drlogik 

I'm running low on popcorn....

And I thought Bike Lube and Carbon Bike threads were contentious.

genejockey 

Seems to me that tubular tires, which were always thought of as superior, were always really expensive, whereas clinchers, which were lousy by comparison, were cheap, but as clincher tires got better, they became more expensive, and the best are now up in the stratosphere with tubulars.

MooneyBloke

Funny thing is that Veloflex sew-ups seems to retail about what they always were (~$100ish) or even a bit less. The only reason I had a cheap stash is that in the early 2000s is that there were two gray market importers.

drlogik 

Having cut my teeth in the mid-1970's on "sew-ups" as we called them where I lived, I agree. I ran a set of Challenge Strada Biancas on one of my bikes a couple of years ago with latex tubes. The ride was as smooth as any sew-up I ran back in the day and they even had that swish-swish sound on the pavement under acceleration. They sure weren't cheap to ride with latex tubes to boot but the ride was just amazing.

pdlamb

Have you been to the grocery store lately? Have you seen the price of popcorn??

indyfabz

When I became a serious cyclist I often rode with a guy who ran tubulars. That was in the early 90s. I can’t remember what they cost, but I do remember they were really expensive compared to good clinchers of the day.

shelbyfv

IIRC, I paid about $15 for run of the mill tubulars in the mid 1970s. That would be $90+ these days. But, today for $50ish you can get clinchers that are worlds better than those 70s tubulars. You get much more tire for your money now, IMO.

indyfabz

+1.

The tires I tour and commute on are about $55 each. The last flat a got on tour was in 2017. Two others during day rides. One of those was due to a small, sharp piece of sheet metal that would have punctured any tire, I was close enough to home that I could walk.

mstateglfr 

I love this post. It is so classically you that I just love it!

- I save significantly more than $5-10 per tire buying online rather than in the shops.
- I have never waited 2 weeks for tires purchased online. I havent even waited 1 week. Ive bought plenty of tires from across the pond(England, Germany, Spain) and even those delivered in under 1 week.
- My local shops dont have the tires I like so I cant just walk in and buy them right away.
- The handful of things I have special ordered from 2 shops have actually taken 1 week or longer to deliver. One shop only places orders on Tuesday morning, so if you order Tuesday afternoon, itll be at least next Thursday before the product arrives. Hmm...that doesnt fit your narrative. Both shops have forgotten to place orders before so I waited an entire extra week. I kept the orders with them because I didnt need the stuff right away and I like to do some business with both shops due to a couple community based reasons. Neither shop is actually good at special ordering though.

One of the shops sells Rene Herse tires at the same price as online. So if I rode those, I would definitely buy them from the shop- more convenient and no waiting.

mstateglfr 

I think this post speaks more to the fact that you will spend over $105 for a so-so meal. A so-so meal costs $45 with tip right now where I live. I am sure it could cost more too, but if its only going to be so-so, why spend more?
Anyways, thats what stuck out to me.

Sy Reene

Koyote

For maximum effect, you have to put it together with another post, in which he discusses waiting sooo long for his LBS to get some tires he wanted...And finally having to go to another shop and buy some other tires at a higher price. 'Course, he likely could've gotten the tires he wanted within a few days by ordering online -- but wolfboy don't play that game!

​​​​​​For the umpteenth time: if you choose to pay more for tires because of your shopping preferences, or because you're too busy or too lazy to do a quick google search, perhaps you shouldn't complain about paying high prices.

Eric F 

Same. I'm in the suburbs of the 2nd largest city in the nation, with 5 well-stocked, busy, bike shops within 15 minutes of my house. None of them had the tires I wanted for my gravel bike. The best price I found was from Lordgun (Italy). They were in my hands in 6 calendar days, including an extra day longer than expected in customs.

Eric F 

Being out to dinner with the wife may be more important than what the meal cost.

momoman

I just got another price drop alert from camelcamelcamel informing me the price of the Continental GP5000 Black Walls dropped a penny to $40.16 on Amazon. The other reseller on Amazon dropped the price by a penny to $39.96 from yesterday’s price. Amazon must have an automatic price algorithm that sets and adjusts its price to its competitors’s price.

Road Fan

Yep, this is true!

LeeG

Tires are not getting so expensive, there are more expensive bike tires available but basic tires are inexpensive inflation adjusted than decades ago and the quality is better.

Wildwood 

I would maintain that the premise of: Good tires getting expensive = totally false.

....but you must buy On Sale ($70 SOMA Vitesse 33-622 was just 1/2 price = bought 4) and buy from UK/EU (Merlin cycles GP5000 2tires+tubes = $86.50usd).

I still have some Veloflex tubulars 25mm &27mm purchased @ ~$55 ea.

edit: A.Dugast (made in Netherlands (custom builds & odd sizes optional)) make some of the World's finest tubulars = can be purchased in the €73-85 range from the factory. With .92 exchange rate, most of the tires I would buy are ~$82.usd, so well below that $100 figure thrown out earlier.



the other thing to consider is that those 2 tires keep your ride pleasant and safe - checked the price of a pair of quality running shoes? RunnersWorld's top shoes had one pair at $92, everything else was above $100+, without socks or custom footbeds..

Koyote

And there's the essence of it: the reason that no one can define "price gouging" (and the reason why such laws are all over the map) is that the normal market price is whatever a good is selling for at a given moment. And after some calamity -- some supply shock or sudden increase in demand -- that normal market price is much higher...As it needs to be in order to prevent shortages.

livedarklions

The DPA isn't about preventing shortages, it's about coping with them when they can't be prevented.

The DPA is a direct descendant of WWII rationing. It's really all about price fixing during emergencies where allowing the free market to operate will likely cause a bunch of death. Arguably, OPA rationing combined with price fixing during WWII prevented widespread hunger while preventing rampant inflation. Obviously, there was some black market activity, but it was nowhere near enough to prevent the poorer people from being able to obtain food. At the height of the war, about 90% of the food supply had its price fixed. That couldn't have been sustained in the long run, but it worked pretty well to get the economy through the war..

Here's a fun artifact:

https://americanhistory.si.edu/colle...t/nmah_1313316

Maelochs

In other words, only rich people can afford necessities .... and that is good?

Shortages are not stopped by high prices. When say, drinkable water or plywood or whatever goes sky-high it is Due to shortages (demand exceeds supply) and the high prices are the sellers capitalizing on the shortages by raping the buyers .... the high prices do not Prevent shortages, they are the Result of shortages.

Not sure where some people live but it sure ain't on Earth ......

Koyote

As any B-student in an intro to econ course understands, rising prices are the most reliable means of eliminating shortages.

Maelochs

Right ... of course. If there is no food, don't grow more .... raise prices. Suddenly there is abundant food, right?

The THEORY is that if the prices go high enough, it will support the higher shipping costs to bring in resources from far away .... but when Nobody has excess .... well, tell me, what happened when the pandemic hit? Was there suddenly a surfeit of masks and other personal protection gear because of high prices?

Anyone who thinks Econ 101 describes the world accurately ... is free to do so.

Koyote

What do you think producers, including farmers, actually respond to? What induces them to produce more of an item?

SkinGriz

Rising prices send a signal to increase production.

It might hurt in the short run, but it’s needed in the long run.

When the West responds to a famine by sending tons of food, it is true that immediate starvation is avoided.

However, the local farmer can not give his product away for free and is thus disincentivized from going through the process to make next years crop. The local farmer may even be unable to afford to buy the seed or fertilizer to keep going, because he couldn’t compete with free.

So in giving free food, another famine is all but guaranteed.