Bicycle Tyre Guide

Bicycle Tyres

The information below is designed to help you understand what tyre is best suited for you.

Bead

The bead of the tyre is ultimately what ensures your tyre does not come off the rim whilst riding. The bead will clinch into the rim, ensuring the tyre stays on your rim. It does this by sitting in the recess of your rim that the wheel manufacture will have already produced.

At CST Tyres you commonly find two tyres of beads for all our bicycle tyres. These are

  • Wired – A wired bead means that the tyre will be fixed in its size and shape.
  • Foldable – A folding bead allows the tyre to fold, thus meaning it can be packaged up smaller than a wired tyre. A folding bead will also be lighter than a wired tyre in overall weight.

TPI

TPI or Threads Per Inch is another way of referring to the carcass of the tyre. The carcass is ultimately what gives the tyre its strength, shape and to a small degree the weight of the tyre. And here is why…

The carcass is what the rubber of the tyre sticks to. With a lower TPI rating, the weave is more open, and thus allows more rubber to stick to the carcass. And so the opposite is true of a tyre with a higher TPI. It has a weave that is very tightly woven, and so less rubber is caught in the carcass. Meaning you get a light weight, high performance tyre that conforms to the road better.

Compound

The compound or rubber of your CST tyres differs depending on the type of use the tyre is intend for. For example, if your using your bike for leisure or training, then you want a harder wearing compound. But if your racing, you will want performance that is available straight away and be committed to changing your tyre more often, due to the softer nature of the rubber.

  • Single – The same single compound is used throughout the whole manufacturing process to produce a tyre that stays consistent no matter what of condition you ride in.
  • Dual compound – Two different types of rubber compound. Meaning that the centre tread will made using one type of compound, and the shoulders (edges) of your tyre will have a different compound. This gives you a tyre that rolls fast when going in a straight line, and when you lean to turn around corners, the shoulder offers grip and stability.