On Wed, 2 Jun 2021 09:03:34 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 6/1/21 5:25 PM, John B. wrote:
On Tue, 1 Jun 2021 11:12:28 -0700, Joerg
wrote:


[...]

No, I buy cheap tires because with lots of bike stuff you simply do
not get what you pay for. I found out that $15 road bike tires do
not last any less on average than $50 ones. Same on the MTB. I had
really expensive tires on the rear. Lasted 800mi. Now I use $20
tires and they last ... 800mi. Then the tread is gone.


Yes, but it is possible to make a bicycle tire that would last your
quoted 50,000 miles. Of course it will, like the auto tire, be
substantially heavier and thicker then the more up-market bike tires
and a cursory check of prices indicate that they will be in the $200
- $300 or higher , range.


So why can Michelin make them for cars for $80?

In 2012, the Michelin produced 166 million tires. Development and
tooling thus can be costed over a vast number of items sold.


In fact there was a guy that used to post here that was making
tires. You could try and contact him to see whether you could have
custom tires with (I estimate) about 5/8" thick tread and perhaps
1/4" sidewalls.


Well, obviously I don't want to pay hundreds for a custom solution.


My SUV tires cost me $80 and they last well over 50,000mi even
when often schlepping half a ton of firewood across rutty dirt
roads. Now that's what I call a good price/performance ratio.

$1.60 that I believe I mentioned I had seen the tires that you
advocate on sale here for... lets see, that would be 80/1.60 = 50 X
800 = 40,000 miles... It sounds like you are getting your money's
worth.

Of course, if you are naive to pay $20 for a $1.60 item then there
is no help for you.


It's simple. You have to live with whatever prices are demanded where
you live. Give us an example here where we can order a Vittoria Zaffiro
for $1.60. Or as the Romans used to say, hic Rhodus, hic salta :-)

Why? You stated that you used cheap Thai made tires and I came across
what you described in a wholesale place in Phuket and told you what
the cost really was.

Besides, you can never get Continental Gatorskins for that price and
even those don't last. I tried four in a row and the results were poor.

[...]

But, as I mention in another post the Chinese are selling bike tires
for as low as $1.00 each in lots. Using your own figures you can buy
80 tires for the $80 that you pay for your SUV tires times the 800
miles you claim, or 64.000 miles at the cost of one SUV tire.
--
Cheers,

John B.