Cheap Wheel, Expensive Tyre Vs Cheap Tyre, Expensive Wheel!?

We've tested a set of cheap wheels with expensive tires against an expensive wheelset & cheap tires to find out which is the fastest & to see which could be the best upgrade for your bike! Which will you make? 🤔

Useful Links:

Watch more on GCN Tech...

🎵 Music - licensed by Epidemic Sound 🎵
when i hop - baegel
K What - Bonkers Beat Club
Gravel in My Shoe - Harry Edvino
True Cowboy - Bonkers Beat Club
Blue Red Sky - FLYIN
Diablos - Lukas Got Lucky
Swingers - Bonkers Beat Club

#gcntech #gcn #cycling #roadcycling #roadbike #bike #bikes #bikelife

📸 Photos - © Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images & © Sprint Cycling Agency

Brought to you by the world’s biggest cycling channel, the Global Cycling Network (GCN), GCN Tech is the only channel you need for all things bike tech – past, present and future.

Simply put, we’re obsessed with tech: we seek out and showcase the best in bikes, components, tech, accessories, upgrades and more from races and events, tech shows and product launches across the globe to bring you the best in road bike technology.

We’ve also got great maintenance videos to help you get the most from your bike; pro-bike tours from all the biggest races; special features and the weekly GCN Tech Show. We also take a deeper look into the future of cycling, apps, smart tech and virtual riding.

Join us on the channel and the GCN App to submit your content, vote on the latest tech and keep abreast of exciting new trends.

Thanks to our sponsors:

Watch our sister channels:

[gcntech]

What's the best upgrade you've ever made to your bike? Let us know in the comments! 👇

[thebrwnhornet]

Ollie: can I get some beeps?
Alex: best I can do is boops, mate

[celstark]

Thank you for putting in that third test. To me, it really does go to show how for professional racers, this matters. But for the rest of us, seven seconds on a 31 minute ride versus £1500 worth of wheels, just isn’t worth it. 7 seconds is 0.4%.

[sventice]

The best "upgrade" I've made on my bike is, honestly, the crankset: I replaced the road 34/50 with a GRX 30/46, and am much happier. I'm not a particularly fast rider, and the 30/46 is fast enough for my needs, but I do like to ride up big hills while carrying things, and having the lower gears is a great way to not injure myself.

[davidharris]

Another great video balancing tech and banter esp when Alex says ‘stay there I’ll come to you’ and then laughs as Ollie struggles with his creaky bike.

[robertgray]

The real shocker is that the Dura Ace wheels were only 7 seconds faster than the cheap ones when both were fitted with the P Zeros.

[davidlau]

The restrained look Ollie gave to the lady who opened the car door in his path.

[LukeRichardson]

I can speak from experience the difference that good tires can make. I switched from Schwalbe Marathons (35c) to Continental GP5000 (28c) a couple of months ago with everything else being equal (same wheels, butyl tubes, etc). Obviously there was a huge change in weight as well as everything else (a set of Marathons at 35c are nearly 800g heavier than GP5000s at 28c) but the rolling resistance is also considerably lower. My average speed has increased by approximately 2-3km/h (from 28-29 km/h typical on the Marathons to 30-32km/h typical on the GP5000s), and while I don't have a power meter I can say just from 'feel' that I haven't increased my exertion to get that improvement. My current bike is a bit of a tank with a heavy aluminum hybrid frame and fairly cheapo aluminum shallow section wheels, so I'm very interested to see what improvements I'll get when I build up my new titanium bike in the spring with deep section wheels using the same GP5000s. But definitely, if you can't afford any other upgrades, a good set of tires (GP5000s are awesome - fast, light, and reasonably durable) will make a great improvement all by themselves.

[joemartnz]

Sweet test; have always felt hesitant to shell out heaps on wheels so will definitely keep getting premium tyres/tubes. Thanks Team!

[lenwilkinson]

Excellent comparison, very informative results. Ollie and Alex are GCN's premier team of presenters.

[davidbernadine]

3 tests were done:
Cheap wheels with expensive tyres;
Expensive wheels with cheap tyres;; &
Expensive wheels with expensive tyres.
For the sake of completeness, I would have liked to have seen cheap wheels with cheap tyres tested to cover all types.

[jaymueller]

I have to say I generally haven’t freaked out about tires but recently have tried Pirelli and they’re amazing.

[Z-u-m-a]

Interesting test - nice one guys. Did wonder though how much was down to the tyre and how much was the latex tube?

[williamko]

Thanks GCN. One of the most informative shows

[garlicWaxedChain]

oh great! I just came home with some fancy wheels before I watched this video. Fortunately, I bought these pre-owned Mavic Ksyrium at a bargain price, I hope.

[KenSmith-bvsi]

I've been riding tubeless since 2016. The best wheel tyre combination I ride on when it's snot winter, Zipp 303firecrest with Continental 28mm GP5000 Str @ 53psi front 56psi rear tyre. On a side note, the "Tan" side walls on Conti GP5K Str tyres are painted on not the underlying rubber like on other brands.

[BreakawayB]

Really good to know, thanks for the great video!

[kidShibuya]

This backs up my experience really. I went from low end ally wheels to high end aero wheels, also changed to gp5000 s tr. The difference in speed was nothing at all and your 30s in 32 minutes highlights that. Its like one extra traffic light on your ride per hour.

[simontree]

I found this a really mature informative video, thanks-i realise the difficulties involved but it’s was nice to see a non sponsored video in which no one product was clearly favoured and it would be nice to see more like this. But in the meantime thanks for all the free content

[davidw]

Excellent video as always. Really not worth upgrading to £2k wheels if you are not racing. I’ve just upgraded my tyres to the GP5000 s TR and really noticed the difference over my stock Vitoria tyres.