Damn. Nice brake track. What type of rim is that. Also, those Winters look a little old by the typeface?

I'm not sure I understand this question. Are you saying that you never feel the tires slip when you're riding? Obviously that's something to be avoided, but it happens if you ride in enough diverse conditions and I think most commuters do at least once in a while. (Incidentally, one of the reasons I recommend cyclocross racing for even people who aren't interested in racing is that you get to spend an awful lot of time feeling your tires slide, and so when it happens in normal riding you're prepared and can handle small slips.)

Usually when my tires slip it's in conditions that no stud-free tire would prevent -- wet leaves, loose gravel, mud on the pavement, black ice, etc. The grip comes into play when you get back onto a solid surface. You can feel a difference in how quickly the tire reengages. I don't think any tire on the market would slip on dry, smooth pavement, but add some water and it starts to become a possibility. Depending on how a tire responds in the unpreventable slipping conditions, I may be less cautious when riding on roads that are just wet.

Yes I feel my tires slip when things are wet or slippery, but I don't have a sense of which tires slip more under a given condition. Maybe my technique is different from others. I was riding with a friend who warmed me sternly about the wet leaves on the paved trail. He told me to take it super easy. He was really scared of flipping and falling, but I wasn't. Then later we realized that he's heavy and I'm light, and maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe my reflexes are good enough. But I can't remember slipping on wet pavement when there is nothing loose on it.

yeah & who knows, might have been me but I never broke a wire bead before or after that. they were quite old when I bought them. the tubes were still in them but they were kinda stuck to the inside of the tires. I had to peel them out & wipe them down before installing them w new tubes

I do take precautions especially w tuff tires like making sure one side is deep in the channel then strap it in place. I also carry those straps so I can do the same on the road



also use a CRANKBROTHERs Crank Brothers Speedier Lever which is useful getting them off & on



and I'm now using a Kool Stop Tire Bead Jack when I'm working on tuff tires



I tried using it on my current 29x2" Marathon winters but it's not a wide enough tool. turns out I didn't need it anyway. 29er tires seem easier to mount in general

seem to be standard issue on all our Trek FXs (4) but my road bike (diff. brand) has a groove like that too

It's mandatory on all EU bikes from what I remember. A rim wear indicator track.

Have EZIP electric bike and almost gave up because of flats-rear is timely work -Then I tried Marathon mondial evolution DD and will never use anything else-does not seem heavy to me and on my 3rd pair with 1 flat total. Ride approx 3500 miles per year as this is my only transportation-live in warm Florida-USA. As all the weight is rear on my bike I decided to try Schwalbe Kojak on the front and have same opinion (never anything else) at first I thought this was too expensive for a bike tire compared to what I was used to paying--WAS I EVER WRONG worth every penny!

Looks like it's not super heavy at around 600g but rolling resistance appears higher than other Marathon versions. Maybe less noticeable with electric power?

I have an Izip E-3 Dash and I had two flats in my first 10 tens or so. I got a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Greenbelt (e-bike ready) tires off eBay for $78 delivered to me in Tampa, FL. One year and over 3800 miles later I have had no flats, and the tires still look new. I keep them at 50 psi, and the ride is smooth. They seem to roll just as fast as the Kenda tires that were on there.

Yes, I'd expect rolling resistance to matter less with an ebike.

Nope. I'm sitting in an easy chair enjoying my central heating. What do I know about bikes?

The things on Rugby Road looked like cobblestones to me - much worse than brick!

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!

The Marathon Touring tires (Greenguard) are an excellent commuter. I have used these for the last few years and gotten excellent treadwear as well as great puncture protection. The last set on my main commuter gave me about 5,000 miles on the rear tire, and 8000 on the front tire. In that time, I believe I had one flat on the rear from a nail. Rolling resistance on these tires is minimal, and they are a smooth riding tire as well. The touring version of the Marathon Tire is available in many sizes as well. I also run the Marathon Winter plus tires in the winter, and when I switch back to the touring tires in the spring, it feels nimble like a race bike!

Yes, those are cobblestones. Sorry mate, too early!

I went down on wet pavement once right after a rainstorm and got bad road rash on my elbow. I had just bought a new expensive biking rain jacket, and actually lucked out that somehow the sleeve pushed itself up and I got road rash (which healed on it's own) rather than making the jacket useless by tearing up the sleeve.

New bike, stock tires with the bike, slightly aggressive riding (though not overly so). After that I threw out the tires and put on gp4000's, and it was very obvious in riding that they had a lot more grip on wet pavement.

Thanks for being tolerant, Phamilton