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The important thing to recognise here is that most of the bikes have the ability to use different types of tyre, and this can make a considerable difference to how well they perform under different conditions. A Birdy (or Land Rover APB) on knobbly tyres will be hard work on the road, but excellent off road. The same bikes fitted with good road tyres will run freely on the road but won’t be very good off road. To judge the whole bike based on the particular tyre fitted on a test bike would be misleading to say the least. But it’s worth noting that the choice of tyres is better with some sizes than others (though there is a very reasonable choice in all the common sizes nowadays) – those with 20 inch wheels have the best choice for small wheelers. A very crude generalisation is that larger wheels tend to handle seriously muddy, sandy and other conditions better than smaller ones, and also are less quick to respond to small movements of the handlebars (ie they initially feel more stable, though this is partly a question of familiarity). See also the comments above.
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