Schwalbe tire thread question
#1
Thread Starter
Senior Member

Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 212
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From: The Netherlands
A week or so ago I had a flat rear tire. My tires are currently cheap no-name semislicks. After some frustration about having to walk all the way home on a pretty dark path where I had to watch out not to step on the many frogs that where crawling around
, I went to the LBS and bought a Schwalbe Marathon Slick (kevlar belted). So, I did some searching on the Marathon tires just for fun when I found out that it's available with two different tread designs. Mine looks like this this while the other, which is just called Marathon, looks like this this (more aggressive). The first is advertised as a city tire and the other as a touring tire. Anyway, since the bad weather months are arriving (here in NL anyway) I'm a little worried if I got the proper tread because I also ride in bad weather. Would it really make that much difference? Thanks in advance.
, I went to the LBS and bought a Schwalbe Marathon Slick (kevlar belted). So, I did some searching on the Marathon tires just for fun when I found out that it's available with two different tread designs. Mine looks like this this while the other, which is just called Marathon, looks like this this (more aggressive). The first is advertised as a city tire and the other as a touring tire. Anyway, since the bad weather months are arriving (here in NL anyway) I'm a little worried if I got the proper tread because I also ride in bad weather. Would it really make that much difference? Thanks in advance.
#2
Senior Member

Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 1,372
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From: Munich
Bikes: Lemond Alpe d´Huez, Scott Sub 10, homemade mtb, Radlbauer adler (old city bike), Dahon impulse (folder with 20 inch wheels), haibike eq xduro
if you are riding on the road then the slick tyres will be better than the more aggressive tyres even in normal conditions (dry or wet)-bicycles don´t go fast enough to aquaplane and it is rubber that grips the road not space between treads. The more aggressive looking tread patterns are there precisely becuause they LOOK more aggressive and many cyclists think they because they look cool that they will be better. If you ride off road or in the snow then the slicks will not be so good as more aggressive tyres will give better grip-in this case I would suggest in any case getting more aggressive tyres (e.g studded ones) than the marathons. I ride marathons in the summer and Nokia spike 296 tyres in the snow.





