Completely agree. There is no such thing as expensive tyres because market forces determined that someone extracted that amount of value from them. Also, budget tyres will always be available, so the question is really whether someone should be spending a lot on their tyres.
I would argue that if they can afford it they should. Comparison with car tyres is bizzre due to production volumes. What we do on bikes is more akin to Motorsport than driving to the shops...
If we were willing to spend more on tyres then there would be more competition and R&D and better tyres would be developed.
I have spent a lot of time this year doing accurate timed tyre testing of multiple premium brands. It has probably cost me around £750 so far, but my bike is 1.5% quicker (if I get chance later this year I will publish the test results).
A friend bought a new Enduro bike to compare to his 5 year old one, cost many £thousands and we spent a day doing accurate timing: it was 0.8% quicker.
April 13, 2024, 10:24 p.m. - rojo
Completely agree. There is no such thing as expensive tyres because market forces determined that someone extracted that amount of value from them. Also, budget tyres will always be available, so the question is really whether someone should be spending a lot on their tyres. I would argue that if they can afford it they should. Comparison with car tyres is bizzre due to production volumes. What we do on bikes is more akin to Motorsport than driving to the shops... If we were willing to spend more on tyres then there would be more competition and R&D and better tyres would be developed. I have spent a lot of time this year doing accurate timed tyre testing of multiple premium brands. It has probably cost me around £750 so far, but my bike is 1.5% quicker (if I get chance later this year I will publish the test results). A friend bought a new Enduro bike to compare to his 5 year old one, cost many £thousands and we spent a day doing accurate timing: it was 0.8% quicker.