How to choose bicycle tyres

The first criterion is not the brand but where you ride. On asphalt, a fine smooth tyre rolls more quietly and smoothly; it wears quickly, because the tread works on every revolution. On a trail it is the other way round: lugs that bite into dirt, and a casing supple enough not to split on a stone.

A narrow tyre is therefore not a better tyre, it is a tyre for a different road. If you mix pavement and dirt, an all-rounder with medium lugs and a supple casing will serve in both, where two specialist tyres would each only be half used.

An over-inflated tyre is faster on the flat and behaves badly over a bump: it cannot sink, it bounces, and it sends the whole shock into your wrists and back. An under-inflated one sinks too far, drags through corners, and risks biting the rim before it even punctures.

The right pressure depends on your weight, your load and the tyre width, which is why it is printed on the sidewall and in the bike's chart rather than left to feel. Adjust it for whether you ride alone or loaded, and above all for the rear wheel, which carries nearly all the weight.

A tyre wears in the middle, not at the edges: that is the strip passing under the wheel on every turn. Once the centre has polished smooth and the lugs no longer bite, the tyre has stopped working on loose ground even if it still looks fine from the side. Replacing it when it is half worn avoids the second puncture, not the first.

It also punctures for a rarer reason: a small splinter or a chain thread piercing the outer layer and catching the tube. On a ride, a spare patch and a pair of tyre levers fix it in a few minutes and you are on your way. What not to do is ride on a tyre that stays flat: it will work through the tube and then ruin the tyre itself.