Growing up close to the birthplace of the inventor of the pneumatic tire, John Boyd Dunlop, has lent me a special interest in tire technology.
They may not be the most glamorous component, but tires are the unsung heroes of the bike. That thin piece of rubber and friction is all that stands between you and a nasty fall across the road.
In this article, we look in detail at folding bead vs wire bead bike tires to find out what separates them and to help you decide which one is right for you and your riding style.
Both are found across road, gravel, and MTB tires, but there are a few main differences to be aware of.
In general, wire bead tires tend to be slightly heavier and cheaper than folding bead tires, which have more of an emphasis on performance – but there’s more to understand beneath the surface!
In this guide, we’ll be covering:
What Are Wire Bead Tires?
As the name suggests, wire bead tires use a steel wire to hold the tire in place against the rim.
The extra weight of the wound steel means that wire bead tires tend to focus on puncture protection and durability rather than out-and-out performance. They also tend to be slightly cheaper than folding bead tires.
If, like me, you are burdened with skinny arms and the upper body strength of a small child, getting wire bead tires off and back on rims can be challenging.
Thankfully, they are so durable that it rarely needs to be done, but no material is infallible to winter roads full of grime and dirt and you will eventually curse your complete lack of strength training.
What Are Folding Tires?
Credit: Sylenius, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Edited from the original.
Folding tires get their name from the fact that, shorn of the steel wire found in wire bead tires, they can fold neatly down into a small package.
The key advantages of folding bead tires are that they’re lighter and easier to pack than wire bead tires, while some riders argue they also provide superior ride quality and performance.
Because of their flexibility, folding tires are also better suited to tubeless setups than wire bead tires.
As the wire bead is more rigid than a Kevlar bead, any kinks or deformities in it will prevent the tire from sitting flush against the wheel’s rim, making it much harder to achieve an effective tubeless seal.
These days, almost all high-performance clincher or tubeless tires will have folding beads. This means there’s something of a technology ceiling when it comes to wire bead tires.
Folding Bead Vs Wire Bead Bike Tires
There is no right or wrong answer when deciding between wire bead vs folding bead tires.
Both types have their advantages and disadvantages and which one to choose comes down to your priorities out on the road.
If you are interested in going fast, being as efficient as possible, and want to wring out every possible marginal gain on the bike then you will naturally be drawn to the performance benefits of folding tires.
Are lighter tires better?
The debate around bike wheels and rotating mass rages on, the discourse boiling down to the fact that it does make a difference but that the difference is so negligible in the real world to be non-existent.
What is not up for debate is that increasing the mass of your bike can noticeably dent your performance on long climbs.
The exotic materials in foldable tires and the focus on performance tend to make them more expensive than wire bead tires. This higher cost might be worth it if you’re racing or want to nab that Strava KOM.
Folding tires, because of their focus on performance, tend to have a lower rolling resistance than wire bead tires. However, this is more to do with the overall design priorities than the differing beads themselves.
Similarly, some cyclists claim that wire bead tires are more puncture-resistant or durable than folding bead tires.
While this may be true in practice in some instances, as high-performance folding tires often put less emphasis on durability, this again has little to do with the type of bead itself but with the other design features of the tire as a whole, including the rubber compound, the sidewall, and the tread.
What About Tubeless Ready Tires?
Tubeless tires, once the preserve of mountain bike tires and the pro peloton, have trickled down to the everyday road and gravel cyclist.
Instead of using an inner tube, tubeless tires rely on pressure and sealant to create an air-tight gap between the tire and the rim of the wheel itself. Tubeless tires can be run at lower pressures without increasing the risk of pinch punctures.
To take advantage of the benefits of tubeless tires, it’s usually recommended to use folding tires, as they tend to be better at creating a seal between the tire and rim.
My Experience Using Wire Bead Vs Folding Bead Bike Tires
I run affordable, durable wire bead tires on my winter bike that has to put up with nasty commuter roads. The last thing I want to do on a rainy Scottish night after a hard day at work is deal with a puncture, then a trip to the bike shop for new inner tubes.
I am not bothered by the slightly lower performance, especially when my winter bike is a heavy steel machine and covered in mudguards. I don’t need to get to work especially fast, I just want to get there.
Using my cheap, durable wire bead tires means fewer punctures, and any slight performance increase using expensive folding tires would be largely wasted on my winter bike setup, especially as I’m only commuting on it.
As soon as the sun starts to peek over the horizon for more than a few hours a day, I tend to switch over to my main road bike complete with folding tires.
Do I notice the increased tire performance? Probably not, but like a lot of sports, the effect can be purely psychological. I know I have faster, lighter tires so I try even harder to do them justice out on the roads.