Am searching for Schwalbe Marathon Plus 26 X 1.50, folding, but cannot find them anywhere. I see tons of wire bead, and on ebay saw clinchers, which I'm not sure if they are the same as folding.

any help finding these tires is appreciated, and then I'll close the thread

thanks!

From what I can tell, the Marathon Plus (all 4 varieties) are only available with wire beads. "clincher" appears to be a term that indicates the method of "attachment" between the tire and rim. most normal bike tires are clinchers - I'm guessing the term encompasses both folding and wire bead varieties.

Yes it does. Folding tires have a flexible bead material instead of wire, but both types are 'clinchers.' Tubulars are the other type of tire. They are also foldable but have no bead at all -- they are glued to a different type of rim.

The Schwalbe North America site shows no Marathon Plus tires with folding beads. German site shows none as well. Appears that they don't make them anymore, if they ever did.

There are several brands with very similar tires.

Schwalbe Marathon Plus
Michelin Protek Max (and Protek Cross Max)
Panaracer Tourguard.

But, I think most of them come with wire beads.

The Surly Extraterrestrial is a folding tire, and might be worth looking at, but it is a wide tire. You might see if Surly has other tires that would meet your needs.

Also keep in mind that most bicycle tires can be twisted into 3 loops to make them smaller.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/...r-folding.html

A small thick tire like a 26" Marathon may be tough to fold. You can try 2 loops, but doing 3 loops in general puts the tire under less stress than 2 loops.