This week I found I have worn the tyres out on the Shogun Katana. They are old tyres. They came with a wheel set that I got from another bike that I bought off ebay and found did not fit me anymore. They are Michilin Brand tyres and are quite good. They have stood up to on and off wear for about 2 years. Lindsay from Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club noticed the issue and identified the fault. The casing had going in the rear tyre meaning that we had a bulge that made the tyre unstable.
Lindsay recommended Continental Gator Skins. I have had some experiance with Continental tyres before and found them to be reasonable. I ran a Contential Ultra Sport on the back of the Red Hybrid for a number of years and found it to be reasonable. The only drawback to Continental tyres is cost. The thing with good tyres is that they need to have some form of puncture resistance. This is usually in the form of the casing or the bead which on good tyres is usually kevlar similar to that used in flack jackets.
A couple of months ago I found I wore the rear tyre out on the Green Trek, I bought another Schwable tyre from Cheeky Monkey at about $50. With this in mind, I decided to see what I could save on road bike tyres for the Katana by taking a look on the Internet. I would then compare them to local bicycle shops and work out if I am going to get a good bargain. I dencided to limit the amount I would pay for the set of tyres to $75.oo.
Starting with www.torpedo7.com.au I had a look at the tyres available. They are selling Continental Ultra Sports for $29.95, the Michelin Erilium2 at $32.95 and the Michelin Speedium 2 at $29.99. Theydo not have the Continental Gator Skin. I ordered some stuff of Torpedo7 before and it took about a week to get to me. They are based in New Zealand but do have a presence here. Postage is set at $9.00, so this will have to be factored in when ording.
Next on the list was Dean Woods Direct (www.deanwoods.com), which is run out of a bike shop in Wangaratta in Victoria. It is owned and run by Dean Woods a former champion track cyclist. They have the Continental Ultra Sports at $59.00 and the Continental Gatorskin Ultra at $75.00. They also offer a Michelin Lithion tyre and Tube combo for $89.00. I have found Dean Woods to be reasonable with the timing of their deliveries although you will pay more to get their gear quicker. However in the words of Ned Kelly such is life.
My next stop was www.cellbikes.com.au which are a site run from a shop in Stanmore in Sydney. I am likely to visit this shop sometime soon and will upgrade the post when I do. They list the Continental Gator Skin at $65 a pop. They also list the Continental Ultra sport foldable road bike tyres at $45 and the Maxxis Detonator road bike tyre at $34.95. I have dealt with Cellbikes before and found them to be reliable. I would also contrast the prices for tyres etc on their website with those in store. Occasionally they have been known to have extra stuff they do not list on their website in store.
The next stop is a new site Probike Kit. This is a site mostly based in the UK that has an Australian offshoot and Australian Prices. Nothing really exciting here, though they do have the Continental Gator Skin folding tyres at $31.14, the Michelin Speedium at $20.41 and Vittoria Zaffiro pro slick tyres at $23.91. I haven’t had much to do with Probikekit but I do know people who have. They are based in the UK and charge a flat rate of 12 pounds. Depending on the exchange rate used it is likely to put the price of the goods up significantly.
Pedals Plus – a website run by a chain of bikeshops in Bondi Junction, Mona Vale and St Ives has Vittoria Zafferos at $29.00. They state they will deliver the goods to anywhere in Australia for $9.95.
I then went to Woolys Wheels which is run by a bikeshop in Paddington. There was nothing exciting here either. I suspect that the sites run by bike shops actually would prefer customers actually come into the shop as opposed to buying on line.
All of this leads me to the my visits to bikeshops in Sydney. Yesterday Ivisited Innercity Cycles at Glebe and found I can get a Specialised road bike tyre for $35.00. I have replaced the front tyre on the Red Hybrid with one of these. It seems that they are just as good as the Continental tyres.
I have also visited bikerepairs.com.au which are the repair depot for the King Street Cyclery. I found the Vittoria Zaffiros there on sale for $29.95. I am inclined to try the actual King Street Cyclery to see if they do have any more tyres available as the number of tyres there were limited.
The other bike shop I visited was CheekyMonkey/Cheeky Transport in Newtown. They have Schwable tyres there for $40.00 a pop. They are reliable and having used them on the Green Trek I would normally recommend them but they can be problematic.
My position on ordering gear on line is that it has to be compared with actually purchasing gear from the bike shop. The internet has given consumers in general greater choice however it does have some dangerous pit falls related to quality and price. You can get burned on line in the same way as you can get burned in a normal shop. Thre are some people who have some ethical hang ups with purchasing on line putting the Local Bike Shop in jeopardy. However as with all the other parts of the economy the openess to trading online can save you some money and some hassels if you actually do some research. As I have also pointed out the reach of some of the Local Bike Shops has been extended by the internet.