From another thread:

"Foldable. Kevlar bead. Why would you use anything else?!?"

I was always told the only advantage to folding beads is portability. Am I misinformed?

Less weight

More $?

Less weight always equals more $.

Light, strong or cheap.

Pick two.

They are easier to fit inside a box

Unfortunately sometimes the tires with the most supple sidewalls only come with a Kevlar bead. These generally have the best ride and lowest rolling resistance - but it's not because of the bead material.

Yes, folding bead tires cost more, but as said earlier, the reason is likely more because folding beads come on better tires.

This

They are annoying to mount when new. The advantage of wire bead is that you easily fit the tube inside the tire, then mount as one so you don't have to stuff the tube in a half mounted tire .... once they've been mounted they're easier to remount, such as after a flat.

Fewer pinch flats. My experience at least.

Folding beads are also easier on/off, generally speaking. I know my LBS won't allow full carbon clinchers in or out of the shop without folding beads.

How true is this? I've got some rims that are a real #*#$& to get tires on, and I'd be willing to pay a bit more to make that easier...

It is 100% true.

People still buy wire bead?

I don't think that folding bead is the solution you are looking for. I don't mean this as an authoritative pronouncement, but rather as my impression from reading tire reviews over the years. The impression I have always had was this: Wire bead tires use steel wire for the bead. Folding tires use Kevlar fiber which is plastic. Kevlar stretches more over a long time when subjected to stress than steel does. For safety then you have to start with a tighter bead on a folding tire so it will still hold after it stretches. When folding bead tires were first introduced, they were almost impossible to mount. Folks who were used to looser steel beaded tires complained bitterly. I can't say why the LBS mentioned above won't mount wire bead tires on carbon clinchers, but I have to assume that these days wire beads are always looser than Kevlar beads, even after long use i.e Kevlar tires still come too tight but don't stretch as much as they used to. With the fear of the clincher rim softening from braking heat, one would want the tightest tire possible. At first that is a folding tire. Maybe it still is down the road.

Sure, many low cost tires are wire bead type.

You make many unfounded assumptions

Uh, no, actually I don't. If you had read my post carefully, you would have noticed I said that most of the information was gleaned from tire advertisements and sales pitches. I did make just one assumption, clearly stated as such, but it was actually founded upon personal observations and a basis of knowing how products improve over time. I have mounted both kinds of tires ad nauseum, and wire beads are looser than Kevlar ones; then Kevlar tires loosen up with use. It seems that effect is not as pronounced as it used to be. It also doesn't occur to the same extent in expensive folding tires as it does in cheaper one. Those are the facts as I have observed them. Why are you challenging my post if you don't have contrary information to share? But more fundamentally, in a round table discussion, why would proposing ideas about how something might work be wrong as long as the ideas are clearly labeled as assumptions or theories or what ifs? Food for thought!

Buying a non-folding tire online is a pain to ship.

Every "packaging" advantage was designed by the manufacturers to make the parts less expensive to pack, ship, store.

But there are very cheap folding tyres like michelin lithion or vittorio rubino pro.

Lighter and more portable. Can be more supple depending on the design, but that is usually more a function of the overall quality, and folding tires tend to be more expensive (and therefore in a nicer category).

Why is this a problem? I do wire bead tires this way too so I don't have to think about where the tube is while getting the first bead on.

Is it that much cheaper to make wire bead?

I don't know the actual relative of cost of steel wire and Kevlar fiber. But don't forget there are three common pricing approaches: cost plus pricing, value pricing and commodity pricing. In cost plus pricing you add up all the costs of making and selling a product and add a standard profit margin to obtain the price. In value pricing, you go above the cost of making the goods and charge as much as you think the product is worth to the public, not just an industry standard markup. In commodity pricing supply and demand dictate the price no matter what it costs to make. If you will permit me to wonder about this along with you, better folding tires could be priced according to the value model even though they don't cost much more to make than the wire bead type. For the maker that is where the decent profits would be. Lower end wire bead and folding tires could be priced according to the cost plus model. That would explain the differences, but it is all supposition. Perhaps we can call on BDop for some facts.

I have bought folding tires from a department store (kmart or walmart, can't remember) for my trailer. I think the department stores embraced folding tires because they are a lot easier to ship and to display on a shelf.