tonkaboys

I loved the Criterium K20 in the 25mm size.
Are they no more?

-holiday76

where they any good? I've got these 700x32 Avocet Cross tires that are new:

tonkaboys

I don't know about the cross tires but the Criterium K20 was a nice tire.

Elev12k

What happened?

I bought them all

Acquired a job lot of Criterium and TimeTrial tires recently. I bought them in the 1st place because of the skinwall, but I have enjoyed some miles with them already and they are okay. Thumbs up.

clubman 

[QUOTE=-holiday76;12303184]where they any good? I've got these 700x32 Avocet Cross tires that are new:

One Avocet Cross model came with a Kevlar bead (look for the "K" on the label) Far and away the best commuting tires ever made in my mind. I put about 10k kms on a pair...and then they stopped selling them.

Bianchigirll 

I never used the cross tire Holiday is showing but I sold a bunch of them in 26x. I LOVED the K20 with the kevlar belt in x25 fabulous tire. I still have a pair of them in x32 on my mountain bike road wheels.

the Paselas are a very close match IMHO.

RobbieTunes

I have a NOS pair of Criterium K20's in what appears to be 700x21. I scrubbed the sidewall on one and the logo pretty much came off. They are slick, but seem nice. I haven't ridden them farther than the end of my driveway.

My wife has some Avocet road tires, 26 x 1.5 or 1.75, on her mtb. They roll easily as well as the road Panaracers on my mtb.

bobbycorno

Getting back to the original question, I'd heard that the factory where the tires were made (in Korea) had burned down, destroying the molds, etc, which would have made restarting production prohibitively expensive.

SP
Bend, OR

Bianchigirll 

I thought Avocet just went under and that was the end of them

unworthy1

they still have an active website, but doesn't look like a lot going on with them business-wise:
https://www.avocet.com/tirepages/tires.html
I thought they were connected with Palo-Alto Bicycles, given the close proximity (and that's where I first saw the brand retailed...but really don't know that much about them (except "since 1977"), don't know who supplied the early tires or the current ones, but I thought some of them were labeled "Japan" and not "Korea", might be mistaken, tho.

jimmuller 

I put an Avocet woman's saddle on my wife's bike decades ago. As I recall, it was one of the first woman-specific saddles. She loved it We'd like another because the original is somewhat worn.

noglider 

Jobst Brandt designed the smooth tread tires that Avocet sold, starting the smooth tread tire trend!

They were good tires. Originally, IRC (Inoue Rubber Company) in Japan made them. Panaracer claims it is now the only remaining bike tire maker in Japan. IRC were good, and so were Mitsuboshi. I love Japanese bike tires!

RFC

[QUOTE=clubman;12303461]+1. Absolutely great tires. My favorites. Very tough and reasonably light compared to Schwabe. I'd buy some 700/28Ks in a minute.

Shimagnolo

I picked up a Panaracer Pasela TG to use as a spare for my touring bike, just because it rolled up into such a nice compact ball, much smaller than the tires on the bike. After I actually had to use it, I was so impressed with the quality, I'm tempted to convert to using them as my regular touring tires.

-holiday76

no K on my labels so I guess they arent the Kevlar ones.

clubman 

I'm sure they're still a great ride. Those inverted treads work very well in bad conditions.

Charles Wahl

Avocet's treadless tires are the best clinchers I've ever ridden; wish I could find some more. Specialized Turbos were good too, but I have a suspicion that they were rebranded Avocets. Paselas are OK, but have ugly tread, IMO, and don't have the same feel -- though I've only used the TG. I can't understand why people make bike tires with tread; doesn't make any sense to me, if the rubber's good.

Mr IGH

Palo Alto Bike Shop and Avocet had the same owners back in the 80's. No idea about today.

Pars 

I'd take another pair of Avocet m30 touring shoes, 1/2 size bigger than the ones I bought back in the '80s and still use

Never tried their tires, wish I would have now.

Glennfordx4

(One Avocet Cross model came with a Kevlar bead) One of the best tires I ever owned , I used to run these on my mountain bike that saw more street use then any other bike I have owned. I put a lot of miles on them, then one day while I was heading over to a friends house ( bike loaded in the back of my pickup) to head out on a ride the rear sidewall blew out and I couldn't find a replacement. I would love to find a set of these in 700x32-5 to use on a hybrid project I have planed.

Glenn

jan nikolajsen 

We have a bike with Avocet hubs. Nice quality as far as I can judge. What else did the company produce/rebrand/contract?

Tires
Computers
Hubs
Saddles

??

mudboy

Cranks
BB's
Headsets
Pedals
Seatposts

mudboy

Much of it was rebranded from Ofmega.

JohnDThompson 

AFAIK, Avocet didn't manufacture anything themselves, but either rebranded existing products or outsourced their designs to be made elsewhere.

Hubs, pedals, headsets, and cranks were from Ofmega, as you note. Saddles were from Selle Italia, tires from IRC. I'm not sure who made their computers.

noglider 

That Avocet triple crank was super cool.

Their saddles made my Selle Italia were an innovation at the time.

By the way, Sella Italia means "Italy saddle".