Touring - 2.0 or 2.25 front tire for patagonia?

Hi everyone, I'm heading to Patagonia fully loaded in a few months, and I just replaced my rear tire with Schwalbe marathon mondial 26*2.0. So far so good but I only have it for one week so we'll see...
I wanna replace my front tire as well before I set off, thought at first of getting another mondial, but now I started thinking that maybe I'm gonna need something wider and more aggressive to handle better the gravel tracks. So reading some reviews I came with the idea of putting the marathon Extreme instead, but now I can't decide between the 2.0 and the 2.25...

Does any of you have any suggestions based on your experience?

Thanx!

My feeling is Continental Travel contact their expedition adventure touring tire
is only made in a 622-37 & a 559-47 .. so 1.75 is probably good enough..

bring a couple kevlar bead spare tires folded up, just in case..

I switched to schwalbe marathon + , now have a 26 and a 20" in 1.75" width..

cant answer your question, but I would suggest heading over to CGOAB and look up journals of folks who have ridden there, you may find the answers in the journals or you can email and ask the people their opinions. From la boca del caballo so to speak.

Folks have toured Patagonia region on 700cx32 tires, so I don't see how 2.0 or 2.X matters much, other than frameset fit limitations, cost and weight.

Never been but have read extensively.

IMHO, 1.75" to 2.0" shoud work just fine. This is, in general, just a maintained gravel road, but the scenery is amazing. In some of the remote areas there are some singletrack sections if you're crossing into Argentina with creek crossings and all that. Weather seems to be the biggest challenge: wind, rain and cold temperatures even at the height of the summer. By the way, the Chilean government is currently undertaking the task of paving the entire road with the hope to attract tourism to the southern region. They started last year and the work is advancing quickly. Some bike tourists will love it, while others might think this is a total shame. Have fun!

Thanks all for your replies...! after reading journals in CGOAB I just ordered the extreme 2.25...
And by the way Chris, I'm part of those who think it's a total shame...

MoyZ,


How do you like the Mondial thus far? I find it odd that Schwalbe doesn't have any reviews for it on their website yet.. I'm in the process of building up a LHT for a solo tour from Ushuaia, Argentina to Lima, Peru in a year or so. I've been looking at tired quite a bit lately and I plan on running 26*2.0" Mondial/Dureme combo.

I've only made one trip (37 kms long) with the mondial, so I can only tell what I know from my short experience - which is in my opinion not enough and you should look for other reviewers who have tested it longer... The trail I did was most of it a really tough and technical MTB trail, which is not what the mondial is made for, and I was with a light (not loaded) bicycle... but it did pretty well except for one time when I slipped, and I felt that my old MTB 2.3 tires would have done better in this kind of hilly-all-mountain riding style trail... but as I said it did pretty well all things considered and they surprised me going downhill... On the smooth gravel roads it felt pretty good, grippy and almost none rolling resistance in my opinion but I rode for years with 2.3 WTB wierwolf so almost anything would feel like less rolling resistance than that... ;)

I'm gonna go for a longer trip this coming weekend - and I'd be happy to share my impressions of the mondial after that, but you should definitely look for other reviews of guys who've used the mondial for a longer period of time... good luck.

Oh by the way, because I was not loaded I rode with low pressure in the tire in the technical parts, this weekend I'm gonna be loaded and then it's going to be a better test...

Let us know how the Mondial's work. I was in South America a couple years ago on 700*35 Marathon XRs. They held up well but of course bigger would have been better for some of the rough roads on the Carretera Austral in southern Chile. Once out of that area I found 35s more than enough.

When I hear those names I thing 2-4 inch tires. But maybe people in Chile think 2-4 inch tires when they hear about Canada, where I would do just about anything with 1.5s.

I'm not used to expedition tires. This is actually the first time I'm using them and still need to get used to them. Until now I've always used mountain bike tires. I can't imagine myself riding with less than 2.0 but on the other hand I keep reading of people who use less than that and it seems to work for them. So taking that into account, the 2.0 mondial in the rear and the 2.25 extreme combo work pretty well for me. They roll beautifully and have a good grip off road. I found out the mondial work better in a relatively high pressure. I only did the mistake of buying the wire bead version.

Hi everyone, I'm heading to Patagonia fully loaded in a few months, and I just replaced my rear tire with Schwalbe marathon mondial 26*2.0. So far so good but I only have it for one week so we'll see...
I wanna replace my front tire as well before I set off, thought at first of getting another mondial, but now I started thinking that maybe I'm gonna need something wider and more aggressive to handle better the gravel tracks. So reading some reviews I came with the idea of putting the marathon Extreme instead, but now I can't decide between the 2.0 and the 2.25...

Does any of you have any suggestions based on your experience?

Thanx!

In Chile, at least, the principal roads are excellent and well paved. But if you get off the main routes you will ride on unpaved ripio roads and they are extremely rough. There are still sections of the Carretera Austral in the far south that are ripio ( as of February 2012 the last I was there ). Every time I go to the south ( every year since my wife is from Puerto Montt ) more of the Carretera is paved. I would still recommend very stout tires.