It's useful to read another glowing review revcp, thanks for posting your experience.

I'm glad to this thread is happening as I'm intending to get a pair of these for fully loaded touring and commuting after reading about the supple tire scene which first peaked my interest. The past few months I've read as much as I could find on these tires and they seem to offer the sweet spot for comfort, durability, and reliability when used for road touring (with the typical moderate amount of off road excursions thrown in).

The question that remains unanswered is what width to get which will work with my bike?
I'm considering two widths:
37-622 (700 x 35C) or
42-622 (700 x 40C)
[I assume I'd want the V-Guard version vs. the Micorskin-TL Easy].

I've been trying to find out what the actual width of these tires would be mounted on my rims to ascertain if the 700 x 40C would fit my bike with enough clearance to mount fenders. To complicate things Schwalbe appears to have changed the design and dimensions and of this tire just a few years ago, so when reading about them it's a bit confusing as to just which tires are being referenced and what the actual widths are.

The bike is a 2010 Trek 520 (pre disc brake version), I weight 135lbs. and will be using the bike to tour with a full set of panniers (with a moderately heavy load but not anvil like loads ... I've got lots of lightweight camping gear). I also use the bike for NYC commuting as well as grocery shopping (a typical food run sees 40lbs of cargo including a heavy chain). So in addition to touring I'd like a tire to give me a little more of an edge to meet the demands of NYC streets. Btw, the bike still has the original Bontrager 700 x 32 Race Lite tires. {An aside: the NYC streets scored a hit by way of a mildly dented rim this winter after a deep pothole materialized out of nowhere on my routine route combined with letting my tire pressure get a little low - no cargo**.
As mentioned, I intend to mount full fenders but have yet to decide on which ones will fit with my bike and tire combo. I assume the (700 x 35C)tires will fit with fenders without issue. But if it's possible I'd love to go with the wider (700 x 40C) version to have a bit more edge on more challenging road/off road conditions. Can anyone offer some advice? Actual tires widths?

And the longshot: anyone running the 40mm version on a Trek of this vintage with fenders?

Thanks a bunch for any guidance!


PS: UniChris ... bravo!