Originally Posted by
jeffpoulin
10 Wheels has a point. Not everyone is an expert in tires. Schwalbe doesn't make it easy, either. By my count, there are 9 kinds of "Schwalbe Marathon" tires: marathons (with no descriptor), Cross, Dureme, Extreme, Plus, Plus Tour, Racer, Supreme, and Winter. Then there's the XR which was discontinued, and the Mondial which is coming soon. Sheesh. It would be like Continental naming all their tires Gatorskin something or other. It's pretty confusing to people who aren't OCD about bike stuff.
Agreed. My personal opinion (which doesn't count for much) is that if there is going to be a Marathon Line of tires there should be 3-5 tires in that line. Anything that doesn't fit a defined purpose (in my mind durability, longevity and puncture protection) should be named something else. The Supreme really ought to be in another category, same with the Marathon Racer and the Marathon Cross. For the time being, the people who make these decisions are probably happy to leverage off the succuss of the Marathon.
For 2012 it stands as follows:
Marathon
Marathon Plus
Marathon Plus Tour
Marathon Plus MTB
Marathon Racer
Marathon Supreme
Marathon Dureme
Marathon Mondial
Marathon Winter