Been trying to find a decent source of skin wall clinchers (700c). So far I’ve got Panaracer Paselas at about $30 ea, and Veloflex Pave at about $50 ea, but that’s all I’ve been able to find. All the threads on this are old and lots of the places that apparently stocked them no longer do.
I want some for the old roadie I just got. Some d*ckhead put purple tyres and tape on it (bargain bin at the LBS is my guess). Completely ruins the 80’s retro stylz
Veloflex are apparently the shit, but it’s not a bike I want to avoid riding because its got race tyres. So it looks like I have to go for the Panaracers. I may also head down to ol’ Mick Mazzas in Marrickville if I can’t find any other new ones, because he’s probably got a stack of old tyres somewhere.
Old tyres are mostly crap, and Mick’s a lovely guy but he’s hardly ever had any nice tyres in his shop for reasonable coin.
I’d go with Pasela’s if you can get them locally. If not Abbostford should have them. Don’t be afraid to run something wider if they will fit (at least 25c). Makes sense on bad Sydney roads … slightly wider and lower pressure =
If you want really nice try Grand Bois tyres from Commuter Cycles in Melbz. I run the Grand Bois in a 26mm and they look and ride very sweetly. I hear that Grand Bois also make a skinny tyre (23mm) but haven’t seen any vendors for those yet. Good quality, supple, really make your bike feel alive compared to running heavy sluggish tyres with no feel. But as I first mentioned … the Pasela’s are a good quality tyre and hard to beat for value.
the veloflex are awesome if you want to ride around corners really fast for 1000km and dont mind flats. ive been burned by the millions of punctures thanks to them but i still use them in summer even though they dont last very long. you wouldnt want to skid on them
i really rate natural sidewall tyres but they dont look good for too long if you are doing rides of any significant distance, brake dust and road filth makes them look shit pretty quickly
def don’t bother with natural sidewalls at all in winter
Commuter Cycles carry all sizes, 700x23/26/28/30… plus 650x32/42mm. They also just received Paselas, “Very cheap, and they feel nice and supple”
And just to make your life easy, Cheeky Transport now stock Grand Bois too.
Erle has the 23mm ones on his Kenevans track bike, I have 26mm on my Co-Motion (looking ugly after rainy commuting, but they’ll clean up ok.) plus both 650Bs on my Purple Travesty.
Cheers guys. I thought the range would be sort of limited. Most people want colours and black sidewalls these days.
Grand Bois look nice - I’m guessing the Japanese touring set love them. But not so sure about $80 a tyre just yet.
Panaracers seem hard to find locally (and Wiggle seems perpetually out of stock) - Rivendells the same (but I noticed that Alex Cycles has them) - Veloflex… Maybe if I wanted it to be a Sunday racer.
Thinking I’ll eventually go with the Paselas. Just looking for an aussie stockist. If I can’t find that, or they want a tonne of cash for them, I’ll order from Wiggle and wait.
There’s some real nice looking tubulars that would give it that retro look. But that’d mean a new (old) wheelset too…
Yeah ok. My bad for reading too quick. It’s not like I can pop down in my lunch break though… And I had already I looked on their website Commuter Cycles Tyres | Commuter Cycles and didn’t see them. Also searched Pasela | Commuter Cycles and got nothing. Guess I’ll have to call to find out pricing and delivery costs.
Call or email, they have a lot of stuff in stock and don’t run a webstore. Plus the Paselas only just arrived, that quote was from an email exchange between myself and one of the staff.
CDK - If you do find somewhere that has the possibility of ordering gum walls for a decent price, let me know and I wouldn be keen on a combined order, I’m also in Sydney which would make postage easy.
