srands
Retro Guru
Is it just me who is very surprised by the near scandalous PRICE of MTB tyres?
An average quality MTB tyre is £35 (500 grams +)
An average budget MTB tyre is £18 (500 grams +)
And the amount of rubber in these tyres is not alot, even a 2.3 width 26" tyre feels pretty light at 850 grams +.
Surely MTB tyre manufacturers are just setting prices (CONCEPT: YOU LIKE IT, YOU BUY IT, or GET SOMETHING CHEAPER!) on what customers will pay, rather then a comfortable profit margin.
Well the obvious comparison that can be made is CAR TYRES:
A BUDGET CAR TYRE fitted including balancing and vat is £35+
A car tyre has a significant more rubber (10 times the amount)in each tyre, when compared with MTB tyres.
Recently many of the MTB tyre manufacturers have commented that the price of MTB TYRES is due to the cost of rubber!
Yeah I don't think so:
MTB TYRE average weight = 0.750 kg's
CAR TYRE average weight = 7.50 kg's
So to generalise MTB tyres used approx 10% (Or 1/10 th) of the rubber that is used in CAR tyres.
Or
To state it the other way round, CAR TYRES use 10 TIMES the amount of rubber that MTB tyres use.
Or
To state it another way, MTB TYRE RUBBER + 900% = CAR TYRE RUBBER
(0.75 KG's + 900% = 7.5 KG's)
I realise that MTB TYRE MANUFACTURERS will have some ridiculous semi plausible excuse for this, such as MTB TYRES are a different compound that just happens to cost more.... Yeah right, NOT.
An average quality MTB tyre is £35 (500 grams +)
An average budget MTB tyre is £18 (500 grams +)
And the amount of rubber in these tyres is not alot, even a 2.3 width 26" tyre feels pretty light at 850 grams +.
Surely MTB tyre manufacturers are just setting prices (CONCEPT: YOU LIKE IT, YOU BUY IT, or GET SOMETHING CHEAPER!) on what customers will pay, rather then a comfortable profit margin.
Well the obvious comparison that can be made is CAR TYRES:
A BUDGET CAR TYRE fitted including balancing and vat is £35+
A car tyre has a significant more rubber (10 times the amount)in each tyre, when compared with MTB tyres.
Recently many of the MTB tyre manufacturers have commented that the price of MTB TYRES is due to the cost of rubber!
Yeah I don't think so:
MTB TYRE average weight = 0.750 kg's
CAR TYRE average weight = 7.50 kg's
So to generalise MTB tyres used approx 10% (Or 1/10 th) of the rubber that is used in CAR tyres.
Or
To state it the other way round, CAR TYRES use 10 TIMES the amount of rubber that MTB tyres use.
Or
To state it another way, MTB TYRE RUBBER + 900% = CAR TYRE RUBBER
(0.75 KG's + 900% = 7.5 KG's)
I realise that MTB TYRE MANUFACTURERS will have some ridiculous semi plausible excuse for this, such as MTB TYRES are a different compound that just happens to cost more.... Yeah right, NOT.