I am totally underwhelmed.
They have not decreased the number of flats. Today I had what seemed a typical piece of glass go fight through the tread........nothing different from other less expensive tires.

Disappointed.

Use armadillos.

I am really surprised!

I used to get a flat every 2.5 days, or every 100 miles.

Once I switched to the Supremes - my patch kit has started to dry out......... no kidding! I've gotten lots of cuts and small punctures in the tread, but nothing has made it's way thru. They either fall out, or I pluck them out. I'm talking thousands of miles here.

I sure hope I didn't just jinx myself......

I'm rollin' with Marathon Plus tires and they haven't flatted yet.

It may depend on what the prevalent road hazard is in any given area, whether some specific tire will help protect against it. I imagine goatheads are the problem in some places, broken glass (from burglarized cars) in others, and perhaps wire, nails or staples from construction areas or industrial areas in other places.

I have been riding bikes with Marathon Pluses for the last 4 years. Had only one flat. They certainly don't roll as well as lighter tires, but flats are a rare event.

I have had no flats in 6 months since Supremes. Would typically have had a couple in that time.

I haven been using supremes for 3 years in an area full with glass without any flats

I have 2,000-ish miles on a pair of Marathon Supremes that see daily commuting on rough urban pavement (glass, junk, etc.). I've had two flats -- both were from wires that worked their way through the rubber over time. They were very slow leaks and the tires went flat in my garage overnight. I'm very happy with these tires; will get the same thing when these wear out.

The only drawback is the weight. They are extremely heavy. I was using 26X2.00 tires but switched to 26X1,5 in order to reduce the weight by 400 grams

Used them a long time ago and was underwhelmed too.
Best luck I have had- Bontrager Hard Case.
I agree that there are a multitude of factors associated with flats...........
Do people run their tires very inflated? Unless I run them at 75psi or higher it feels like I am riding on a balloon...........

Would autos be so popular if every other week one had to change a flat?
I would think a major innovation in bikes would be tires which don't flat............

Supremes are not flatproof tires - why would you expect glass not to give you a flat???.

Been running Supremes for quite a while. Recently inspected them for damage for the first time. There were a few pieces of glass embedded, one of which had worked its way through but had not gotten to the tube. No flats to date.

Huh???? 565 grams vs 440 grams - even those fatties arent very heavy.........

I guess you're talking about the "Plus" version, not the "Supremes", right?

I'm thinking about installing Supremes because the weight on the Plus "scares me".

Coque.

Yes, im talking about the plus. Supremes arent really any more flat resistant than other tires

In about a year I had 3 flats on supremes, 1 from a strand of a bicycle cable wire, and 2 from rim tape problems (i.e. not the tire's problem). (crazyass rim tape, I've never had anything like that happen other than these 2 times). Compared to weekly/daily flats w/ michelins twc's

I've got about ... 2,000 kms? on mine. One flat, curved piece of metal slid in over the belt, put tiny hole in almost the sidewall area of the tube. I've got a lot more on the Big Apples, which are supposed to be less puncture resistant, they're starting to lose the tread pattern, still no flats.

I dunno, flats can be funny things.

A lot of it comes down to the specific situation. I've got some Bontrager tires on my Simple City that someone else has here has said: "have no flat resistance whatsoever" There have been a couple of times I couldn't avoid riding over a pile of broken glass, and no problems.

coldfeet - I like the Blue-footed Booby in your avatar. Funny name for a bird, eh?

Not to quibble, but this is not a valid statement.

Most brands, including ours produce a wide range of tires with varying levels of puncture protection. The Supreme tires are on the upper end of this range, but there is no such thing as a pneumatic tire that is "flatproof". Our Marathon Plus tire is as close as you'll come. The penalty is weight.

Heading out now, I'll elaborate more tomorrow.

Cheers,

gb

I have Maxxis Re-Fuse on my wheels. New to them though. How do they compare with the others?

To follow up on an earlier post, I'd like to elaborate on the various types of puncture protection, and how that relates to tire performance.

Nearly all Schwalbe tires have some type of puncture protection, and not all are created equal.

The current model of the Marathon Supreme has what is known as HD ceramic guard. It works on two principles. The HD part refers to a very densely woven Vectran belt, which is highly resistant to punctures. This belt is then vulcanized into a rubberized coating that has little shards of ceramic that are embedded into the material. The ceramic is supposed to blunt small shards of glass that can "migrate" through a tire over time. I'm not entirely sure what happened in UberIM's case unless the glass shard was fairly substantial, or he happened upon an older (2008) Marathon Supreme without the Ceramic Guard. Could be that UberIM was just unlucky.... it happens. The belt primarily covers the center contact patch of the tire, so it's possible that the piece of glass that Uber picked up was on the cornering shoulder of the tire. The premise behind this system is that it provides an exceptional amount of puncture protection without adding a lot of weight to the tire.




All that said, there is still no substitute for mass. The Marathon Plus tires have what we call "Smart Guard". Smart Guard is a 5mm thick band of "India Rubber". It has some properties that repel penetrating objects, but the primary principle at play here is that most road debris will not pentrate 8-10mm of rubber and puncture protection belt. The biggest downside is the weight.

I bought a pair of Re-Fuse last summer because I wanted something cheap, light and reasonably puncture resistant. I've put about 900 miles on them so far and haven't gotten a flat yet, though that's partly because I have other tires that I've used when the weather conditions would make flats more likely. They have seen some rain use though. Overall, I'd say their flat protection is pretty decent. My biggest concern with them at this point is tread wear. After 900 miles, they're already showing some signs of thinning, and rumor has it that the outer casing tends to flake off. I'm seeing some separation in the tread, which may be the beginning of the flaking.


On the topic of the Marathon Supremes, I've got about 1000 miles on a set of 29x2.0 Supremes with only one flat -- that from a screw -- and they are one of the aforementioned tires that I use when the weather turns bad. I'm very happy with their combination of weight and flat protection. FWIW, the 29x2.0 (=700x50) Marathon Supreme (640g) weighs less than the 700x28 Marathon Plus (740g).

Been very pleased with my Marathon Supremes, picked them up after having a problem with my other tires (OEM on my LHT) picking up bits of wire and shoving them through the tube. No flats (knock on wood) from the Supremes, and they seem to roll pretty well (a bit noisy on asphalt though).

i've got over 5,000 miles on my first set of marathon pluses with only one flat in that time. and i ride over horrendously glass-strewn streets on my daily commute. i'm quite satisfied with their flat prevention capabilities.