I recently finshed a 13,000km trip (www.beijingtoparis.com), in which I used the new Schwalbe Marathon HS368 40-406mm. This is the new version of the old HS308. On the schwalbe website they claim to have the same puncture protection rating as the XR.

My partner and I averaged bout one puncture about every 300km. This is several times higher than I have had on all previous touring tyres. Age, tyre pressure, road condition, temperature all made minimal difference. These tyres were just rubish.

We started with eight tyres, (four on the two bikes, plus four spares). Of those two were thrown away with broken beads, one after only 300km. All were similarly useless.

One of the editors in Australian cyclist magazine also rated schwalbe tyres as being unreliable recently, as did some (but not all) people I met along the way.

I would be interested to hear if others are having the same problem. Especially if it has got worse lately with their move to indonesia.

I will be changing to continental tour contacts from now on, though I previously had trouble with their side-walls.

Olly
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