I have used Marathons and then Marathon Pluses for a fairly long time, both on my Bianchi Volpe tourer and on my Bike Friday New World Tourer. The Bianchi does a fair bit of commuting, the New World Tourer sits in a basement in Sweden for 10 months a year and then gets ridden between 1,000 and 6,000 km in the remaining 2 months. In 2004 I started out with a puncture proof set of Contis (can't remember the exact name) on what turned out to be a 6,300 mile ride on the Bianchi. At about mile 5000 the tread wore through to show the Teflon barrier beneath it: the tread was not bonded to the Teflon. Within about 60 miles the entire tread had separated off and shed itself by the side of the road. This happened in the middle of Newfoundland, and in those days I was carrying about 45 lbs of gear plus 220 lbs of me (now, unfortunately, its 240 lbs of me and 25 lbs of gear - yer just can't win at my age!). The other Conti tire failed in rural Alaska a couple of years later about 600 miles into a 500 mile ride. I should explain that I'm a cheapskate and ride tires down to the canvas: I also rode the 2nd Conti for darn near 1000 miles knowing the sidewall was split - I just carried a spare ready for the day it died. The problem was that my hands were frostbitten when it died (due to another cheapskate episode - riding 30 miles fast after dusk in freezing temperatures to avoid having to pay for a cabin or camp). I had a terrible time getting the old tire off and the new one on.

The Marathon Pluses on my Bianchi have been ridden at least 10,000 miles each (basically from Alaska to Mexico and from Gibraltar around the coasts of Europe to Belfast and Sczezcsyn (Stettin), Poland. One is now threadbare but just won't wear out. I had two punctures on one tire within 20 minutes on the road to Homer, AK: clearly I failed to find the source of the first one. I had one puncture on the other as I was riding into Houston on I-59: the wire from a shed truck tire went right through the puncture-proofing: the only thing that will kill a Marathon Plus! They've been on the bike for about 8 years: the rubber in the sidewall is a bit cracked, but no sign of impending failure (unlike the Coti, which I admit I probably pumped too hard at some point). They been over all sorts of cobbled roads in Europe, and pushed/ridden along forest roads in Portugal made of the butt ends of pine logs packed together and buried in sand. I got caught in a 'orrible thunderstorm on the Top of the World Highway 40 miles out of Dawson City in a year when the entire thing was ground up for re-surfacing. The abrasive grit tore all my clothes to shreds and caused the brake shoes to practically wear through the rim of my rear wheel (it's a 5,000 ft descent), but the Schwalbes did not show a sign of wear.

The Marathon pluses on the Bike Friday have been to Germany to Georgia, Germany to beyond Moscow and back to Scotland and then Sweden, from Sweden to Sicily and from Greece to Italy up the Dalmatian Coast: about another ten thousand miles. I have replaced one tire with a ?Chinese brand (the Schwalbes were not available in remote France), so one has done over 10,000 miles and the other did about 8,000 miles. It was on the rear for some punishing roads in Belgium and France, and some off-road riding along the banks of the Volga in Russia. I have had one puncture, in France, when in a hurry to get to a hostel by the deadline (this is the reason why I hate punctures: they always happen at the wrong time - when you're illegally riding a freeway, or on the gravel Alaska Highway miles from anywhere at nightfall, etc). As people have said, the Marathon + is hard to get off a wheel, ESPECIALLY a 20" wheel - I broke 2 tire levers on the change in France.

Before I bought the Friday, I rented a Brompton to tour the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, to see whether it was better than the Friday. It's a great Bike: you have a relatively low center of gravity when the winds howling off the Atlantic at 70 mph. There are two problems: one, don't even THINK of riding across a cattle guard on a Brompton, and two, it cost me 3 tire levers and two hotel spoons to get the @!#$% tire off that 16" wheel when I got a flat. The Brompton tires were some brand I didn't recognize. So I think the difficulty of changing a tire is mostly related to the wheel size.

On the subject or riding comfort and speed: I had the Friday with Marathons up to 47 mph riding a brand-new freeway past the site of Stalin's birthplace 4 years ago - slight downgrade, and totally estupido of me, I know. I haven't noticed any difference between the Marathon+ and the Chinese tire on the Friday. I've got a Trek with racing tires, and though they are completely different I wouldn't say they "feel" faster - if that means anything. They just get a heckuva lot of punctures - like one every 200 miles. I'm getting old enough (77) now that uphill is uphill with any kind of tire or bike, and fiddling around with a wheel in a crouched position by the side of road is just agony! But I LOVE my Schwalbe Marathon pluses: sorry it's taken so many words to tell you that!