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What are the relative merit of foldable tyres and those with Wire beads?
I've been looking at a Maxxis Advantage with a wire bead for general purpose, fit and forget rear (only plan to remove it for punctures or when it goes bald)
Kevlar are nearly always lighter and often easier to get on and off the rim. I can do Maxxis keflars with no levers but not the wire ones.
Often the kevlar tyres are better specified rubber. I found that the cheaper wire beed tyres with Maxxis had the harder rubber which is more durable but less grippy. If you wanted the 60a or 40a you needed kevlar.
Yup, the big difference seems to be that in most cases (not all) the wire ones are built down to a price. If you try the folding 2.1 nevegals vs the wire ones, for instance, the difference is huge. Nothing to do with the bead, the whole tyre is different, they just look good on a speclist.
(I sometimes wonder why manufacturers do this, there's got to be loads of people buying bikes with poor-quality OEM tyres and saying "Tyre X is rubbish" when it's just that particular version)
Kevlar rock! Due to ease of fitting and weight saving. Only issue i can for see is if you ever have to ride on a flat tyre or one packed full of grass etc to get you home. the wire bead is going to stay on the rim longer.
I would say that kevlar is sometimes actually harder to get on a rim. I've found them to be too floppy at times - you get half of the tyre on the rim and it just flaps out again, whereas wire are quite easy to handle.
Kevlar baby all the way!