Ekdog

I'm a big fan of the Marathon Plus tire because I hate flats and don't much care about speed (although the new ones are supposed to offer less rolling resistance than the older ones), and I've recently heard, from someone who does a lot of touring, that the Schwalbe Land Cruiser is also very puncture resistant, long-lasting and much cheaper than the Plus.

Have any of you had experience with both of these tires? What's differences are there between them?

TallTourist

When you roll over a big, fat nail, you'll get a flat anyway. I once bought a Schwalbe Marathon to replace my Marathon Plus that kept giving me flats (and stranding me in the middle of nowhere). After a 2 day ordeal to get back to a bike shop I get the new tire(virtually flatless!), throw it on and roll fewer than 100 kms before I got a nail in it. Since then I'm convinced the best tire is a spare tire. Screw Schwalbe.

boomhauer

This is opposite my experience. I had a nail imbedded in my regular marathon tire but I put a liner inside the tire . I pulled the nail out but no flat. In fact, I've pulled lots of wire and glass out of my regular marathons but no flat in more than 4 years now.

TallTourist

Wow, that's great I'm glad the Flat Tire Gods have been good to you

Love the dang ol' name....yeeeep

Ekdog

No one says you will never get a flat using a Marathon Plus. I've been using them for years and have had only one puncture, which was caused by a screw. If you hit such a object at just the right angle, your tire will go flat. "Virtually" means "almost" or "nearly."

Has anyone tried the Land Cruisers?

TallTourist

I know what virtually means, I also know its possible to go years on 2o dollar tires without flats. I happen to think Schwalbes are over hyped and that guys like you are pretty lucky when it comes to flats. Send some of that luck this way, will you?

DropBarFan

Switched to Schwalbe Marathons (std not Plus IIRC), had either only one or zero flats in ~7,000 km. The Marathons OTOH were heavy & had little grip. Switched to light Ritchey Tom Slick 38mm tires & got a flat in the 1st week & another (PITA) flat at mile 90 of century ride. Put tire liners on & no flats since. Same as when I prev used tire liners for years on downtown glass-filled streets...flats cut by 90%. Some folks say that tire liners have limited protection vs tire wires & IIRC the heavier liner is needed vs western thorns.

Arkadee

One year and less than 2000 Kim's on my marathons plus tires and I have had two flats. The first was a carpet tack right On the edge of the tread and the second a sidewall slice about an inch high caused by a pice of debris which I never saw either before or after the fact.

Flat proof my ass; but having said that, I have also rolled over a lot of crap that would likely have flattened many competitors tires. For example on my short tour last year we decided to try a rails to trails section so we could get off the highway. 1/2 km in both my buddies had punctures in their gatorskins while I just kept on rolling.

They are not perfect but for now I will stick with the Marathons.

fietsbob

Land Cruiser HS 307 | Schwalbe North America
Looks like its a more open block tread for unpaved roads , center ridge on a un connected Knobby tire

where the Marathon Plus rolls better on Paved roads . it's more of a rain siped slick.

tarwheel 

I don't mind repairing the occasional flat tire, so I would much rather use tires that are lighter weight and roll better with reasonable durability and flat resistance. You pay for heavy, bad rolling tires every time you ride. They slow down your pace and make hills more difficult.

With that in mind, I have found that Vittoria Voyager Hypers and Panaracer Pasela PTs provide very good durability and flat resistance while being reasonably light weight and rolling nicely. Both tires can also be bought for much less money than Schwalbes.

rifraf

Another fan of the Marathon Plus here.
I did an across East to West Australia tour of approx 4.5K km and had a single puncture in the front and rear.
Both were due to shredded truck tyres leaving lots of bit of wire over the road.
Currently rolling on Mondials due to no local 2 inch Marathon Pluses availability.
Just as happy with the Mondials.

DropBarFan

Repairing flats can be done fairly quickly sometimes. Tom Slicks + Mr Tuffy tire liner is 40% lighter than Marathon HS 420. & I think that most tourists riding heavy Schwalbes take along a spare tube anyway. I've always rather wondered why tire liners aren't more popular. They're fairly simple to install or position while repairing a rare flat. Mr Tuffy was an inside secret for bike couriers.

DoctorTattoo

I use my bike for everything as well as touring, I ran Marathon Plus Tours when I was in Texas due to the insane amount of flats I was getting from goat head thorns, multiple flats a day, it was terrible. With the plus tours I got only one over 3,000+ km due to a piece of rebar that stuck out of the sidewalk edge. In Germany I've been running Schwalbe Marathon Supremes. 0 flats over 3,000 km and half the weight. I do however carry an extra tube as well as a patch kit just in case. I looked at the Land Crusiers just the other day, I think those will be my next tires as I really like the weight and the tread pattern.


Shawn

DropBarFan

Those goat head thorns are rough; visited Denver a long time ago & rode cousin's (kid's) bike that had thick knobby tires but thorn caused a flat just by riding on the sidewalk. Neighborhood even had tumbleweed, heh.

damo010

Hi,

I,ve tried the land cruisers in 26 x 2.0 and over are fairly good tires, i would say they are a little less puncher restraint than the marathons but offer far better off road ability / grip, i have even used on MTB and they are surprisingly good off road.

not sure about the much thinner 700 x 35 tho!