I run mine high for sale few reasons. First, I'm a big guy at 230 and the streets I ride in are a mess, I just feel more secure with the tires pumped. They are still quite supple since the rubber compound is pretty soft. There's a belt below the tread that's pretty puncture resistant but even so, they flats I've gotten were glass. Last week I was riding home and got a shard in there that was doing its "thump thump thump" until I got off an literally dug it out with a knife, no flat... I used to race when I was younger and I think I'm just more used to hard tires, habit if you will. When it's wet I'll drop the pressure a bit but it hardly rains out here anymore... Cheers

Nice price, but $40 shipping for light, foldable tires is a bit much, I think.

I got out on my Kuwahara tonight and was running the Racers at 80 psi which made them feel pretty stiff on the new CR18 rims but I had the bike spun out on the way home... for a touring bike it is fairly fast and I just swapped the freewheel and was running a slightly higher top gear as well.

I really think I will like these tyres.

I have done 35km in an hour on the old Marathons with a stripped down bike and usually cruise at around 30 kmh when I am not loaded down, I don't know why people say they are slow rolling and the Racers are noticeably faster, particular when it comes to acceleration and that speaks to their lower weight.

?? I think you were looking at something else. I linked to 29x2 supremes for $64.02 ea. FREE shipping. I did have to pay about $10 CA sales tax for the pair though, but out of state I think wouldn't.

I've read through the thread, but didn't see an answer to this question. Did you figure out what this designation means? I was looking at a Marathon Plus HS 348, but can't figure out what the HS or the 348 mean. Anyone know how to decode these?

I can't find a reference to HS, but their tires labelled HD, or HD-V = high density, or high density Vectran, for their flat resistance layers.

HS may be "S"mart Guard, their thick flat resistant layer????

That makes sense. So is 420 vs. 348 about tread pattern? I'm trying to figure out if I'll be okay so long as I order the right size (700x35).

Interesting. I used your link and got the same product price. However, it must have geolocated my IP (I'm in Europe) and recalculated the shipping.

That's all I can figure that number must mean. See Marathon HS 420 vs Marathon Deluxe HS 420.

And as for "OK", depends on your goals I guess. I'm sure you'll get good flat protection and durability with any Marathon model, but many have noted that the bottom-of-the-line is rock-like in its weight.

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Undoubtedly that seller was smart enough to restrict his free shipping to US-only. I once made the mistake of not doing that, and sold a small item (a vintage Campy derailleur I think) to a dude in Australia, the shipping would have been like $60 for a $10-20 sale. I contacted him with as much groveling as possible, and he was nice enough to agree to nullify the sale for me.


But when I was researching schwalbe tires on eBay, I found that european eBay sites have much more variety and lower prices on schwalbe tires (in particular used, which are virtually nonexistent here in the US), so you shouldn't have to bother buying your marathons from America!