Best commuter bike tyres: Durable rubber for a range of riding

The best commuter bike tyres are designed to cope with daily wear and tear, focussing on good puncture protection and grip, to get you from A to B as smoothly as possible. This can be achieved in a number of ways, but is typically done through use of high-quality rubber compounds, reinforced sidewalls and bespoke tread patterns.

Commuter tyres will come with either a wire bead or a folding bead; the difference is that one utilises a steel wire to engage the rim ("wire"), while the other will use a flexible fibre like Kevlar ("folding").

Wire bead tyres will be noticeably cheaper than folding bead tyres, and considerably heavier too.

Tubeless tyres have been the standard tyre on mountain bikes for quite some time, and are popular too across other disciplines. They must be used with tubeless-compatible wheels, and are set up by adding tyre sealant inside the tyre, rather than an inner tube. If the tyre is punctured, the sealant will clog up the hole, though large cuts may require a tubeless 'plug'. They can be run at lower pressures, as they cannot get pinch punctures. 

Though great in theory, tubeless tyres can be difficult to repair when something goes wrong, requiring different tools such as a tubeless plug kit and occasionally a CO2 canister. As such, they aren't designed to be beginner-friendly, and are a matter of preference when it comes to commuting.

Solid, or "airless", tyres do what they say on the tin: they are made of solid material, so require no air pressure to keep them hard and thus cannot get punctures. 

Though this sounds like a perfect solution, there are three big problems with these sorts of tyres. Firstly, they can be extremely slippery in the wet and do not provide good grip on concrete or metal. 

Secondly, they can cause major damage to your wheels, as there is no air to act as shock absorption. This means that the impact goes straight to the rim and can cause them to buckle or break quickly. 

That relates to the third problem — a generally quite harsh and uncomfortable ride, while (a bonus fourth problem) they roll more slowly than pneumatic tyres.

Puncture protection is based on a tyre's ability to withstand penetration by sharp or solid objects. Most tyres will have a puncture protection belt under the tread, which is tightly woven and so resistant to sharp objects.

This is usually backed up by the use of different rubber compositions, tyre thickness, and layering of casing materials. It is important to note that, though tyres may be said to have "high puncture resistance", no standard tyre is fully puncture-proof. 

As a rule, if a tyre can’t dig into a surface (like pavement) then the tread on bicycle tyres doesn't add much if any grip. Car tyres have a tread to avoid aquaplaning, but this is much less of a risk with narrow cycle tyres. 

While most bike tyres have some form of tread, when choosing a tyre for a commute, think about the surfaces you will be riding on. If it's paved all the way, a slick or lightly treaded tyre will be your best pick, while if there is some gravel or dirt on your commute a bit of tread might just be the ticket — prioritise shoulder tread as this is what provides grip in the corners.

Most commuter hybrid bikes will have tyres between 28mm and 45mm, and when it comes time to replace the tyres on your bike, the width can have a major impact on the way your bike rides. Wider tyres offer increased grip and comfort as they have a larger air volume and lower tyre pressure.

But don't go out and buy the fattest tyres you can find as they may not fit in your frame, and may be too broad for your rim to provide sufficient sidewall support. Fenders and brakes can also limit the size you can run.