CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting

Studded winter tyres for icy commuting - where to buy?

(14 posts)
  • Started 5 years ago by threefromleith
  • Latest reply from acsimpson

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  1. threefromleith
    Member

    I'm planning to get a set of spiked winter tyres (700 x 38c) to fit on my new eBike to allow me to cycle through winter for the first time in years.

    For those who already use these tyres - can you recommend a good place to buy them? Most online retailers I can find by Googling don't actually have the tyres (or only have a set or two in obscure sizes) once you follow their links.

    Any additional advice to using and bedding-in winter tyres is also welcome.

    (EDIT: I see more available in 700 x 35 - perhaps 700 x 38 isn't a popular size and hence the scarcity?)

    Posted 5 years ago #

  2. wingpig
    Member

    Bike discount.de has lots of sizes.
    I got lucky a couple of years ago when I found some of the correct size on PlanetX, when PlanetX delivery was temporarily working correctly.
    I don't know if any local tangible shops have ever had any in since TheBikeChain...

    Posted 5 years ago #

  3. steveo
    Member

    I got mine from a lbs on eBay and after I burst the bead on one spa had a sale on so I picked up the replacement from there. But these were 26".

    Posted 5 years ago #

  4. duncans
    Member

    Coulda swore I saw some in the Bike Smith at haymarket.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  5. Ed1
    Member

    I bought 3 winter tyres on Wiggle a week Friday ago. Only £26 each. I got the message hemmes was out for delivery on 3 different occasions they did not show. hemmes then sent me a message saying as had attempted 3 deliveries are sending the tyres back. I contacted Wiggle turned out hemmes had not attempted a delivery at all. They claimed my address is not deliverable royal mail and indeed hemmes themselves have managed before.

    So I said to wiggle would pick the tyres up. They then claimed the tyres are lost and not being returned.

    Very poor service from wiggle, when deliveries fail you get time you can pick up from depo. If the tyres were lost why would they say they were returning them. Why would they then change their story to the tyres are lost.

    Fairly annoyed as getting colder and their time wasting means need to start the process again with company abroad.

    I have bought quite a bit on line and never had a company that would not arrange depo collection as have had before when they failed to deliver.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  6. gembo
    Member

    @Ed1, this is a key part of their business and indeed Hermes business.

    I am never ordering anything on line again

    Posted 5 years ago #

  7. Arellcat
    Moderator

    If we're bashing Hermes, they put a hole in the cardboard box that contained a rather nice (and fortunately very well packaged within) piece of hifi that I had delivered a few weeks ago.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  8. acsimpson
    Member

    That sounds more like Hermes doing the bashing.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  9. ejstubbs
    Member

    @Ed1: "I have bought quite a bit on line and never had a company that would not arrange depo collection"

    I'm not sure Hermes actually have anything that could reasonably called a 'depot'. I suspect that their delivery drivers collect their parcels for delivery off the back of a truck at a motorway services area somewhere. It wouldn't surprise me if "lost" means that the minimum-wage amateur driver entrusted with the parcel just ditched it when they couldn't find your address within the two and a half seconds allocated in their schedule for making the delivery.

    The worst I have encountered for actual depot collection was APC. Their local depot was located at the far end of that rather odd sort-of industrial estate off Gogar Station Road, with opening times that appeared to be dictated by the phase of the moon. The appearance of the premises was somewhat forbidding and my recollection is that there was no obvious sign of actual APC branding. Personnel to address the needs of calling customers appeared to be thin on the ground. I think it took about half an hour from me ringing the bell to someone (who was at least fairly jolly about it) finally handing over my parcel.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  10. wingpig
    Member

    A range of parcel-wranglers have left parcels in landfill bins or with the wrong neighbours or sent them back out for delivery when I asked for them to be kept at the depot for collection, so I usually opt for a collection point. MyHermes tend towards tinywee localshops.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  11. Trixie
    Member

    I recently had a parcel I'd sat in waiting for left mysteriously outside my door in the middle of the night (well, sometime before 7am anyway). The online tracker said it was back at the depot then lost. Then a week later a delivery driver attempted to knock and run leaving a huge box of expensive electronics goods at my door. They were for a completely different address. Driver wasn't fazed when I pointed out the error. I'd happily pay a bit more if online shops had an option for 'send by Royal Mail'.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  12. threefromleith
    Member

    I ordered a set from Spa Cycles last Thursday. I emailed them on Saturday as there was no indication from their blurb that they would confirm dispatch. I finally got a response yesterday afternoon from a member of staff, telling me they'd gone out that day via APC Couriers and would be with me tomorrow (which is now today).

    However, since then I've had further emails telling me that no, they'd gone out with Royal Mail for delivery today; then another telling me they'd made a mistake and my parcel was actually sent out at the start of October and delivered on the 2nd October.

    Perhaps Spa Cycles are actually from Gallifrey, as I only placed the order on the 17th!

    So currently I've no real idea whether they have been dispatched at all, or who they're being delivered by.

    Deliveries are so stressful these days - I can see me slowly abandoning online shopping unless they deliver exclusively to either a locker or a local CollectPlus shop.

    (To cheer me up further, a dehumidifier I ordered online allowed me to select a delivery date - so I chose Friday, when I'll be at home on a day off and able to sign for it. I just got a dispatch confirmation email this morning, confirming it's gone out for delivery tomorrow (Wednesday). Why do I bother..... )

    Posted 5 years ago #

  13. threefromleith
    Member

    Update - through a badly-spelled, ungrammatical email sent to me by Spa Cycles at 4.20pm yesterday, I learned that APC had tried & failed to deliver to me that morning, and that I should try to rearrange delivery directly with APC.

    Of course, the APC website wouldn't recognise the consignment number so I ended up having to call the Edinburgh depot and find it / rearrange delivery.

    The joys...

    Posted 5 years ago #

  14. acsimpson
    Member

    If anyone is looking ahead to next winter now is a good time to buy studs. CRC has them for £22.50 in their clearance section.

    Posted 4 years ago #

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