Lab tested: Which road bike tyres are the fastest?

There is merit of course in a back-to-back test of superbikes. They’re a big ticket item, but for many of us, they are a once-in-a-blue-moon upgrade. Tyres, on the other hand, are far more readily affordable, and are a consumable part; they will eventually wear out, through use or incurable punctures, and will need replacing. With such a range of options on the market, each with competing marketing claims, knowing what you actually stand to gain between one tyre or another is nearly impossible to work out.

In the last decade or more, the main focus in terms of performance gains, from an equipment point of view, has been on reducing aerodynamic drag as much as possible. Drag is the biggest retarding force acting on a bike and rider, and due to being a square function, the faster you go the bigger the gains will be.