TYRES, The price of!

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.

there is more rubber in a car tyre but also a lot more steel

there are a lot of cheap tyres out there too. last ones i bought were michelin mud tyres for the winter and they were less than £20 a pair

Car tyres are made in huge quantities, with economies of scale and more competition.

The fall in the value of the pound has also had a big effect.

MTB TYRE MANUFACTURERs & CAR TYRE MANUFACTURERs, the sam

Yes, but alot of MTB tyres are made by the same businesses that make CAR tyres:

1 example: Michelin

Car tyres are hand made with very long development and approval processes before they reach the market. Car manufacturers are constantly demanding more performance to flatter their vehicles. The cost of raw materials has rocketed over the last 3 years. Very poor comparison comparing them to MTB tyres. Bike tyres are purely fashion items - must have the latest, coolest kit.

I pay between £20 & £40 for my bike tyres (£40-£80 the set)

I pay £90 for each of my car tyres (£360 for the set)

I buy the tyres I know and trust, the price does not bother me that much at all so long as the product does what I want it to do

I certainly would not buy budget car tyres, but may consider them on a bike (depending on what I was using the bike for)

In the shop we have 26" MTB tyres ranging from £9.99 to £39.99 (Schwalbe tyres start at £12.49)

I firmly believe you get what you pay for, although you can get some good bargains if you know what to look for

Car and bike tyres are completely different in structure, compound and materials, I don't think you can even begin to compare them as like for like

Re: MTB TYRE MANUFACTURERs & CAR TYRE MANUFACTURERs, the

srands":1li8po9p said:

Yes, but alot of MTB tyres are made by the same businesses that make CAR tyres:

1 example: Michelin

Click to expand...

Do you honestly think that you can make bike tyres in a car tyre mould? :?

I must admit I've seen lots of Range Rovers with Wildgripper tread pattern...

MTB TYRE PRICES based on LONGEVITY?

Well MTB TYRE PRICES RRP are expensive, considering the cost of CAR TYRES. TYRES is the comparison being made.

Also I think because, as customers we don't have to replace MTB TYRES often, hence we pay whatever it is.

I believe MTB TYRE MANUFACTURERS have set the prices of MTB TYRES because of the relative LONGEVITY of MTB TYRES.

But this LONGEVITY depends on the HARDNESS of the rubber compound, which certainly won't make much cost difference in the manufacturing process between SOFT COMPOUND TYRES and HARD COMPOUND TYRES.

I won't what the average profit % margin is on MTB TYRES?

But as consumers for many things, we don't know what the profit % margin is on products we buy. The same could be said for MTB's, perhaps they make a FLIPPING FORTUNE.

Profit margin for MTB tyres is 80-100% for a retailer

Profit margin for a car tyre is 20-30% for a retailer, that is why they charge for fitting, valve, balancing and disposal of old casings.

Well, I looked it up.

Giant (the biggest in the business) Sales NT$44,244 million ($1.4 billion)
Net income NT$2,580 million ($86 million)

That's a 5.8% profit margin. Slightly better than picking up pennies in front of a steamroller, but not much.

A flipping fortune?

:?