Schwalbe Marathons

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Tim
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Schwalbe Marathons

Postby Tim » Sat Mar 09, 2013 5:31 pm

Just been checking my tyres and was a bit surprised to find how poor a condition my rear tyre is in.
I'm still on the original Schwalbe Marathon that hasn't even done 3000km's yet.
There are at least 6 cuts in the tread that are about 3/4 of an inch long. Each cut sits on the edge of the knobby section of tyre and passes right into the green guard. The tread looks split more so than cut.
Admittedly I've been riding over some sharp rocky roads with a heavy load but I expected better than this.
The basic/original Marathon isn't an expensive tyre so it's not a major problem I just thought they were a bit tougher than they appear to be. Still, I haven't had to mend a puncture yet so the green guard seems to work.

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Tim
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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby Tim » Sun Mar 10, 2013 9:57 am

Thinking of trying out one or two of the Vittoria Randonneur tyres.
I know that tyre threads have been done to death but I can't find much info doing a quick forum search.
il Padrone has recommended Vittoria in the past, I think. There are several Vittoria Randonneur City/Touring models.

Wiggle have these; http://www.this link is broken.au/vittoria-rando ... tyre-2012/ and others at fairly cheap prices.

IP, which model do you use?
Any other recommendations?
Is the Shwalbe Marathon Plus any superior to the original Marathon?
I ride mostly bitumen and good trails but occassional rough stuff that appears to have cut up the Marathon originals.

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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby RonK » Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:06 am

Unless you live in thorn country, or can't manage an occasional puncture repair, I 'd give the Plus a miss - they are extremely heavy.
For the kind of mixed surfaces you ride the Dureme might be a good choice, otherwise it's the heavy duty Mondial.
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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby Tim » Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:14 am

Thanks Ron.
Yoohoo, il Padrone. I know you're around here somewhere? :)

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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby il padrone » Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:55 am

The best Vittoria tyres that I have used are the Randonneur Cross. I have then in the 26x1.75 size and have routinely had ~14,000kms before any of the red puncture-protecting layer starts to show. They are also available in 700C, the narrowest being 28mm. There is also the standard Randonneur for a more slick tyre (I have had one puncture in these, but also very tough), and the Randonneur Pro for a folding tyre - I am about to fit these for our forthcoming tour of Italy.

I picked up a Marathon Cross trye once..... brother what a log!! The same size tyre as my Rando Cross weighs 50% more. But they're puncture-proof you say. Well I've yet to have a penetration puncture in my Randonneur Cross, and that's with travel through known thorn country and on one occasion pulling a number of thorns out of the tyre.
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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby Aushiker » Sun Mar 10, 2013 12:23 pm

I have the Schwalbe Marathon Mondial HS428 47-622 28 x 1.75 on my Surly Long Haul Trucker at the moment and they have done 3,626 km. I fitted them for my Chasing the Dirt tour. They are wearing good, I find them good on the bitumen and on the dirt roads (within their limitations), but I have had two punctures with the tyre fitted to the trailer, not the bike. One was a grass seed through the side wall but not sure of the other cause.

They are not a light tyre but coming in at 760 grams.

Andrew
Last edited by Aushiker on Sun Mar 10, 2013 1:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Tim
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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby Tim » Sun Mar 10, 2013 1:21 pm

Thanks Andrew, Ron and Peter.
Once again some good, well informed advise.

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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby Becker_11 » Sun Mar 10, 2013 2:21 pm

I'm no expert but from your description it seems the tyre may have been under inflated and compressed against a rock or other hard edge causing the split. Have you checked the pressures you're using against the maximum recommendation on the sidewall?

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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby Tim » Sun Mar 10, 2013 3:00 pm

Becker_11 wrote:... seems the tyre may have been under inflated and compressed against a rock or other hard edge causing the split. Have you checked the pressures you're using against the maximum recommendation on the sidewall?
Thanks for the suggestion but if anything I thought the tyres may have been overinflated for rocky conditions. I normally run them at about 70 PSI as was the case when I suspect the damage was done.
Somehow I think this rock would have sliced up almost any tire. It was lightly scattered, 40-60mm diameter, crushed blue-metal, very sharp and pointed.
It looked like this;

Image

The trouble arose whenever I unavoidably and frequently rode over a single piece of this rock on an already hard packed and dry clay substrate.
I've seen similar rock puncture a knobby 4WD tyre so the Marathons probably did ok not puncturing.

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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby Baldy » Sun Mar 10, 2013 3:37 pm

Gday Tim

I did about 6000km on a set of Vittoria Randonneur Cross Pro. Touring and general around town stuff and they were good, roll well and only 2-3 flats that I can remember and that was torwards the end and part of the reason I replaced them. They still have a tiny bit of tread showing in the centre and would probably do a few more thousand km without too much trouble. I kept them as spares.

I replaced them with Schwalbe Marathon Extreme. Having bigger nobbies they don't roll quite as quick but they have been very good.Done around 3000km and are wearing well, just to the point of swapping the rear to the front to even up the wear rate a little.[some people don't agree with doing this but what would they know eh!] Both sets are 32mm but the marathons are a bigger tyre.

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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby Tim » Sun Mar 10, 2013 4:28 pm

Thanks Baldy.
I might give the Vittoria Randonneur Cross a try.
Cycling Express have them for $24.95. Cheap as.

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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby rifraf » Tue Mar 12, 2013 8:34 pm

I've absolutely no complaints about my Marathon Plus's and would happily buy them again for my Moulton.
I've had about four punctures from memory but I find them easy to get on and off my Aeroheat rims.
With the amount of glass that seems to abound in my area of WA I'm only surprised I havnt had more punctures.
I was initially worried about the weight handicap due to them being much heavier than my initial Maxxix tyres but they have proved their worth and I've
never really noticed the extra grams. :D
Good luck with the choice :D
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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby WestcoastPete » Tue Mar 12, 2013 9:22 pm

I'm pretty happy with my Marathon Supremes. They're much lighter than the standard Marathons. I had issues up in Darwin with splits in the sidewalls after being fitted for a year on the folding bikes (20" wheels). The same happened to the Supremes I fitted as replacements actually, but the Supremes on my expedition bike (26" wheels) are still all good. I have had two punctures with them, both on tour. One was a packing staple and the other was some sort of nail. I'm not convinced that the Marathons would have any better luck.

As an aside; I've never used the Vittoria Randos, but I plan to...

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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby rifraf » Tue Mar 12, 2013 9:26 pm

Tim wrote:Thanks Baldy.
I might give the Vittoria Randonneur Cross a try.
Cycling Express have them for $24.95. Cheap as.
Very hard to argue with that price especially with the good mileage that IP gets out of a set.
Give em a twirl and report back :D
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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby Baldy » Wed Mar 13, 2013 1:13 pm

Just to be clear mine are the Cross Pro which are the folding version. Bit lighter but I have no idea if they have the same rubber. Tread pattern looks the same.

I very much doubt you will get 10k out of the rear on one of these. I forgot about another set of tyres I have, so revise the km down to about 4k on the cross pros.

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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby il padrone » Wed Mar 13, 2013 1:26 pm

Hmm.... I was looking around for this folding version to replace the worn Vittoria Randonneur Cross, but couldn't find them in 26", only 700C. Have you got them in 700 or 26", Baldy? Ended up getting the somewhat slicker tread Randoneur Pro.

As to mileage, they seem to be the same casing as the Rando Cross, so should give the same life as the wire bead version. I have consistently had ~14,000kms. That's on all sorts of road surfaces and a lot of fully loaded touring. Maybe the 700c in a narrower width gives less life. :? :?:
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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby rifraf » Sat Mar 16, 2013 3:23 pm

il padrone wrote:Hmm.... I was looking around for this folding version to replace the worn Vittoria Randonneur Cross, but couldn't find them in 26", only 700C. Have you got them in 700 or 26", Baldy? Ended up getting the somewhat slicker tread Randoneur Pro.

As to mileage, they seem to be the same casing as the Rando Cross, so should give the same life as the wire bead version. I have consistently had ~14,000kms. That's on all sorts of road surfaces and a lot of fully loaded touring. Maybe the 700c in a narrower width gives less life. :? :?:
I believe "consistent" correct tyre pressure range has a lot to do with longevity in tyres.
Regardless of whats offered on the casings by manufactures many riders think they know better. :shock: :roll:
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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby Baldy » Sat Mar 16, 2013 8:16 pm

Yeah mine are 700c. They still have life in them and if I got another couple of thousand k's I'd be happy overall.

You might have been on it? Our main bike track here is about 15km long and has 14 road crossings. Gates on both sides of them all and some are tighter than others. So lots of braking and taking off again. Being the hoon that I am that means lots of late braking and out of saddle to get going again, half the time while still going through the gates. You can hear and feel the tyres begging for mercy :lol:

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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby polishbiker » Sun Mar 17, 2013 4:17 pm

my last tour i used swhcalbe supreme 26x2.0, lasted 10.000km without swapping around, had 1 puncture but was internal, really good tires in my opinion.
waiting for 26x20 schwalbe mondial evolution to arrive for my next trip so will see how they go.

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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby brumby33 » Tue Oct 20, 2015 11:20 am

I recently bought a VWR off ebay and it's got the std Shwalbe Marathons 700 x 35 and I noticed the other day that the rear tyre is showing a few green specks on the right side but only in one spot of the tyre and isn't showing anywhere else.
Took it to my bike shop and they couldn't tell me either what the green is under the black tread rubber.....I was just wondering...is this the start of the Kevlar belt I've been reading about and how far should I let it go before replacing the tyre? At this stage I can only see about 4 small specks.

I've never used these tyres before but have read that they are some of the best you can get for these touring type bikes so I'm happy to replace with same if need be.

Someone please enlighten me :)

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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby find_bruce » Tue Oct 20, 2015 12:22 pm

Short answer, the green is the puncture protection - time to get a new tyre, but no urgent hurry.

Long answer - you have the Schwalbe marathon green guard which Schwwalbe describes as "Puncture Protection Level 5" - as the name suggests the puncture protection is green & its 3mm thick.

The more commonly known marathon is the marathon plus which has "Puncture Protection Level 6" - the smart guard layer is blue & 5 mm thick.

There is also a Marathon Deluxe Evolution tyre which has a different construction of protection & the layer is yellow. I have switched to this tyre as it is ~500g lighter per tyre than the marathon plus. Cheapest price seems to be from the German stores, eg Bike24

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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby Kaete » Sat Oct 24, 2015 5:47 pm

Hi all,

I was so impressed with the Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres that came already equipped with my Gazelle Fuente Trekking bike I bought some four years ago, that I've since (earlier this year) added Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres, front and rear, and albeit slightly wider, to my everyday commuting Giant hybrid bike as well.

The Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres on my touring bike seem to have hardly worn at all, despite some 6000 klms or so, often carrying heavy loads, on reasonably rough bitumen roads. An added extra advantage is that the Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres also have a reflective strip built into the tyre wall.

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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby Leaf T » Sun Oct 25, 2015 12:54 pm

polishbiker wrote:my last tour i used swhcalbe supreme 26x2.0, lasted 10.000km without swapping around, had 1 puncture but was internal, really good tires in my opinion.
waiting for 26x20 schwalbe mondial evolution to arrive for my next trip so will see how they go.
I like the supremes too but wish I'd bought the 2" version instead of the 1.5. I've been having trouble with carpal tunnel tingles/numbness and am searching for a 26 x 2 inch touring tyre as it will cushion the ride a little. I'd buy the Supremes but I'm hoping there are cheaper alternatives especially after I had one fail with about 1200km's use. Something like the Vittoria Rando II with 2 inch width would be ideal.

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Re: Schwalbe Marathons

Postby Leaf T » Sun Oct 25, 2015 1:02 pm

Kaete wrote: The Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres on my touring bike seem to have hardly worn at all, despite some 6000 klms or so, often carrying heavy loads, on reasonably rough bitumen roads. An added extra advantage is that the Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres also have a reflective strip built into the tyre wall.

kind wishes,
Kaete
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I think your pluses will last a long time. Mrs Leaf T has done well over 20000 on marathon green guards and they're still going strong. It's starting to annoy me. It means I can't pass on my tyres so I can try something new :D

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