RepWI

I currently have a set of 26 X 1.9 Continental Town & Country tires on my Novarra Safari.

They have about 2,500 miles on them and it is time for me to begin considering alternatives.

I tour, run errands in town and use it to commute to my country place 35 miles from my main home.

What size of tires might you recommend? Then, what brand?

I am not necessarily unhappy with the Continental's it is just that I know there are alternatives and they may provide a different ride.

BWF

I recommend Schwable Marathon Supreme 26x2.0. It is by far the best tire I have ever owned. The tread pattern on it is inverted so it has minimal friction on pavement, and also performs good on forest service roads. Also does well in rain. The only down side is the huge price, but it is worth it in my opinion.

kayakdiver

I've run T&C and really liked them. Not to many flats and decent miles before toast. I'm not a schwalbe marathon fan at all.

Bikearound

2000 miles on my Marathon Plus tires and they still look new without a single flat. (26 x 1.75) I couldn't be happier with these tires in fact I'll be surprised if I don't get 10000 miles out of them. I often ride with others on road bikes and these tires roll equally as well as narrower smooth road bike tires plus I don't need to fear riding over city road crap like wire, glass and all the other stuff found on city streets.

LeeG

are you riding on roads most of the time? Heavy loads or light?

these 1.75 Panaracers look good, they're not as robust as your old tires but they sure would ride nice.

https://www.bikeman.com/TR2293.html

some people have said good things about these Michelins

https://www.bikeman.com/TR8534.html

26x1.75 Continental travel contacts would be high mileage tires

Cyclesafe

Which Marathon don't you like? They are about 12 different ones...

https://www.schwalbetires.com/bike_tires/road_tires

RepWI

I am on roads. Around town I may do some light grocery shopping etc. When touring I use a BOB.

What do you mean by, "robust"?

kayakdiver

The standard Marathon... they sucked. Once bitten twice shy. Heavy as bricks, felt like bricks... So so flat protection.

My experience with T&C was much more positive. The schwalbe Marathon was my least favorite tire I've ever run on anything. Once was enough.

Bikearound

Pathlesspedaled.com and Powercycle.net both used Travel Contact tires and talked about the poor performance with them and (eventually) changed to Schwalbe. The only complaint I've ever seen is that Schwalbe tires are heavy but I've never seen anyone say they didn't outlast the competition. But to my thinking, on a 35 ~ 40 lb. touring bike who cares about 100 grams?
If you carry an extra bottle of water, you've just added considerably more weight. I'd be willing to bet that if a blindfold test were possible, it would be hard to tell the difference in rolling characteristics.

LeeG

tolerate sidewall injuries riding through broken concrete with a heavy load. Personally I never got the appeal of T&Cs. They're common on police bicycles but the idea of large inverted tread is more suited to trails and packed dirt than hard roads. For hard asphalt a more even tread rolls nicer. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the 1.75 Panaracer T-serv. If you like cushy big tires but want a better rolling tire the Schwalbe Big Apple would do that.

LeeG

I should look that up. I think I was seduced by the marketing. First time I used one was 15yrs ago for a commute that went along train track trails. I got a pair 1/2 yr ago and kept thinking they were slow on the road although nice on dirt roads. They were very slick going over wet metal grates compared to other tires but I figured maybe they shine with heavy loads, apparently not.

I looked at Powercycle and he had a travel contact Reflex, it's a different tire. Couldn't find the mention in pathlesspedaled.

Cyclesafe

Yeah. I don't know why Schwalbe keeps the regular "Marathon" in their premium tire line. I think it was a good tire when it came out, but there have been much better follow ons since. I like the Marathon Supreme for its lower weight and wet traction, but its puncture resistance and tread wear is much less than the now-discontinued Marathon XR. For best puncture resistance the Marathon Plus, but they are very heavy.

I had Continental Top Touring (also discontinued) on my bike when I bought it, but I gave them away in favor of XR's for a trip along the Robert Campbell Hwy. Unfortunately, there isn't a real replacement for the XR. Not the Supreme, Dureme, Extreme, Racer, Plus ATB, yada yada. Are there any durable (7-8,000 mile) puncture resistant tires out there that weigh less than the Plus?

Bikearound

https://pathlesspedaled.com/ Here is the link I was refering to. I did a little digging here but I couldn't find the post about the tire issue they were having. It was very early in the progression of there trip.

jdom

This was my experience with schwalbe tires also.I've heard alot of great things about schwalbe tires and I won't disspute that they are great tires,just not great for me.Maybe another model tire one day but not the regular marothon.

That said I am currently running continental travel contacts 26x1.75 and really like them.A good tire for all around cycling.

xyzzy834

I'm another one disappointed with my experience with the regular Schwalbe Marathon tires. I thought they were noisy.

I can only recommend from what I've used. I was pretty happy with the Contenental Top Touring 2000 tires on my touring bike. They've been discontinued, so when it was time to replace them, I chose the Contenental Top Contact tires. They're hand made in Germany and if you can swallow the price point approaching cheap auto tires, they have been a dream for me. They roll well. They're quiet. I have about 1000 miles on them (600 miles loaded) so far and they're wearing well. I've had no flats, but I'm not in goathead country. I tend not to get too many flats on any tires I've tried.

The Top Contacts are available in 50mm x 559 size as well as several widths for 700c. Not many online dealers carry them. I got mine from Niagara Cycle Works (search for Top Contact). Almost all of the sizes are about $83 each right now, but they list a 26 x 1.9 Top Contact that doesn't say "folding" for $42.46. That's an absolute steal if you don't need folding tires.

KDC1956

I have a Surly LHT with 26x1.75 schwalbe Marathon Plus tires.I am not real happy with them at this time.For some reason I can not get them center on the rims so my bike has a little hop when going over 15 mph.The tires that I took off was what came on my bike and I never had a problem with them I wanted these tires schwalbe Marathon Plus for spring touring I have set up to go on.But now I am looking for some other tire.Any good idea on what is better?

Sixty Fiver

I run your basic Marathon 4 different bikes in 3 sizes... have found them to be long wearing with good all around performance and have only had one flat (radial wire) with them.

I ride a lot of miles but even without Marathons rarely experience flat tyres... I don't know what other people do to get so many flats and think it's the gutter bunnies who get more flats than anyone.

John Nelson

Most likely because it is half the cost of the rest of their Marathon line. They need to address the lower end of the market too.

Cyclesafe

But they have kazillions of non-Marathon tires that don't meet the needs of discerning touring cyclists either. Their use of the moniker "Marathon" for a lower end tire causes endless confusion. And I'm still puzzled why they discontinued the XR.

antokelly

the supream's are great tires .there's a big sale on with chainreaction cycles check out the conti's .

hopperja

5200 miles on Schwalbe Marathons with one flat. I keep wondering if I'll ever need to replace them...

hopperja

Just to be accurate, one pound is roughly 454 grams, one gallon is 128 liquid ounces which is approx. 8 pounds. Therefore, 100 grams (slightly less than 1/4 pound) is not considerably less than one full water bottle (24 ounces = .1875 of a gallon, at 8 pounds/gallon) which is 1.5 pounds, or 681 gms.

HOWEVER, in principal, I agree with you. The touring/commuting cyclist would be hard-pressed to tell the difference.

TonyS

Umm... I'd consider 1/4 lb to be considerably less than 1.5 lbs, especially if I'm going to be deciding which to carry across a continent...

What I don't necessarily agree with is "Yeah, you went with the heavy thing once... might as well do it with your whole bike!"

1/4 lb here and 2/3 lb there very quickly adds up to "I IMMEDIATELY REGRET THIS DECISION!"

freebooter

A few years ago Specialized tyres seemed to be very popular. I bought a 2nd hand tour bike a while ago that has Nimbus armadillo tyres on it and they seem ok. However, they never seem to be recommended anymore and fewer places sell them. Is there any particular reason they seem to have fallen out of favour?