> Why are these tires so difficult to locate. Most places I checked do not
carry
> them.
#1: Avocet has no distributors, so they need to be ordered directly from
Avocet. Not a huge deal, except that it also means there's no pipeline (second, third, fourth source
etc) of product to draw on when Avocet's out of tires (which is often).
#2: Avocet changed their compounds a while ago (on the road tires) and had
significant problems with tread peeling away. The new batch that "fixed" that problem also had tread
that peeled away. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...
#3: There are now a great many alternatives to Avocet tires, many of which
have found their way onto new bikes as OEM spec. That's a very powerful sales tool; customers tend
to ask for the same tires that came on their bikes (this has worked incredibly well for Continental
in our store, as TREK used them for a number of years on higher-end road bikes). Without that, the
demand for Avocet tends to approach that of a niche product, and it's difficult, with all the
zillions of SKUs in the bike biz, to focus too much attention on niche products and not enough on
the standard stuff that you cannot afford to be out of.
--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
http://www.ChainReactionBicycles.com