Tyre prices

Bleve said:

[censored]. We stock road tyres from $30 to $120, and the same with MTB tyres etc. Shops do exist to make money though, so you can't expect them (esp when wholesale isn't all that cheap here) to give them to
you.

I dunno if it's the retailers, the distributors, or the manufacturers, but someone's ripping us off.

Tell all your bike shop buddies that everyone is starting to buy tyres online for close to half price 🙂

531Aussie said:

I dunno if it's the retailers, the distributors, or the manufacturers, but someone's ripping us off.
Tell all your bike shop buddies that everyone is starting to buy tyres online for close to half price 🙂

I never bought tyres online but then I had a LBS buddy.
Pro-Race are a good race tyre but they only last 4000k. There are much cheaper options but I was a bit of a boutique tyre [censored].
My Melb LBS had road tyres for <$30 - buy them or buy better online. It is your choice remember? If the LBS don't sell any tyres then they will have to reconsider their prices.. unless people continue to pay through the nose.

My LBS in London sells Conti SportContact with tubes, as in, you can't buy the tyres without the tubes. This sucks! Drop the price a few quid instead of forcing people to buy your stinkin' tubes Conti. I bought the Schwalbes instead. 🙂

hippy

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Quoted message said:

Seriously.. why are they so expensive?

Say for example these Contis:
http://www.cecilwalker.com.au/category11_1.htm

$86 - $112 for a pair?? You can buy whole mountain bikes for that!

All I want is basic slick 26x1.3 tyres.. no fancy tread patterns or
brand names. I've seen US retailers selling them (but they wont ship
over me) Every local bike shop tries to sell me some
super-dooper-safe-puncture-proof-reinforced-whatever tyre.

I feel stupid spending $100 on tyres for a bike I only paid $400 for
(including Conti SportContacts, which I have to admit I love!)

Here you go:
http://www.torpedo7.com/page/australia/CTGY/tires_mtb-mountain_bike

Cheap slicks that work well. Torpedo 7 stuff gets to my door within 5 days
(I'm in WA).

me

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"dewatf" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Jules said:

Seriously.. why are they so expensive?

Because the margins are high on those high quality tyres so shops are
stocking only them to force people to buy them. Same thing is happening
with chain lube. Both the LBS near me now only stock Rock & Roll, if you
want anything else then tough luck.

The only solution is to shop around.

I saw some cheap Dunlop slicks in Big W once, no idea if they are value

for

Quoted message said:

money or not though.

dewatf.

Nope - the Dungplop tyres are [censored]. I made the mistake of buying them for my
partner's 13 yo boy's bike. Never had to fix so many punctures before,
heavy, gripless in the wet and they wore down very quickly. The Town and
Countries I replaced them with have lasted and lasted. It wasn't a function
fo his riding either - he's pretty good on the bike and is careful to avoid
obvious hazards (like bogan droppings, goat heads, etc). K Mart/Big W and
the like have tyres to avoid.

me

Quoted message said:

My LBS in London sells Conti SportContact with tubes, as in, you can't
buy the tyres without the tubes. This sucks! Drop the price a few quid
instead of forcing people to buy your stinkin' tubes Conti. I bought
the Schwalbes instead. 🙂

I expect this has something to do with their "magical punture proof" system.

Bleve said:

Quoted message said:

warrwych

The tyre I melted on the trainer last week was a low mileage elcheapo
😉 I have also had a bontrager blister from general road use.

I've never had a problem with a bontrager racelite, nor heard of one.
Maybe the select's are junk? I don't know. Your tyre will have melted
because either it was underinflated, or it was slipping because it
wasn't tight enough against the roller, I'd suggest, not because it was
a cheapy.

Tyre wasnt underinflated as I checked the pressure while setting up, and neither was the roller slipping. I am just a hot rider
:p .. a bit like The Lama :p :p 😄

General comment: I dont burn my hardearned cash on goods because they are expensive or Labelled. I shop around for reputable stuff, and if that means it costs a little more then fine. I am happy to pay a little extra for something that will go the distance or more, & not give me grief. I do steer away from the supercheap unless its super cheap from being on sale, or I know that it will work and work well. You pay for what you get. If readers know of quality cheap tyres for road use, tell us about them!

hippy said:

531Aussie said:

I dunno if it's the retailers, the distributors, or the manufacturers,
but someone's ripping us off.
Tell all your bike shop buddies that everyone is starting to buy tyres
online for close to half price 🙂

I never bought tyres online but then I had a LBS buddy.
Pro-Race are a good race tyre but they only last 4000k. There are much
cheaper options but I was a bit of a boutique tyre [censored].
My Melb LBS had road tyres for <$30 - buy them or buy better online. It
is your choice remember? If the LBS don't sell any tyres then they will
have to reconsider their prices.. unless people continue to pay through
the nose.

Pro-Race at $30 each! This is better that PBK.

http://www.torpedo7.com/page/australia/PROD/tires_road-road_bike_rb/MIC-TYR-PR2

--
..dt

531Aussie said:

Bleve said:

[censored]. We stock road tyres from $30 to $120, and the same with MTB
tyres etc. Shops do exist to make money though, so you can't expect
them (esp when wholesale isn't all that cheap here) to give them to
you.I dunno if it's the retailers, the distributors, or the manufacturers,

but someone's ripping us off.

Tell all your bike shop buddies that everyone is starting to buy tyres
online for close to half price 🙂

It's a volume thing. An LBS exists to make money (duh!). If a product
sits on a shelf for ages (like tyres tend to in suburban LBS's), and
takes time to sell, it's going to have a markup of a lot of percent.
For example, a typical markup on tubes is around 500% or so. but, that
represents about $5 in profit for the LBS, and still takes staff time
to stock, price, sell etc.

If the LBS sells 1,000 tubes a week, then they'd be able to drop the
price on tubes a lot.
Same with tyres, a typical markup on a lowend ($30 or so) tyre is
around 100%. Sounds like a lot? It's $15. It takes staff time to
stock, to explain the tyre to the punter, to sell it, price it, order
it and so on. A typical markup on a high end tyre is around 30%,
something like a pro race or similar, the LBS is making maybe $30-40
on. Again, it sits on the shelf, it has to be priced, sold (and paid
for by the LBS). Sell tonnes of them, and you can drop the margin, but
sell a few, and you can't. This is very basic business stuff.

Places like probikekit are selling huge numbers of items, so they can
cut their margins, but small suburban LBS's are not, so they can't.

It's very trendy to bag LBS's for being greedy, and the wholesalers,
but in actual fact, they're not making a fortune, they're just doing
ok, and they only really survive because most people who work at the
small ones do it for love and are happy to get paid peanuts.

I'm not whinging abuot anything here, I'm explaining how it works (as
anyone with half a brain would realise 🙂 ), and that LBS owners and
bike trade wholesalers aren't driving around in mercs and flying to new
york every week for parties with their mates. The wholesaler area is
actually pretty competitive (there's a -lot- of small wholesalers!) and
their margins aren't big, and on the whole they provide a very valuable
service to suburban LBS's.

The only price-gouging that I'm aware of is Shimano, as they have a
monopoly and a pretty captive market. And even then, they're only
charging what they know the market will bear.

It's like anything in the end, you get what you pay for. When you buy
from an LBS, you're buying into a relationship with the shop with all
that that entails - support, community and so on. When you buy online,
you get the parts you wanted (hopefully!), and that's it. They're
different things, and the LBS owners I know are very aware of this.
For a lot of people here, just the parts is all you need, and that's
fine. For a lot of others, the (forgive the [censored] terms!) LBS
experience is worth paying for.

warrwych said:

Bleve said:

Quoted message said:

warrwych

The tyre I melted on the trainer last week was a low mileage

elcheapo

Quoted message said:

😉 I have also had a bontrager blister from general road

use.

I've never had a problem with a bontrager racelite, nor heard of one.
Maybe the select's are junk? I don't know. Your tyre will have
melted
because either it was underinflated, or it was slipping because it
wasn't tight enough against the roller, I'd suggest, not because it
was
a cheapy.

Tyre wasnt underinflated as I checked the pressure while setting up,
and neither was the roller slipping. I am just a hot rider
:p .. a bit like The Lama :p :p 😄

heh!

Something had to be making it get unusually hot, and you weren't doing
hard intervals that night 🙂

dewatf said:

Jules said:

Seriously.. why are they so expensive?

Because the margins are high on those high quality tyres so shops are
stocking only them to force people to buy them. Same thing is happening
with chain lube. Both the LBS near me now only stock Rock & Roll, if you
want anything else then tough luck.

The only solution is to shop around.

I saw some cheap Dunlop slicks in Big W once, no idea if they are value for
money or not though.

dewatf.

Have some fun on aus.bushwalking talking about volleys -> akin to
trolling its been done so much.

Plodder (remove DAKS to reply) said:

--
Frank
[email hidden]
Drop DACKS to reply
"Jules" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Seriously.. why are they so expensive?

Say for example these Contis:
http://www.cecilwalker.com.au/category11_1.htm

$86 - $112 for a pair?? You can buy whole mountain bikes for that!

All I want is basic slick 26x1.3 tyres.. no fancy tread patterns or
brand names. I've seen US retailers selling them (but they wont ship
over me) Every local bike shop tries to sell me some
super-dooper-safe-puncture-proof-reinforced-whatever tyre.

I feel stupid spending $100 on tyres for a bike I only paid $400 for
(including Conti SportContacts, which I have to admit I love!)

Here you go:
http://www.torpedo7.com/page/australia/CTGY/tires_mtb-mountain_bike

Cheap slicks that work well. Torpedo 7 stuff gets to my door within 5 days
(I'm in WA).

FWIW, I bought stuff from them too and was happy - prorace 2 for less
than I can get them wholesale, and those elcheapo halogen lamps.
They're good to buy from.

Quoted message said:

me

Bleve said:

531Aussie said:

Bleve said:

[censored]. We stock road tyres from $30 to $120, and the same with MTB
tyres etc. Shops do exist to make money though, so you can't expect
them (esp when wholesale isn't all that cheap here) to give them to
you.I dunno if it's the retailers, the distributors, or the manufacturers,

but someone's ripping us off.

Tell all your bike shop buddies that everyone is starting to buy tyres
online for close to half price 🙂

It's a volume thing. An LBS exists to make money (duh!). If a product
sits on a shelf for ages (like tyres tend to in suburban LBS's), and
takes time to sell, it's going to have a markup of a lot of percent.
For example, a typical markup on tubes is around 500% or so. but, that
represents about $5 in profit for the LBS, and still takes staff time
to stock, price, sell etc.

If the LBS sells 1,000 tubes a week, then they'd be able to drop the
price on tubes a lot.
Same with tyres, a typical markup on a lowend ($30 or so) tyre is
around 100%. Sounds like a lot? It's $15. It takes staff time to
stock, to explain the tyre to the punter, to sell it, price it, order
it and so on. A typical markup on a high end tyre is around 30%,
something like a pro race or similar, the LBS is making maybe $30-40
on. Again, it sits on the shelf, it has to be priced, sold (and paid
for by the LBS). Sell tonnes of them, and you can drop the margin, but
sell a few, and you can't. This is very basic business stuff.

Places like probikekit are selling huge numbers of items, so they can
cut their margins, but small suburban LBS's are not, so they can't.

It's very trendy to bag LBS's for being greedy, and the wholesalers,
but in actual fact, they're not making a fortune, they're just doing
ok, and they only really survive because most people who work at the
small ones do it for love and are happy to get paid peanuts.

I'm not whinging abuot anything here, I'm explaining how it works (as
anyone with half a brain would realise 🙂 ), and that LBS owners and
bike trade wholesalers aren't driving around in mercs and flying to new
york every week for parties with their mates. The wholesaler area is
actually pretty competitive (there's a -lot- of small wholesalers!) and
their margins aren't big, and on the whole they provide a very valuable
service to suburban LBS's.

The only price-gouging that I'm aware of is Shimano, as they have a
monopoly and a pretty captive market. And even then, they're only
charging what they know the market will bear.

It's like anything in the end, you get what you pay for. When you buy
from an LBS, you're buying into a relationship with the shop with all
that that entails - support, community and so on. When you buy online,
you get the parts you wanted (hopefully!), and that's it. They're
different things, and the LBS owners I know are very aware of this.
For a lot of people here, just the parts is all you need, and that's
fine. For a lot of others, the (forgive the [censored] terms!) LBS
experience is worth paying for.

I've had this argument with die-hard price gougers before as well, and
got nowhere, but I liked your "paid peanuts" bit . . . I KNEW there was
a better reason for getting filthy hands day after day . . . 🙂

MH

dewatf said:

Jules said:

Seriously.. why are they so expensive?

Because the margins are high on those high quality tyres so shops are
stocking only them to force people to buy them. Same thing is happening
with chain lube. Both the LBS near me now only stock Rock & Roll, if you
want anything else then tough luck.

Try your local service station. Get some "chain & bar" oil for
chainsaws and give that a shot. Works for me, but this may just be a
hangover from having used it for years in the slightly wetter UK.

Graeme

Quoted message said:

I've had this argument with die-hard price gougers before as well, and
got nowhere,

These are the same people that oddly, don't seem to whine about buying
a can of coke from a servo for $2 on a hot day, when they can buy 18 of
them, warm, for abour 40c each from the stupormarket down the road
though ... people are funny ... and they don't "get" the value of
service.

Quoted message said:

but I liked your "paid peanuts" bit . . . I KNEW there was
a better reason for getting filthy hands day after day . . . 🙂

heh!

I only do about 10hrs/week at my LBS, so I don't really count as an
insider, I do it for fun, and to help make a difference, not for the
money, that's for sure 🙂

dewatf said:

Around the North of Sydney where I live shops have gotten out of the low
end of the market because it's not economical for them. By stocking only
$120 tyres (with a good Kevlar threat count) they make a greater profit
on each sale, and force people to spend more. And they do do that.

So I haven't bought el cheapo (sub $30) from the following stores in the
past 2 years (2 years because I haven't bought from BA in a while)?

Bike Addiction
Turramurra Cyclery
City Bike Depot.

I will admit to none of these being a 700c tyre, but I've 27" and 26"
slicks.

--
Dave Hughes | [email hidden]
"He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does
not ask remains a fool forever." -- Old Chinese saying

Bleve said:

Quoted message said:

Because the margins are high on those high quality tyres so shops are
stocking only them to force people to buy them.

[censored]. We stock road tyres from $30 to $120, and the same with MTB
tyres etc. Shops do exist to make money though, so you can't expect
them (esp when wholesale isn't all that cheap here) to give them to
you.

I guess it depends on where you live.

Around the North of Sydney where I live shops have gotten out of the low
end of the market because it's not economical for them. By stocking only
$120 tyres (with a good Kevlar threat count) they make a greater profit on
each sale, and force people to spend more. And they do do that.

While there are good LBSs they often serve serious cyclists interested in
high end gear. There are other shops with full time sales people only
interested in selling people the most expensive stuff they can.

I understand that labour is expensive, and that shops do provide a lot of
information that often results in no sale. But just selling a tyre takes
two minutes, makes a few bucks, retail staff often spend long times doing
nothing when there are no other customers. And if these shops won't do it
they will lose business to online stores or a dept. store (if they decide
to stock decent stuff).

dewatf.

Zebee Johnstone said:

Places with large premises in expensive city real estate[1] probably
have to push lots of expensive stuff to well heeled types,

Clarence St are still more expensive than the nearest competition. Their
location isn't *that* much better.

--
Dave Hughes | [email hidden]
"He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does
not ask remains a fool forever." -- Old Chinese saying

In aus.bicycle on Tue, 25 Jul 2006 15:06:10 +1000

Random Data said:

So I haven't bought el cheapo (sub $30) from the following stores in the
past 2 years (2 years because I haven't bought from BA in a while)?

Bike Addiction
Turramurra Cyclery
City Bike Depot.

I got a reasonably good $30 tyre in the odd size the bent takes on the
front from Cheeky Monkey near Central, and they had tyres in many
other sizes.

Places with large premises in expensive city real estate[1] probably have
to push lots of expensive stuff to well heeled types, but then again the
times I've bought things from them they didn't seem any more expensive
than the suburban bike shops I have stopped at.

Considering the cost of the bike I ride should I be miffed they didn't
think I wanted Really Expensive Bling? 🙂

Zebee
[1] not a description of the Monkey....

Random Data said:

dewatf said:

Around the North of Sydney where I live shops have gotten out of the low
end of the market because it's not economical for them. By stocking only
$120 tyres (with a good Kevlar threat count) they make a greater profit
on each sale, and force people to spend more. And they do do that.

So I haven't bought el cheapo (sub $30) from the following stores in the
past 2 years (2 years because I haven't bought from BA in a while)?

Bike Addiction
Turramurra Cyclery
City Bike Depot.

I will admit to none of these being a 700c tyre, but I've 27" and 26"
slicks.

No, it means I haven't been in any of those stores.

But thanks for the list will check out Turramurra next time I am looking
for such.

dewatf.

Bleve said:

It's like anything in the end, you get what you pay for. When you buy from an LBS, you're buying into a relationship with the shop with all
that that entails - support, community and so on. When you buy online,
you get the parts you wanted (hopefully!), and that's it. They're
different things, and the LBS owners I know are very aware of this.
For a lot of people here, just the parts is all you need, and that's
fine. For a lot of others, the (forgive the [censored] terms!) LBS
experience is worth paying for.

I really, really, really miss my LBS!!!! 🙁

"Mick, what's postage to London on a carbon Soloist?" 😄

hippy