Old 07-25-14, 02:17 AM
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Hermespan
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Favourite tyres for Bromptonesque foldies? Focus: NO PUNCTURES! What price?

Spelling for British cyclists.

By price I mean in both senses - money spent and trade-offs.

I noticed that the Taiwanese tires on my Flamingo (Bromoton knock off) look like cah-cah after just a few months - whitewall coming off, never came with much tread, etc. But my motivation to buy something better is not aesthetics or even safety. My reasons are laziness and stupidity. I *hate* changing tires. So, this means I take my bicycle to the closest shop. Weight, performance, even price - none of these are more important to me than the goal of never (?) repeating having to wheel my bicycle 10 kilometers in the Indonesian countryside during the heat of the day. At the equator!

The rear wheel on my Flamingo XN7 looks especially complicated due to its internal hub. So when at a local bike shop I saw a sales demo of thumbtacks in cutaway Schwalbe Marathon Pluses I had a bikegasm.

The price seemed high but what is avoiding being stranded in a foreign country followed by a repair by an untrained and ill-equipped bike shack and therefore temporary fix only worth? The GM said he could bring them in in a couple of days.

At another shop (specializing in folding bikes) I found them much cheaper so got a second one.

Only now am I reading in this forum that there are downsides to them I never thought of...

1. rough ride - But how rough is rough?
2. not good grip in rain - but in the tropics which is where I do most of my riding only mad dogs and Englishmen don't just sit out monsoon downpours.

I also noticed that the second one I purchased was warped. A senior cyclist told me that the shape before putting them on is irrelevant, or at least a little distortion is normal. I am suspicious be ause in at leadt two places areas are narrower by at least a centimeter. I am going to inspect the next tires I buy before I out my money down.Oddly, both shops would have sold me the wrong tires ('Marathon' not 'Marathon plus') if I hadn't caught the error.

I hesitated to buy because already my Taiwanese tires are awfully close to rubbing against the fender and sometimes (such as if there is dried mud) they actually do. One mechanic said that Bromotons in the parked semi-fold always have one end with less allowance so I was being a worry wart a out my original tires. Both salesmen told me that the Schwalbe width of 35 would be slightly narrower than my originals of 37. Is that a plus or a minus? We're talking 2 mm, right?

Anyone else use these tires on their Bromptons, Flamingos, MITs etc?

My purpose is to be able to cycle on bad roads in Bangladesh and Burma - with nuts and bolts, automobile windshield glass and assorted debris and laugh. These tires certainly *look* right for the job.

Identifying marks on original tires: Shining double wall 6061-T6-349 X 19 37-349 (16 X 1 3/8) C-1393-1 [pressure not noted and I am not going back outside in the rain because I am a *****]
Identifying marks on these 'protection level 6/6' tires: Schwalbe Marathon Plus Performance Line SmartGuard E4 88R -002020 35-349 (16 X 1.35) HS 348
[Rotation direction mark] Inflate to min. 4.0 Bar (55 PSI) - Max 6.5 Bar (95 PSI)

Neither feel or smell like latex rubber. One is marked 'nylon'.

Just had a horrifying thought - Chinese copycat frauds make pharmaceuticals. How much you want to bet they also make bicycle parts? Shiningcycle.com website reads that they make tire rims. No mention of tires. Hmmm

Last edited by Hermespan; 07-25-14 at 03:21 AM.
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