SurlyLHT26in08

Continental touring plus vs Schwalbe marathon plus/tour plus tires???

What touring tires are you using on your touring bicycle??? and why???

I am using schwalbe marathon tour plus tires 26X1.75in on my Surly LHT 26in 52cm 2008
and I also have Continental touring plus for my bike. and here in Southern California we have
goathead thorns to give you a flat tires!!!


Continental touring plus $29.99 in 26in and 700c
Schwalbe marathon plus hs 440 2014 $54.99
Schwalbe marathon tour plus hs 405 $59.09

fietsbob

flip a coin.

my Koga WTR came with Conti Travel contacts. now It has ..Schwabe marathon Plus on itnow.

Just got bored with people telling me the Knobby tire is worn bald , ignorant , they could make that error ..
.. the Gatorskin sidewall is beefing it up ..

staehpj1

I like gatorskins pretty well. They are reasonably flat resistant, reasonably light, and offer a good ride feel.

Marathon Plus are extremely heavy and have a very stiff sidewall. Both are bad things in my opinion. I avoid them like the plague. I disliked them enough that I took them off and sold them after only a few hundred miles. The Plus Tour looks to be even worse in that regard.

I have not tried the Continental Touring Plus, but the specs look like another heavy overbuilt tire.

pdlamb

I preferred the straight Marathon to the Marathon Plus because of the extra weight and stiffer ride of the Plus.

Every Continental tire I've ever ridden has been a nightmare to get on and off the rims. They'll last forever, until you have a flat. That said, the Gatorskin is a reasonable compromise between lighter weight and durabilty.

I really liked the Panaracer Pasela until I hit a bad batch (tread delaminated). Light, flexible, very nice ride. I wonder if they've fixed their process and flushed the distribution of the bad tires by now?

cyccommute 

I wouldn't use Continentals to go across town much less take them on tour. They have failed me too many times. Pumping up the tires to their pressure ratings have left me with more blowouts than I had tubes. I've had them blow off rim on Lolo Pass in Montana just after pumping them up to their recommended rating. I had 4 blowouts in the 26 miles from Texarkanna Airport to a campground outside of Atlanta, TX. Two of those happened while I was riding the bike and two while the bike was just sitting. The straw that finally broke the Camel's back was when I traded my Michelin Lithions for a set of Continental Touring Contacts and this happened



when I hit a small rock on a downhill in Kentucky (after only 200 miles of riding). The heavy Bell tire I got from Helmart was a better tire.

Personally, I really like the Lithion. I also like Vittoria's Randonneur which I've used on my commuting bike for ages. I used a set of Ribmo's on my tour around Lake Erie this spring and they held up excellently over a wide variety of roads, dirt roads and tow paths, including the C&O.

bradtx

Right now I have some Continental Touring Plus tires on my touring bike. I would put them middle of the pack WRT stiffness and perceived flat resistance. Unlike cyccommute, I've had good luck with several Continental tires. Because I've read good reviews with the Vittoria Randonneur, I might move the Continentals to the back-up bike and try some 32-35 mm Randonneurs on the primary touring bike.

Brad

SurlyLHT26in08

best to take a Spare Tire and how to fold a tires

SurlyLHT26in08

Do you take a Spare tire on your bike touring trips???
https://www.rideyourbike.com/tirefold.shtml

I plan to take a Spare tire on my bike touring trips 26X1.75in

How to fold a tire
Fold1


Fold2


Fold3

cyccommute 

First off, they make folding tires if you are going to carry a spare one. They are a whole lot easier to deal with than trying to twist a wire bead tire into a pretzel.

But, in roughly 10,000 miles of touring, I've never needed a spare tire. I wouldn't have needed to replace this one if Continental tires were worth a damn.

The Michelins I replaced on the tour had lasted me several thousand miles of training and recreational riding and even about 800 miles on this tour. They could probably have lasted me several hundred more miles but they had several cuts from glass and road debris and I thought I'd be proactive. It was a mistake and I ended up with an inferior product. I'd already sworn off Continentals after they left me flat around Baton Rouge (to steal a song lyric) but the store didn't have Schwalbes in stock which is what I really wanted to try.

NormanF

Schwalbe Marathon Supreme is ideal only if you're going on an extended tour. The trade off may be worth it if you don't want to fix a flat by the side of the road.

If you're not going to be doing that, a lighter tire with puncture protection will be more than sufficient. And it will be kinder to one's wallet as well.

Arkadee

I went with Marathon plus after a ton of reading brought it down to a coin toss between them and continentals. I have had one major blowout (no idea what I hit) and one flat caused by a carpet tack in just over a year and a couple thousand kms. As for gatorskins, my buddy rides on them as he was sold on low rolling resistance. Funny thing is, I coasted faster than him on almost every downhill we hit in the Rockies last week even though our bikes and loads were similar.

Biketouringhobo

How are they to mount and unmount from a Rim?

it was very hard to unmount Schwalbe tour plus 26x1.75in from Sun-Ringle Rhyno lite XL 26in Rim

chasm54

I have commuted/toured many thousnds of miles on marathon plus. Certainly well over 12,000 miles on two sets of tyres, with only one puncture. So for sheer indestructibilty, they're tough to beat. They are heavy and stiff, of course, but the bigger the load I'm carrying, the less that bothers me. And I find they roll surprisingly well.

Having said that, for on-road touring with a moderate load I'm currently using 32 mm Panracer Paselas. A much lighter, faster tyre with better ride quality. I'm bound to have more punctures with them, but so far, so good.

geachyguy

On my one real bike tour, I started with Continental touring plus (I think because they were cheaper). They lasted ~4000 miles to Baja California (too many thorns there). I'd picked up a pair of Schwalbe marathon (hs 420) just before crossing the border - they ended up lasting > 10,000 miles. I only threw my second Schwalbe away when I finished my tour, since the tires that were available in S. America always ended up being worse than a Schwalbe with >10,000 miles on it. They both got so worn that the greenguard was showing through in a solid strip around the entire tire. They got flats every so often (a couple/week by the end) but that was probably partly due to my old patchwork tubes. The stiffness of the tire never bothered me, and the weight of my tires was the last of my concerns (my bike + bags weighed between 100 and 140 lbs at various points on the trip).