We've had the Continental Race 28 tube for quite a while now with steady customer support,
but the real reason people kept buying it
wasn't "because it's a Continental tube"—
it was "because it's ¥500 including tax."
Since we can't keep that price going,
we're discontinuing it at our shop.
The product itself hasn't been discontinued by the manufacturer,
but if we reordered it, it'd run about ¥800 per tube.
The circles on the box—yellow ones are 60mm valve,
red ones are 42mm valve.
The last two 60mm valve ones sold,
so I snapped this photo right before they went out.
As a replacement,
I've been hunting around for a tube we could sell at ¥500 including tax,
and found options from both Vittoria and Pirelli.
Vittoria's is the Standard,
Pirelli's is the Sportube (SPORTUBE)
as the model name.
I was torn between the two, but
went with Pirelli.
Tire size is 23–30C,
which fits the current reality.
They make a 48mm valve length version too,
but I only ordered the 60mm.
Then, the very next day,
a distributor rep from Vittoria came by the shop, so
I told him: "Ah, you came a day late! Since I'm a sucker for good salespeople,
if you'd shown up first, I would've gone with Vittoria!"
And because I'm a sucker for salespeople,
I handed him the order form as a souvenir
and stocked up on Standard tubes.
Tire size is 20–28C,
and they come in 60mm and 80mm valve lengths,
but I only brought in the 48mm.
By the way, Vittoria's current exclusive distributor in Japan
is a company called V·T·J.
That's VTJ—an acronym for Vittoria Japan—
and I thought it was pretty smart that they didn't just call it Vittoria Japan outright.
Speaking of which,
the distributor for Dahon folding bikes
is a company called Akibow.
That's short for the old company name, Asia Machinery Trading.
They acquired and merged with their subsidiary NBS, which handles Colnago, in 2019,
but before NBS took on Colnago,
they handled Bianchi for a long time,
and NBS was originally meant to stand for "Nippon Bianchi Supply."
By not calling it Nippon Bianchi Supply directly,
if Bianchi's distribution contract ended in the future
and they picked up a different frame or complete bike brand,
they could avoid the hassle of having to change the company name.
At the time, I asked someone there,
"So what's NBS going to stand for now?"
and they told me it was Nippon Bicycle Supply.
As it is, V·T·J carries saddles, bar tape, and chemicals from brands
that have no particular capital ties to Vittoria.
If you think long-term—say V·T·J eventually stops handling Vittoria,
or the manufacturer goes under first,
and then they land a distribution contract for another tire brand—
they could maybe claim VTJ stands for "Velocity Tire Japan" or something.
But then again, V·T·J's website domain is vittoriajapan.co.jp,
so they probably couldn't pull that off.
The Vittoria box lists a claimed weight of 116g.
That's the actual measured weight of just one I pulled out and weighed.
It happens to match the claimed weight,
but that's not a setup—it's genuine.
By the way, this includes the valve cap and nut.
Same conditions as the Continental Race 28,
and the Pirelli Sportube.
Only the Pirelli has a non-removable valve core.
So, while Continental is limited to current stock only,
the ¥500 tube lives on.
How long I can keep this up, who knows.
For what it's worth, Continental tubes originally started at ¥400.
Bonus
I found an old price tag from when we used to stock Glico CCD powder drinks.
Even when buying by the box, the unit price didn't change, so
buying in bulk wasnot particularly a good deal.
I wrote that honestly on the tag.
The current retail price for CCD powder drink is ¥162 including tax,
so times have really changed.