Touring - How much do you expect out of your tyres?

Husband and I are having a debate and thought we'd take it to the masses :)

We are rolling on Vredestein Spider 26 x 1.9 tyres. So far we have about 12,000km on them and have never had a single puncture or problem with them. The tyres are now obviously ready to be replaced (cracks showing, a red line around them, which we assume is a wear line) but we have to decide between another set of Vredesteins or the famous Marathon XRs.

I am pleased with the Vredesteins but husband says he expected more out of them and thinks XRs would last longer. I think it is unreasonable to expect much more out of tyres and want to stay with the same brand, since they've worked so well for us.

Thoughts? How much should you get out of your tyres (although I know this can depend on terrain, temperature, etc)?

The way I see it you have 3 options....
1) Divorce, clearly these are irreconcillable differences!
2) A duel to the death with pistols at dawn.
3) You get Vredsteins, he gets Marathons, and the loser
has to be real nice to the winner when the first pair dies.

...I'd go with #2.

:rolleyes:

The way I see it you have 3 options....
1) Divorce, clearly these are irreconcillable differences!
2) A duel to the death with pistols at dawn.
3) You get Vredsteins, he gets Marathons, and the loser
has to be real nice to the winner when the first pair dies.

...I'd go with #2.

:rolleyes:

:D Surely it should be a duel to the death with something bicycle related though... spokes, carefully sharpened? heavy pumps? maybe one of each...

A duel with a sharpened spoke in one hand and a U-lock in the other. Alternatively you could try bike jousting -- very flamboyant ways of settling the matter.

:D Surely it should be a duel to the death with something bicycle related though... spokes, carefully sharpened? heavy pumps? maybe one of each...

I guess with a name like Worf it ought to be
Batleths at dawn. Don't forget the bandaids :beer:

Ok, aside from the gladiatorial spins on marriage:

I usually replace tires around 2,000 miles (~3,500km). I'm sure you could get more out of tires than I do. But if he expects tires to last for more than 12,000km then yes, he's being a little bit silly. Besides, they're just tires, they aren't THAT expensive.

If you're happy with them, I'd stick with the Vredsteins....

Any tire I got 12,000 km on I would buy again unless there was something I disliked about the ride.

Any tire I got 12,000 km on I would buy again unless there was something I disliked about the ride.

+12,000kms with no punctures sounds like a great tire. I like the XRs, but I don't expect 12,000kms of wear out of them.

I just replaced a came-with-the-bike Bontrager tire after only 500 mi, so 6200 miles sounds like a terrific deal to me. I like the suggestion that you get a new set of Vredensteins and he gets the Schwalbe. You could be a 2-person focus group for the rest of us, and have some fun with it between yourselves.

Ken

I have got over 13,000 MILES repeatedly on a certain inexpensive, no-reputation tire, so 12,000km seems reasonable to me, if not more. This acheivement required rotation. Rear only would only go 60% as long. And according to the std rule, I should not have mounted a worn tire on front, but I am frugal.

Tire wear is highly dependent on load.

Tires with hard rubber will last a long time, usually they start to crack or bulge (caused by inner cord failure) and they should be replaced, which was the case in the above tires.

Schwables last a long time, and resist flatting, because they have so much rubber in the tread. Downside to this is they weigh twice as much and cost four times as much as alternative tires. I suspect the time saved in fixing flats when running these tires is completely offset by the increased time in the saddle required to cover same distance due to the 1 mph or more you lose pedaling the extra 800-1000g of tires.

We are rolling on Vredestein Spider 26 x 1.9 tyres. So far we have about 12,000km on them and have never had a single puncture or problem with them.

And you're even slightly, even remotely thinking of another tire???????????????????

or even another tyre????????????????????????

:D

Wish I could get that many km out of a most car tires without a flat.

Tire wear is highly dependent on load.

We are riding fully loaded, front and back bags, not sure how much weight exactly but maybe 20kg each with food and water.

"we have about 12,000km on them and have never had a single puncture or problem with them."

Sounds to me like you've already found the Holy Grail of tyres, but try the Schwalbe anyway :)

Well, we decided to go with the Vredesteins and then had real trouble finding them anywhere. Wiggle only has 1 in stock and the supposed Vredestein distributors in Italy and France also say they can't get these tyres for us so.... we are going with the Schwalbe Marathon XRs. We should get them in the next few days and then we'll do a good comparison for all of you on how we like them and how long they last!

Thanks for all your thoughts.

Darn!
I was so hoping you'd say... "My batleth cut his guts out and I fed the Patak to my targ" with
video on youtube, of course .

I am trying Schwalbes for the first time this year as well. They seem very well made.

Darn!
I was so hoping you'd say... "My batleth cut his guts out and I fed the Patak to my targ" with
video on youtube, of course .

I am trying Schwalbes for the first time this year as well. They seem very well made.

Lol, just for the record the "worf" username belongs to my husband and he's not even a trekkie so I have no idea why he chose it. Maybe I need to find my own username....

Glad to hear the Schwalbes are working for you, fingers crossed for our new tyres!