Tread Smart: Tyres and their types

Tyres are often treated like a wear-and-forget item, but they can play a big role in how your motorcycle behaves. Get it right for the kind of motorcycle and riding style you have, and the bike feels planted, predictable and confident. Get it wrong, and you’re either feeling uncomfortable and insecure, or watching them square off in a few thousand kilometres. Here’s a simple breakdown of the different types of motorcycle tyres, how they’re built, and where each one makes the most sense.

Construction

Before getting into tyre types, it helps to understand how they’re made. Tyres can be generally put into two categories – radial and bias-ply. The difference comes down to how the layers (called plies) are arranged inside the carcass. Bias-ply tyres use criss-crossing layers laid at angles, which gives the sidewall extra stiffness, and is good for load-bearing and rough roads. However, they’re not ideal for high-speed grip or flexibility.

Radial tyres have plies arranged at 90 degrees to the direction of travel, with added belts across the tread area. This allows the sidewall to flex independently of the tread, improving comfort, heat dissipation, and high-speed handling. Generally, you will find bias-ply tyres on commuters, cruisers and old motorcycles. Radials are standard on performance-oriented motorcycles, sport bikes, tourers and some ADVs. Now that you understand the two foundational differences in construction, let us dive into the different types of tyres. Remember, picking the right tyre is more about how and where you ride than what your bike originally came with. A tyre that excels at a 100km commute won’t feel right on a racetrack, and something that grips brilliantly in dirt might be borderline terrifying on the tarmac, especially in the rain.
There’s no single “best tyre” out there to do it all, but if you know what you’re asking of your motorcycle, the right one becomes pretty easy to spot. Just don’t treat tyres like an afterthought, because they’re doing more than you think.

Tread talk

Street Tyres

Cruiser tyres

Touring tyres

Sport tyres

Track tyres

Adventure tyres

Off-road tyres