LitePacking

Iam considering a couple of Schwalbe tires next time.
But the product range is so huge that i find it impossible to choose the right ones, if the right ones exist.

What Schwalbe 26" tire should i choose for crossing most of Canada in the summer time with a hardtail/mountain bike?
I prefer that they are so puncture resistant as possible, but at the same time roll as easy as possible. And a little grip on small roads without tarmac dont hurt either.

vik 

Marathon Supreme is a fairly fast rolling tire with decent puncture resistance. The Marathon XR and Marathon Plus are more puncture resistant [in the order of less to more], but will not roll as well.

antokelly

say vik hope you dont mind me asking,i have the marathon plus 599x 1.35 im thinking of getting the supreams but they only have them in 599x2 size.,the problem i have the mudguards (fenders) are pretty close to the plus tyres, maby about an inch to spare ,would that be enough clearence for the supreams.

nancy sv

We're using the Marathon Plus and have been very happy with them. I've only gotten one flat in 4000 miles - from a small piece of glass that managed to cut through the polymer layer.

martianone

Try the regular Schwalbe Marathon, 50x559 on your MTN bike.
Put them on our tandem last year- have run them about 2000 km so far
on lots of gravel local roads and a 650 km tour in Nova Scotia last summer.
No tire problems and minimal wear. My wife ran the regular Marathons on her
Trek MTN bike morphed to touring bike for three seasons, about 5000 km, she
was flatless the whole time. The Marathon Supremes and XR etc are very nice tires,
regular Marathon is a great value.

Doconabike

Hi,

I have been using Schwalbe tires for several years of hard urban commuting through copious glass and potholes. They have been crazily more resistant to puncture than my previous tires. I used the Marathon Plus and was very happy with them. Their only defect was that they were very difficult to mount. I can usually change a tire in 3 or 4 minutes, but the Marathon Plus takes me about 15 to 20 minutes of hard struggle. Once you mount them, though, the puncture resistance is great.

Peter White's page has a good description of the various Schwalbe tires:
https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/schwalbe.asp

I bought the tires at my local bike shop, but if you can't find them there, Peter White can sell them by mail.

vik 

If you have an inch of clearance between your fenders and your tires you should be able to fit the larger tires as long as you aren't expecting to deal with mud. But, it's something you'll have to look at closely. Are you fenders wide enough for 2.0" tire? If not you'll end up with clearance issues at the edges.

antokelly

thanks for that vik,i think i have enough clearence on the fenders sks.do you think the supreams are better tyres in the wet( grip wise,) that the only reason im thinking of changing.i dont trust the marathon's on wet tarmac .

meteparozzi

You can get a great run down of the strengths of each tire on their site.

Schwalbe

antokelly

thanks meteparozzi maby i'll wait until they bring out much narrower tyres.

HardyWeinberg

Can anyone compare 2.0 big apples w/ 2.0 marathon supremes? The checkboxes on the schwalbe site do not communicate clearly to me.

vik 

I haven't had any issues with Marathons on wet pavement. I'm not sure if the Supremes would be better in that situation or not. Assuming the rubber was the same you'd have more of a contact patch with the Supremes [wider tire which can be run at lower pressure] so I suspect it would be a better tire in the wet.

rperks

I have them both, on different bikes. Both good tires, less milage on the Apples then the supremes. The supremes seem to roll better at 60ish lbs while the apples like 45ish, I hit the scales at 210. The profile of the supremes comes to more of a crown, while the apples are a bit rounder and seem to perform a bit better in the cush mode. I have not had much wet experience, unfortunately we do not get much rain here (another brush fire up the road as I type). I now have the supremes on my xtracycle and they are fairly fast rolling, while I have the apples on our tandem. Both corner well, and are comperable enough that I could swithch them back and forth once I get the pressures dialed in. The supremes have held up very well, we will see with the apples.

Clarenza

I've just ordered some XR's for a couple of new touring bikes (so my comments are just based on research not experience). My dealer was pushing Pluses for puncture resistance but their weight is an issue - 980g for a 26 x 1.75 vs 790g for 26 x 2.00 XRs -- or you might prefer the 26 x 1.60 XRs for lower rolling resistance, they're only 595g - big difference. This seems to be because the Plus's puncture resistance comes from a thick layer of rubber whereas the XRs use a thin Kevlar-like fabric. For a rave about how heavy the Pluses are see
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/forum..._id=100499&v=4

I phoned the Schwalbe distributors here in Australia and they assure me the XRs really are just as puncture-proof and durable as the Pluses. Schwalbe gives both these tyres their maximum six bar rating on puncture resistance and durability.

Another factor is that the XRs are available as folding tyres, the Pluses are wired only - trickier for spares.

I'm positively itching to try out the XRs ... and the new bikes

antokelly

emm maby i have a look at those xrs thanks

NoReg

"I prefer that they are so puncture resistant as possible, but at the same time roll as easy as possible."


Those are basically contrary characteristics as you probably know. On the plus side, these Kevlar belted tires they have roll great and are really puncture resistant compared to anything we used to have. But once you insert 4 mm of plastic to keep the thorns at bay, it's no longer a fun tire.

The tire you run is based on the surfaces you run on not the frame you have. For that trip 32mm is fine, though I prefer 37 myself, or run them anyway. I've only done about 2000 miles of that trip, but met lots of folks who were on the trip, and running 32mm tires. My neighbor has done two cross country runs with support, they basically race it, on sew-ups. the roads are basically the same roads locals train on with their road bikes except for a transcan you are running through the whole lot of them.

I would add to the mix a road morph pump, or possibly the rip-off MEC is selling, a quick stick, and some patches including PSA ones. Choose a tire that is easy to remove. With my tire they hardly even need the quick stick they just fall off when I need to change them. If you look at the White site above you will see mention that the armoured tires are hard to mount.

So do you want armoured tires that roll like crap, and never get a puncture, or tires that might get one or two puncture in your whole transcan, but roll like magic, and are easy to fix. For me there is no comparison. The fat tires will be like rolling through sand. I have fat tires on my comuter, because every 10 years or so I get sucked into a trolly track, but with the fatsos it's no problem. But I don't particularly like the way they run. In Toronto, the urban roads are mostly worse than what I have covered on the Transcan.

Podolak

I love the Marathon XR's. I run them in 26" on my Marin Novato. I have not toured on them but I have done a lot of other riding, including a child seat and bike trailer.

Good tires and roll well.