What sort of racing is cheap and accessible?

my local XC wednesday night races, $5 entry.
Mates race enduro was free
Guy is looking at doing a couple of cheap ones here.

Want to do anything serious and you need some minimum standards to get simple things like insurance. That costs money. After that the question really is if somebody is creaming a profit out of that or covering costs.

The Mega always strikes me as good value. Around 110 euros including a weeks lift pass.
Or one Maxxis plus tyre
Or one tank of fuel

yeah it’s hugely subsidised locally. Stuff costs money, it’s been an eye opener talking to event organisers candidly and honestly about the costs and impacts of running events. Couple that with the expectations of punters (varies from the everything for nothing to the just have a good time lot) and it’s a tough gig.
Thankfully some people have the drive and passion to step up and make stuff happen despite the huge risks and time involved.

Remember kids, mountain biking is about laughing and doing skids in a forest, not scowling and posing in a car park.

It’s a plus size tyre, it’s a lot t more material than a normal tyre

I don’t think that has ANY bearing on cost – the materials cost in a bike tyre is tiny.

However, look at a Maxxis catalogue from 7 years ago. How many different sizes of tyre did they make? Different compounds or carcasses don’t add tooling cost, just warehousing cost.

I’m just guessing but I’d say they made the DHF in 26×2.1,2.35,2.5,2.7 and 29×2.1,2.35; so that’s five moulds.

Now they make the DHF in eleven different sizes. Are they selling twice as many tyres?

I used to help run a reasonably local 10k run. at £10-15 an entry, with 250 entrants, it would just about break even.

@nickc
Medical cover, cost of insurance, land costs, access, marshall’s, cost of timing systems, did anyone get covered for their time?

I’d say at least half the riders at Haldon trail centre ride 26″ bikes worth probably <£100. Mtb can be as cheap or as expensive as you like. The variety is great and they seem to be having great fun, same as I do on my parkwood or rigid retro bike worth about 25 quid.

I’d never pay 100 quid for a tyre but then I’m tight and I have normal narrow 29er wheels.
I’m sure in a few years the price of these will come down.

Well, that escalated (not quickly), but somehow from my shock at a frankly, stupidly expensive tyre, to a row about racing. Hmm. I’m not middle class and I can’t afford to spend £180 for tyres for a bike, but I do mountain bike, I can afford the bits I need/want. Tyres for that much can **** right off.

You can get the same tyre in Germany for seventy euro or so. £108 is just a distributor taking the piss.

Here’s a front and rear set for not much more.

https://www.bike-components.de/en/Maxxis/Minion-DHF-3C-MaxxTerra-Rekon-Dual-TR-EXO-27-5-Folding-Tyre-Set-p55785/

Maxxis are milking the faithful in my opinion.

Fat bike tyres I could understand, tooling up and size of tyre plus dev and to get into a market they weren’t part of.

Their wide Trail thing? Not so much. Other companies have been producing plus tyres at lower prices for years, Maxxis want to tweak the standard slightly and brand it while charging for the privilege of gaining what they will see as a competitive edge. That’s taking the mick in my book. If they want new branded standards? Fine, but spend their own $$$.

Personal opinion, others will vary !

RRPs mean so little in the MTB world for the most part. I recently bought a brand new 29×3 DHR II 3C for £40 which seems fair given the size of the thing.

vincienup – Member

Their wide Trail thing? Not so much.

They’re great tyres but imo that’s all, I have a 2.5 non-wt dhf and a 2.4 wt dhr2 on the same rims, they are both round and good and if it didn’t say WT on the side of one nobody’d know.

But the 2.5 shorty is genius whether or not it’s WT. And that’s kind of the issue with expensive tyres- it really hurt my soul to pay £50 for that shorty but it’s really a pretty small price increase over a cheaper tyre, if it works better.

Binners would love this thread.

It’s full of chips

Crikey! It’s all kicked off on this thread.

Yes, a £100 bike tyre is eye-wateringly expensive.

My current tyres of choice are 26″ Chunky Monkeys. £13 each ATM. I doubt the Maxxis are 8x better…

Bloody hell! Going to take mine off and get them in the classifieds 😆

I doubt the Maxxis are 8x better

Well, they wouldn’t fit your rims, so that’s a given…

RRPs mean so little in the MTB world

Yeah, they’re only £89.99 on the site 😮

TroutWrestler – Member
Crikey! It’s all kicked off on this thread.

Yes, a £100 bike tyre is eye-wateringly expensive.

My current tyres of choice are 26″ Chunky Monkeys. £13 each ATM. I doubt the Maxxis are 8x better…

My favourite tyre. Needs a bit more pressure than a super gravy or WTB tough, but a great all rounder and the price of a box of Stella or less than a stupid strap to hold a spare tube on.

Your £13 On one chunky monkeys are made by CST. the same people/factories that make Maxxis bicycle tyres

Yep I think the world and it’s dog knows that.

giantalkali – Member
Remember kids, mountain biking is about laughing and doing skids in a forest, not scowling and posing in a car park

Your comment reminded me of this video 😆 …..

“I’m faster than you”

If you don’t like it and think they’re too expensive, I suppose you have two options; 1) don’t buy them 2) get a better job.

Or whinge online obviously.

Mtbing is not inaccessible and plenty of good kit can be had cheap but..

100 quid for a tyre is just ridiculous.

It annoys me that they know folks want the best kit and are beginning to take the pee pee a bit. Sure you don’t have to buy it, but I don’t like how it’s increasing becoming a sport whereby the best equipment is solely the preserve of affluent middle classes.

http://shop.maxxis.co.uk/products.aspx?featuredsection=d#|pf,1RimSize

Cheaper…

Or whinge online obviously.

Is “whinge” in the dictionary, or would you like someone to give you a definition?

gwurk – Member
Your £13 On one chunky monkeys are made by CST. the same people/factories that make Maxxis bicycle tyres

Yes because production costs are the only driver of retail price

giantalkali – Member
Remember kids, mountain biking is about laughing and doing skids in a forest, not scowling and posing in a car park.

Hope you’re not using plus sizes Maxxis tyres for doing those skids

I can’t afford to, 26″ ain’t dead round these parts

Yes because production costs are the only driver of retail price

You’re finally ready to admit price are inflated because of #Fashion and because there’s a fairly large group of afluent gullible cyclists craving latest latest shiny shiny.

Knew you’d get there in the end Bob

They’re having an online sale

http://shop.maxxis.co.uk/products.aspx?featuredsection=d#resultspage,1|resultsperpage,10000|

I still prefer to pick up second hand tyres others have ridden a few times before deeming them ‘crap’ or ‘not getting on with them’.

Three bikes in our household are wearing a few ride old, £30 or less a pair tyres. I even have one generously given free pair…. I just permanently keep an eye out for a ‘good’ tyre, rather than a specific model.

I make my own tyres from discarded condoms and Play-Doh. They work every bit as well as the life-styling, so-called premium brands, but cost next to nothing to produce, I can’t believe anyone spends money on mountain bike components, it’s turning into a billionaire’s playground.

In next week’s instalment, I tell you how to make your own extra-wide rims from a discarded tumble-drier drum and ask the question, do you really need to buy a chain when you can find paper clips lying around the office doing nowt.

Reading page 1 of this thread and I was thinking Gwurk has to be trolling Mike, why is he so full of hate, when the other comment appeared telling Mike to stay down under Id assumed Gwurk had a second account and was trolling from this too! Staying with page 1, IMO Maxxis are pricey, buy Schwalbe…

Take a look around at the next race or trail centre you go to and tell me the about the demographic. I’ll bet you £10 it is predominately affluent, white, middle class males.

If you only look at trail centres and races you’ll only see what you want to see, I see plenty of kids in my local town centre riding around on MTB’s trying to bunny hop and jump stairs, equally when I go to the nearest spot which you can ride too, I see lots of kids on cheap bikes making kickers from mud and having a whale of a time. This is how I and maybe many others on here got into biking.

My opinion for why at trail centres and races you see more white middle class people is because of vehicle ownership and disposable income, smaller cheaper cars dont carry bikes well and Id guess most non middle class parents may be too busy to take their children to an overpriced car park and coffee shop whilst their kids disappears for several hours each weekend.

He’s had way more than one account over the years. Ban hammered a few times from memory.

oikeith – Member

Id assumed Gwurk had a second account

He’s not that subtle 😆

STW Forum member outraged by high-end niche products costing money… shocker.

It costs to fill up a T5/6.

Well wouldya look at that. They musta seen my thread 😀

Maxxis Slashes Tyres. The Price, That Is