Tyres

For 'Deluxe' substitute 'Commuter' and you'll get a better feel for what the Freedom Racine Deluxe is all about. Deluxe it isn't. It's not expensive and it's heavy for a 700x25C tyre, partly (50g or so) because it uses a wire bead. On the other hand, it's tougher than it looks.

Before Keith Bontrager was assimilated by the Trek Corporation and his name appeared on their whole gamut of finishing kit he was a renowned mountain bike frame builder and his off-road heritage is visible in these Jones CXR cyclo-cross tyres that look like a small mountain bike tyre, or one that's far away.

If you're in the market for some Sunday-best racing rubber with a measure of puncture protection too the Specialized S-Works should be on your list, but if your performance tyres have to put a shift in during the week too then maybe you should look elsewhere. Specialized's S-Works Turbo tyres sit in one of the less populated bits of the company's vast cycling range, odd really because you'd expect the ubiquitous big 'S' to do more road rubber especially as they produce a fair range of well regarded mountainbike tyres.

Smoother than a porn star's bits, Freedom ThickSlick Sport looks almost identical to the ThickSlick Elites reviewed recently but saves 80g and £20 (pr) over their urban siblings. Admittedly, you lose the Kevlar belt and sidewalls but put through the same paces, ours seemed friskier, just as impenetrable with more refinement to boot.

Freedom ThickSlick urban tyres are 700c slick rubber and part of WTB's wider foray into the urban cycling market. Claimed to be the most durable tyres of their kind, mid section 25 and 28mm profiles lend themselves handsomely to winter training, Audax and weekend touring thanks to phenomenal puncture resistance, relatively low drag and excellent manners. Comfort's not bad either, although their sportier sibling, the ThickSlick Sport, shaves 80g a set and roll marginally quicker without any noticeable loss in durability.

Deep section carbon fibre wheels have spurred something of a renaissance in tubular tyres; these Schwalbe Ultremo TT tyres only appeared in the German tyre company's catalogue a couple of years ago.

Like most tubulars, the Ultremo TTs are expensive compared to clinchers, and they're fiddly to fit and fix. On the flip side, carbon wheels for tubulars are cheaper, lighter and easier to make than carbon or carbon/aluminium clincher rims, which need a hook to hold the bead. So you could save money on your time trial wheels and tyres overall by choosing tubs.

Kenda is known as a budget brand, and the Kadence tyre is not expensive, but it does a jolly good job for the price.

On picking up one of these tyres, the first thing I noticed was the low weight. The Kenda website claims 197g per tyre (the all-black version) and 205g (with colour hoops) - plus/minus 10g. On the road.cc scales the colour hoop versions we've got for test weighed in at 203g each.

The Fortezza Tricomp is one of Vredestein's biggest-selling tyres, and for good reason: it's a really good all-rounder that has an excellent ride feel and seems to shrug off punctures pretty well too.

The 'L' in Panaracer Race Type L is for 'light'. Panaracer bill this as a lightweight, high performance road tyre, and at a claimed 185g (191g on our scales) it lives up to its name. Lighter means less rubber and so more risk of punctures, though the suggested use is for short races such as hill climbs and TTs where puncturing is less likely.

Panaracer tyres are perhaps better known in the off-road world, where they have a loyal following and impressive pedigree, but the company's range of road tyres is constantly evolving and equally impressive. Unlike their names: this is the prosaically titled Panaracer Race Type A.

The Race tyre sits towards the top of Panaracer's road range and is available in three flavours: L (for 'light'), D (for 'durable') and A (for 'all-around' - which probably means all-rounder). It's the latter option that I've been testing for the past month or so.