Tyres and their price

[in4]

I was checking the price for new car tyres and found some for £54, fitted. Coincidentally I’m looking for new tyres for my Nomad. Granted the ones I’ll probably buy are ‘the best’ but they are also £54! Why are bicycle tyres so expensive?’ Is it a unit cost issue? Is it a 26 inch issue? Are they not expensive at all and I’ve just too tight a grasp of my coin? 🪙

[geocycle]

That’s about the going rate.  Top end 700c tyres are £70-£80 now.  I’m not sure why, is it a global increase or something UK specific?

[WorldTourer]

I was checking the price for new car tyres and found some for £54, fitted. Coincidentally I’m looking for new tyres for my Nomad. Granted the ones I’ll probably buy are ‘the best’ but they are also £54! Why are bicycle tyres so expensive?’ Is it a unit cost issue? Is it a 26 inch issue? Are they not expensive at all and I’ve just too tight a grasp of my coin? 🪙

The Schwalbe tires popular for touring are, from the big German online shops serving the entire EU, still around 40€. I haven’t seen a big price increase recently, and if one shops around, one can save a few euro. Is the situation in the UK really so much more expensive?

[JohnR]

Merlin has competitive prices for tyres https://www.merlincycles.com/.

[PH]

I tend to find bike tyres around a third of the price of the equivalent car tyres, plenty of £15 or less around to compare to cheap car ones and plenty of £150+ car tyres to compare to top spec bike ones.  I've been paying around £30 for Schwalbe's better touring tyres, up from about £25 a few years ago. 

[B cereus]

I think you’ve mostly answered your own question; you’re comparing budget car tyres against premium bicycle tyres. The comparison looks more proportional if you compare like with like, the cheapest bicycle tyres are selling for around a quarter of the price of your £50 budget car tyres.

[Mike Ayling]

I was checking the price for new car tyres and found some for £54, fitted. Coincidentally I’m looking for new tyres for my Nomad. Granted the ones I’ll probably buy are ‘the best’ but they are also £54! Why are bicycle tyres so expensive?’ Is it a unit cost issue? Is it a 26 inch issue? Are they not expensive at all and I’ve just too tight a grasp of my coin? 🪙

Apart from cycling being a sport/entertainment which means load the sales price there is also a volume consideration, I assume that there are far more motor vehicle tyres sold than bike tyres. Higher volume can theoretically lead to lower prices.

[deejayen]

When I last bought silk tubs for my fixie they were around £100 each.  The premium-brand tyres for my Land Rover were also £100 each last time I bought them.  The main difference is that the silk tubs generally lasted somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 miles, and I usually get 100,000 miles from my Land Rover tyres. 

If I compare tyre cost and wear rates with my more typical bikes and cars, then bike tyres still end up costing more per mile.