€87 shipped to the US (customs and everything paid)

€87 = $127 (USD has really slide recently)

wait!

they have big bens on sale for €13/tire

check here:

Bike24 - Tires 26 inch (MTB) of Schwalbe, Continental, Maxxis, Michelin, Hutchinson, Specialized, Bontrager, Ritchey, Vredestein, Surly, Nokian Tyres, 45NRTH, Mavic, Tufo, KCNC and Vittoria

more than 100 Schwalbe tires in 26" ... some great deals in there!

If you go bigger, check out the Continental Town and Country tire. I run 2.1" on my commuter and while huge, they have a thin sidewall and roll out pretty efficiently.

Tire Jack

There are times that I swear it's the best thirteen bucks I ever spent.

Levers remove tires, the jack puts 'em on (when fingers and thumbs just won't get it).

Better, but still $50 with the shipping. Last Tservs I bought were $37 ..

Good deals for sure. Looks like I can get the Schwalbe Marathon Racer Performance 26x1.5 and the Continental Grand Prix 4 Season 700x28c I wanted for my cross bike for about $30 less than I can get them here if I buy it all together.

I got my Marathon Supremes from Star Bike. They were something like $35 each at that time, but shipping brought the total up to around $90 -- still a bargain in my estimation.

Thanks for that! I've been wanting to try out the Big Bens and get some Schwalbe tubes too, that price break was enough for me to finally pull the trigger.

Cool. If you need any help with the German-ified English, let me know!

Na, commerce is universal. I'm just confused about whether I'll get charged VAT.

Not if you ship to the US.

Most sites will correct for that when you adjust the delivery country.

In Germany, it's 19% Mehrwertsteuer (MwSt), and you won't get changed/billed.

Good luck,

I've had horrible luck with those. They came stock on my Safari and after my 5th flat(2fr/3r) I ditched them. I've run Serfas Drifters(almost the same tread) with no issues.

+1. I've also never pinched a tube using that.

I've got one of these:


Sometimes it works wonders on tires I can't get on. A few times it hasn't been enough and I've had to take the wheel and tire inside to warm up (which is a lot more effective than you might expect).

In 26 x 1.5 I like:

1) Panaracer RiBMo
3) Schwalbe Marathon
3) Panaracer TServ

Love the feel of the TServ, sidewall damage killed a couple of tires and I decided to go with something else. Light, and the 1.25s were real quick, but jarring on a rigid aluminum mtn bike pressed into commuter service. I still have a set of spare 1.75s to try out.

Marathon -- surprisingly supple, wear like iron, grip like... perfectly adequate grippy things. Heavy, not overly fast.

RiBMo -- stupid name, excellent tire. Lighter and faster feeling and cheaper than Marathons; not quite as fragile or as light as TServs. Just right.

Any of them make great commuter tires. If speed is your first priority, TServ out of this group. I like better wear, puncture protection of RiBMos.

And, while nowhere near a fast tire, Schwalbe Big Apple 26 x 2.35 are faster than they ought to be and super fun to ride.

my tire kit has 2 of these randonneurextra: Making life easier: VAR tire lever

with tight tires I use both and work them towards each other .

I have a set of Marathon Supremes (26 x 2.0) with about 6000 trouble free miles and highly recommend them. A little pricey, but quite a nice riding (and wearing) tire.

I've got those eyeballed for my next order, I like the space saving feature.

Retrogression has them for twelve bucks.

Nope. Though it's been a long time since I rode them. They weren't terribly slow, either, I'll grant that. Not speedsters, though.

My "winter" training bike rolls on LBS Bontrager H2 26x2 take offs that I got for $18 apiece. About 2500 on them, probably good for 2k more.

Another vote for the Panaracer tservs, they're a great balance between durability and fun ride, and they are very good on water/wet leaves and ice. I use 1.5, plenty of air for me.

I like them on ice too. It rarely freezes* here, but once when I was out on the end of an iced over pier they perfromed admirably. I think they have a higher rubber content, they feel nicely "sticky" in such conditions:



* That I can see anyway. I think sometimes the bridges are icy, but I don't even notice because the tire does well with it.

Interesting. Thanks! I thought that when I've ordered from the UK I did get charged VAT, but it's been awhile, I'm not sure.

Yeah, I wouldn't trust the Brits!

Anything paid in € and shipped out of the EU, will have the 19% VAT removed from the billed cost.

People on BF seem to have good luck with the large sites in Germany and France.

I ride low-income / industrial / post-industrial urban dirty/torn up streets and have flatted the rear twice in four years of fall/spring commuting. (Schwalbe Marathon Winters during the ice season.)

Plus one ↑↑↑↑ - - I used a pair of Town and Country about a decade ago and frankly they weren't worth the paper they were printed on. I like Conti's (I use Sport Contact now - no flats since 2008(?)) but the Town and Country were a laughable miss