Originally Posted by
james_swift
I really don't know why this bike doesn't ship with cloth rim tape. The failure rate of the cheap rubber strip is incredibly high, and I'm sure Bikesdirect knows it. The Performance-branded Velox tape only cost my $6, at-cost is probably less than $3. Would it really have killed sales of the bike if they added $3 to the price tag, as opposed to inconveniencing the customer?
What else cheap on the bike should be replaced...? And still keep it under $300? As it is, adding that cloth tape would push it over $300... Corners get cut on price-point bikes, rim tape is one of them.