Hi All,

So, just bought a new bike and it arrived in the post. The bike was advertised as coming with tubeless ready tyres. It turns up with just standard tyres which are not tubeless compatabe.

The shops view is that this is a minor change that they are not prepared to rectify.

Clearly I see it a bit differently and feel that if the advert says tubeless it should come with tubeless tyres. Obviously, I will now have to go and buy a new set of tyres if I want to run them without tubes.

We have exchanged a few emails and we are clearly not getting very far.

So, whose in the right and should I just suck it up and move on?

Cheers All

Dogsby

The small print nearly always says that minor changes to advertised spec are to be expected. I once ordered an XC bike which specc’d 100mm Tora fork, and it came with an 80mm one. No joy there either.

What bike? Ive seen bikes advertised as coming with tubeless ready wheels rather than tyres, can’t say I’ve looked that closely though.

Aren’t all tyres tubeless ready? If you use a stans kit or the like?

Cyclistm,

It’s a Scott Spark and the advert had it with Schwalbe Rocket Ron EVO, 29 2.25 / 127EPI Kevlar Bead, Tubeless ready / Pace star compound

Tom,

The tyres that arrived are definately not tubeless. Shwalbe RR Performance.

Scapegoat,

Interesting if not encouraging!!

You can reject it without explanation if it’s within 7 days

otherwise, if they aren’t interested in your request for a spec change you get to suck it up and keep as is

Hhhmm, that’s not good, I’m not up on schwalbe tyres but that sounds like a significant downgrade. I might be tempted to check other dealers to see what tyres are on their bikes?

Whatever the small print – if it bothers you just send it back under distance selling regs. Or get cc involved if you used one. I would consider a change of spec to be another brand of tubeless ready tyres rather than what you received. The former Ok (ish), the latter not IMO.

Schwalbe performance compound is deadly on anything slippy, I wouldn’t be using them

Whatever the small print – if it bothers you just send it back under distance selling regs.

Probably cheaper to buy some new tyres 😆

The tyres that arrived are definately not tubeless. Shwalbe RR Performance.

Stans disagree….

http://www.notubes.com/detailed_kit_instruction.aspx

B. You can convert any tires except for the following brands: Hutchinson Air Light.

I have also had it Invisiframe’d so I’m definately keeping it but I suppose I just wanted to know if my expectations were reasonable.

Rocket Rons are, in my opinion, rubbish in all but the driest of conditions. You’d want to be changing them anyway.

A different brand of tubeless tyres would be a minor change to spec as it will still do the same job. Non-tubeless is a considerable change to spec if not a downgrade.

Don’t see why the shop are quibbling, if the tyres are still new and unused its not much of a dent to their profit to do a tyre swap by post with some gunk as goodwill, and they can stick the tyres on another sale bike and describe it accurately.

Id be pee’d off it was me. Id also tell them so and inform them that you will be seeking other peoples view on all the well known forums.

I’m quite surprised they dont think its important. I bet they try hard to sell people tubeless tyres by telling them they are better.

They can supply what they advertised or suffer the endless bad press.

That’s a pretty major downgrade – £25 tyres rather than £50 ones so £50 decrease in value overall – what’s that as a percentage of the bike? Apart from the value, as others have said you’ve got a not-very-good at all tyre there instead of a really quite good one so I’d be looking to get it sorted. Those RRs will not be very grippy at all.

You can reject and return for a full refund for any or no reason so it’s in the shop’s interest to set you out. I think there’s an argument for them paying the return carriage too as it’s a fairly major change.

I’d threaten to return the bike and see if they’d rather sell you some of the correct tyres for half price instead? Or ask them for £50 off so you can put that towards the tyres?

Edit – meant to say that the tyres you have will go up tubeless no problem although not as easily as the new Rocket Rons and won’t stay inflated as long. But the significant thing here is that they are a much worse (less grippy, heavier, more puncture-prone) tyre.

Send it back get a refund

B. You can convert any tires except for the following brands: Hutchinson Air Light.

Not true – tried a ghetto conversion on my 2.2 Conti Rubber Queen at the weekend… & the sealant pissed out the side of the tyre, so not really tubeless compatible.

I’d still be keen to find out if it’s just this bike or if scott have changed the spec on all these models?

I bet the shop swapped the tyres hoping you wouldn’t notice

Haven’t almost all schwalbe tyres been tubeless ready for 2 or 3 years?

He’s already said he can’t send it back, and why.

Other than that, sending it back would be good advice.

Rocket Rons are, in my opinion, rubbish in all but the driest of conditions. You’d want to be changing them anyway.

THIS

Also agree that the switch from tubless to non tubeless is a significant change especially if you really want tubeless and it was a reason you bought it

If you dont send it back and they wont do anything then you are stuffed. Will they give a trade price on some tubeless tyres ?

I bet the shop swapped the tyres hoping you wouldn’t notice

Really? I can’t imagine any shop doing that.

mtbfix – Member
Rocket Rons are, in my opinion, rubbish in all but the driest of conditions. You’d want to be changing them anyway.

Rocket rons are my winter tyres, the good compound ones are great in the wet and (most) mud.

Re. The op, it seems unfair, if yon can’t return it not sure what you can do? Worst comes to the worst put them on eBay and order the right ones from ze Germans, probably only loose £30. Bit of a sour taste though

Send em a poo in a shoe box and move on, it’d annoy me for sure but you can get a set of tyres for 20/30 quid it just wouldn’t be worth the Ballache for me

annoying – yes
shop probably should sort you out – yes
would i let it go – yes

tbh, I’ve always assumed the position that the OEM tyres will be crap no matter what, and even if they’re not crap they’re probably not the tyres I would want to run anyway so I’ve always budgeted for a change of tyres, saddle and grips. It’s nice if you can get the shop to swap or do a deal at point of sale but not a given.

I think there’s merit in the idea of all bikes > £X being supplied without tyres, like they are without pedals, and the tyre choice being up to the customer, (with some haggling maybe) and fitted for them before they leave, would give people the choice of rubber they actually want rather than the once in a blue moon situation of the spec actually matching their preference.

I would consider that to be quite a major change, albeit not massively expensive to correct.

Wouldn’t fill me with any confidence in the shop if I had to try to make a warranty claim either.

Which shop? So, I can try and avoid them.

Thanks All for the in put and advice. Seems I am not quite as mad or as fussy as I thought I might be! However, I suspect it is a battle that I am not going to win so I will chalk it up to experience. I just hate it when people do not do the right and honest thing and now I have to go and buy inner tubes for racing this weekend and also think about buying new tyres.

Not much point mentioning the shop as it is a small issue really and their service was really good up to this point and I am sure not many of you live in Newcastle anyway.

All of this is in contrast to Invisiframe who put an outstanding bespoke heli tape wrap on the bike and even worked over the weekend to get it finished in time without me asking. Proper customer service and I couldn’t recommend them enough.

Dogsby

Buy some Maxxis TR EXO TYRES all will be good. Sell the other tyres on here cheap.

I think there’s merit in the idea of all bikes > £X being supplied without tyres, like they are without pedals, and the tyre choice being up to the customer, (with some haggling maybe) and fitted for them before they leave, would give people the choice of rubber they actually want rather than the once in a blue moon situation of the spec actually matching their preference.

Isn’t this the reason given for the fitting of cheap tyres? On expensive bikes they expect people to fit their preferred choice anyway.

As for the OP, I’d certainly be cheesed off and would take it up with them. Very naughty imo.

Now for the million dollar question: are the rims tubeless-ready? If they aren’t, it doesn’t really matter what tires they specced on the bike anyway.

I ran performance Rocket Rons for racing and while not as good as the proper compound ones the tread pattern is excellent for that use if you’re a “one tyre all year” type of rider. The performance ones do go up tubeless as well with some sealant (which you’d be running anyway), though they’ll go up much easier with some wraps of electrical tape round the rim even if the rims are tubeless to improve the seal.

STARTer for one. Was it a shop on Granger Street? Found the service hit or miss depending who you get. Would be an easy fix for them. Scott distributer is just up the road.

So, if shop is allowed to change something – where’s the point that it’s not allowed to? For example, @scapegoat’s different forks is surprising – that’s like a whole different bike isn’t it?

That’s a downgrade, not a minor change in spec. Phone and tell them you want the tyres swapping to the correct ones or a refund of the difference in rrp, or you’ll return the bike (regardless of whether you will or not).

I agree about it being annoying when good bikes come with tyres that aren’t right for your needs – I like how Bird have a wide choice of good Maxxis tyres to choose from when you buy a bike.

edenvalleyboy – Member

So, if shop is allowed to change something – where’s the point that it’s not allowed to? For example, @scapegoat’s different forks is surprising – that’s like a whole different bike isn’t it?

It’s not the shop that makes spec changes, it’s the manufacturer. And that is meant to cover, for instance, if they run out of a particular component and need to spec an alternative.

And that is meant to cover, for instance, if they run out of a particular component and need to spec an alternative.

Like when I bought my 2006 Orange 5. They’d run out of 2006 forks so fitted 2007 Fox Floats instead. No worries, very happy ta.

Replacing high spec tyres with a downgrade is not good.

Life’s to short, unless you specifically wanted tubeless tyres I would give it up and just enjoy the bike.