage roadster-style bike collecting dust in a shed somewhere. 28in is equivalent to 700, but not 700C.


28x15/8x11/8 inch Tyres

28x15/8x11/4 inch Tyres

28x15/8x13/8 inch Tyres

29 Inch Cycle Tyres:

29 inch tyres are for...29er bikes (no, really!)...and are actually 700C tyres for mountain bikes.

Tubular Cycle Tyres:

For pro road racing cyclists, and other speedsters, tubular tyres are used, usually glued or taped to the tubular rim and continuing to roll even when deflated.