What's up with Specialized and online sellers? I am trying to find Airlock tubes and maybe a bottle of the Airlock fluid for my MTB, but there just does not seem to be anything but a few shops in the UK that sell the tubes. Does Specialized forbid their dealers from selling online? Are they trying to force me to use Slime instead?

What's up with Specialized and online sellers? I am trying to find Airlock tubes and maybe a bottle of the Airlock fluid for my MTB, but there just does not seem to be anything but a few shops in the UK that sell the tubes. Does Specialized forbid their dealers from selling online? Are they trying to force me to use Slime instead?

There are several companies that prohibit on-line sales of their products. In addition to Specialized, Trek and Cannondale also prohibit on-line sales. I'm sure there are many more.

The reason to prohibit on-line sales is to protect the dealers from competition, which in the Specialized believes helps protect the brand, and in the end is beneficial to both Specialized and their dealers.

What's up with Specialized and online sellers? I am trying to find Airlock tubes and maybe a bottle of the Airlock fluid for my MTB, but there just does not seem to be anything but a few shops in the UK that sell the tubes. Does Specialized forbid their dealers from selling online? Are they trying to force me to use Slime instead?
You can order from Specialized directly.

http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCEqSection.jsp?sid=05EquipTubesAll

They also have a dealer locator on their site.

You can order from Specialized directly.

Thanks. That helps a lot. I was not liking the idea of being forced to use Slime, which is an inferior product.

They have to be losing sales over this. They should just enforce the MSRP on sellers that want to deal online. That is what companies like Arc'Teryx do.