Originally Posted by
PaulRivers
Any thoughts on speed compared to the marathon winters? I've only personally used the marathon winters myself, my thoughts looking at them is that I would expect the marathon winters to be faster (especially at higher pressure), but the Gravdals to be better in dealing with snow and road junk. I know you wrote "Riding studs slows you down" but I would expect the Schwalbe's to slow you down less...
I want to try them out myself, but sadly, the bike I bought for winter riding doesn't accommodate a tire bigger than 35c. (Though thinking about it, 38c isn't that different than 35c...hmm...)
I think you're pretty right with your thoughts. If I recall right the marathons had a good winter speed since they had a less aggressive tread. I feel like the gravdals (I have the 120tpi concave studs version) really grip the ice, and thus road, much more and so you have to work a bit more to run your route. However, I feel the wire vs wireless rim is a noticeable weight difference, thus a theoretical increase in speed. All in all I enjoy riding these more.