Tyres are often overlooked as an upgrade but, as the bike’s only contact point with the road, your rubber has a significant impact on the quality of the ride – or, rather, rolling resistance (speed), grip and, of course, puncture protection.

The tyres specced on most – but by no means all – bikes, particularly those under the £2,000 mark, are ripe for upgrade as, for many bike manufacturers, tyres represent an easy saving to increase the bottom line or to put a machine together to hit a specific price point.

Tyres typically fall into two categories – winter/training tyres and summer tyres – and both will enhance the quality of your ride, depending on what you want from your rubber.

A winter/training tyre will place the greatest emphasis on puncture protection, with the roads awash with thorns, flints and debris through winter, but that can come at a cost when it comes to rolling resistance. The best, like the Michelin Pro4 Endurance, Continental Grand Prix 4 Season and Schwalbe Durano S, will protect against flats (and so not leave you standing at the side of the road fixing a puncture) while offering plenty of grip, without making it feel like you’re riding through mud. Read our full buyer’s guide to winter tyres here.

It’s at this time of year, however, that many riders will make the switch to a summer (or ‘race’) tyre and that’s where the greatest gains are to be made. A supple, lightweight summer tyre will feel just that, improving the acceleration and responsiveness of your machine over dull and ‘wooden’ stock tyres.

The compound of a summer tyre is likely to be softer, and so more susceptible to cuts and wear, so we’d recommend saving full-blown competition tyres for races and time trials, but the best rubber for all-round summer riding strike a balance between speed and an element of puncture protection by combining dual or triple compound construction (with a firmer compound on the centre of the tyre for speed and a softer compound on the shoulders for grip) with a puncture-resistant later. That combination of grip, speed and low weight doesn’t come cheap but tyres offer the best bang-for-your-buck up against the hundreds of pounds that can be spent elsewhere on your bike. Consider the Schwalbe One, Continental Grand Prix 4000S and Michelin Pro 4 Service Course.