frogman

What pressure do you run in your Schwalbe Marathon's ? I am getting a pair of Marathon Plus tires and want to find the most comfortable ride with the lowest pressure I can use. Our streets are in bad shape, I need the beefy tread.

rumrunn6

Don’t have those but fwiw my 2" marathon winter tires are rated 35-70 & I have them at 50 front 60 rear. but I think on unpaved dirt I will lower them to 40 front 50 rear. They have rather stiff sidewalls

Leisesturm

Pressure is tied to the tire size. A 28mm tire is getting sploogie at 80posi. A 35mm tire at 80psi is just fine. What size Marathon Plus do you intend to use? Why do you want to use the lowest pressure you can use? With a tire that has such a high rolling resistance as the MP you should want to use the highest pressure you can use. That pressure is printed on the sidewall. If you want a more comfortable ride, get a more compliant seat or seatpost. For tires to make any difference to comfort you need 2.0+" tires with 25psi to 30psi. Do MP's come in 50mm?

frogman

Thanks for the info.
The tires are 700 x 32's
I found that on my 700 x 32 Gatorskins I lowered the pressure to 60 psi and had a noticeable improvement with a softer ride on our rough pavement in our area. I would like to run a little lower pressure on the MP's too. I know I can't get too carried away but there is a happy medium there somewhere. Curious what pressure others are using with these tires.........................

pdlamb

If you're happy with 60 psi, that's a good place to start. You may need more pressure if you tend towards clydesdale weight -- somewhere between 70-75 psi is where I start noticing tire drag.

noglider 

It depends on the construction of the tire, the width of the tire, the condition of the roads, and total weight of rider+bike+cargo. After you do some experiments, your favorite pressure might be very different from the pressures people recommend to you. I'm only 160 lbs (73 kg), and I find myself being comfortable at surprisingly lower pressures, mostly because I'm so much lighter than people I know.

One way to experiment is to drop the pressure to a noted level and then see how close you are to bottoming out on potholes. This comes with an obvious risk, but how else do you get negative feedback?

Another tip is that most people tend not to top off our tires frequently enough. So it's a good idea to overinflate at least a little to buy yourself some extra time between top-ups.

frogman

pdlamb,
I weigh 170 pounds. I'll experiment with the pressure and see where the magic spot is. Sounds like it might be around 70 psi
Thanks for the info, much appreciated !
Merry Christmas
Bob

Darth Lefty 

Marathons have pretty stout casings. You probably don't need all the pressure as you can cram in. You might need less than you do with a "supple" tire which we mostly groupthink agree is already a lot lower than what we used to run. 60 sounds about the right kind of pressure to me for a 32.

Leisesturm

I don't know. I think it runs the other way around. With a very supple tire you can run a lower pressure, as the increased flexing of the sidewalls will not convert as much rolling energy into heat. With the stiffer tire you don't want the sidewalls flexing so you max out the pressure to limit this. As stiff as they are, the sidewalls of a Marathon are still quite flexy under the average cyclists weight. I'm pretty sure that's how it works. At least it did until Rene Herse (who makes supple tires btw) convinced everyone to use high(er) volume tires at low(er) pressures which made everyone want to do the same, whether they were working with the right kind of tire for that kind of treatment or not.

Darth Lefty 

If you have a 32 Marathon you've already given up all that