I'll 'fess up, I may have a problem....

I ride an '89 Voyageur, with a frame that was designed around 1 1/4" (32mm) tires.

The new Marathon Pluses in 700x32 (replacement for the same size Gatorskins) arrived last week.

When putting them on I noticed they were narrower than the 32 mm Gatorskins I was running, furthermore I recalled that the Gatorskins in turn were narrower than the ostensibly 700x32 Continental Top Contact II's I had that failed in Ireland.

Ergo I can prob'ly squeeze in 700x35 Schwalbe's under my Bontrager fenders, which are supposed to accommodate a 35mm tire anyway.

Ergo I can fit 35mm tires on my bike after all.

Ergo I can probably use my own ideal all-surface touring tires; Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tours, which do not come in 32mm but which DO come in 35mm.

So, despite having a perfectly good set of 32mm, barely a week-in-use Marathon Pluses on my bike, it bugged me so much all week not having the tires I really wanted that I just squandered another $100+ ordering a set of 35mm Marathon Plus Tours from Schwalbe USA.

But hey, I'm sure I've squandered money more foolishly before.

Mike

Dear Mr Ergo
You can always sell the 32s at a reasonable price to recoup a certain pile of tuppence, but I would suggest holding off just in case the clearance is really really tight with the 35s and the fenders. I've had fairly close tolerances with an old bike with 28s and some fenders, and it generally was ok, but just do be aware not to have it super close as it just increases teh risk of jamming stuff in there, especially on a dark commute where we dont see stuff.
Hey, for 1.5mm more on each side, is it worth it? The answer is yes given that as you have already ordered the new ones ;-) but for commuting, I've certainly grown to like the 37 or 38 1.5in tires Ive had on one of my bikes for years, again, especially in the dark on our pretty pants roads here in Montreal, so I get wanting wider.

Actually yes, all else being equal a ~9% increase in tire width could translate to around a 20% or more increase in tire volume.

What I really want though is the more aggressive tread pattern to up my off-pavement capabilities a tad. I really like the ones on my Mt/commuting bike.

preaching to the converted on the increase in tire volume, so what I meant to get across is that I get wanting to have 35s vs 32s.

in any case, like you said, there are worse things in life to squander money on, and it shouldnt be hard to sell the 32s at a reasonable price, there will be someone happy to save X dollars on obviously new tires compared to new prices.

I got my money's worth from two Gatorskins and two Marathon Mondials over the last three years. No major tire failures before that.

But, I managed to get a 1/2 inch diameter stick to go through my $120 fatbike tire. So, that offsets all the good luck I had with my touring tires.

Not that this describes anyone in this thread, I've seen people come into my LBS angry because they got three flats in a week, like yelling at the LBS was going to compel them to fix the problem. The tire gods can be fickle, there's no rhyme or reason to it, sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes the bar eats you.

I am sure we all have had itches that needed to be scratched.

Brad

Check out Michelin Protek Max tires. I've run a set of 700x40 Protek Cross Max for a year without flats. Got sick of flats after four in one month last year with a lighter weight set of tires on our local rough roads.

Typical Texas roads: smooth and rough pavement and chipseal with lots of broken glass, roofing nails, drywall screws, shards of metal, goat head grass burrs, etc.

I inspected the rear tire a few days ago and found a couple of glass splinters embedded in the tread, but nothing punctured the thick puncture shield. I tweezed out the glass and filled the small cuts with Shoe Goo. Then I rotated the tires and put the less worn front on the back.

When I first installed the tires I checked them at least once a week and found no visible wear for months.

Thought I'd had my first flat last week after experiencing some slow leaks, but there was no puncture in the tube. My best guess was a slightly loose core in the Schrader stem, possibly from using a threaded chuck. I snugged up the valve core and refilled the tube. No problems or slow leaks.

They're heavy -- 1,100 gr for 40c. But they grip like Velcro and ride well on dry and wet pavement of all kinds, gravel trails, everything but climbing muddy hills. Suits my 12 mph overall average.

Well, that is the classic definitions of "worn out."

I find I start to get a lot more punctures even before worn down to the threads just because the contact patch of the tire is so thin.

For whatever reason Gatorskins do seem to have become a universally well-known and much-recommend tire out there in the real world, both in the US and in the UK and Ireland. So Conti must have done something right. Actually, I would probably have been happy with 'em indefinitely, but nooooo....

I wanted something better in the wet for the UK so I bought two Conti Top Contact II's before leaving, they failed en route....

In Ireland I replaced them with Gatorskins.

Back in San Antonio one of the Gatorskins got a bb sized hole in center tread so I sprung for a pair of Marathon Plus.

...and now a pair of Marathon Plus Tours....

AAK... eight tires in five months.... $400?

The first step is admitting I have a problem I think my tire itch definitely needs to have been scratched for a while.

Actually I know a high school kid of limited means who has been riding his fixie like 100+ miles a week on just average tires. If the Plus Tours fit my bike I can see a pair of decent Marathons headed his way.

Mike

I used 622- 40 Suomi Nokian a 10 utility tires and after 6 months they still looked like new,
as I rode from SW Ireland to NE Scotland.. a hard durometer Rubber not a sticky performance compound.

I started in Last week of February so it was wet , I had no trouble ..





./.

Just for general interest, this is what 700x35mm Marathon Plus Tours look like....





It is a tight fit under those fenders, which means the fenders have to be aligned exactly strait, which of course fenders often aren't.

I only have about 2" of clearance to fit a fender between the front forks, I think I'm gonna buy wider fenders anyway and maybe cut 'em at the edges as needed to fit up there between the forks.

Mike

There's a way of patching/booting tires that results in a permanent repair that usually goes the full life of the tire. Make a big boot (bead to bead and 1 1/2" past the cut n both directions) of sailcloth. Ask any sailmaker for a scrap of dacron sailcloth for say a racing dinghy like what would have been used 30 years ago. Glue it in with contractors' grade contact cement. (Sailcloth is designed for abuse very similar to what tire casings see. The repairs hold up just as well as the rest of the tire, or they do if you don't take the tire off too many times. If it starts to delaminate, just glue the boot back down with more contact cement.)

Ben

Ben, With so many years puttering with sailboats, I never thought about using sailcloth.

Brad

I'm not sure what you are doing but you probably need to stop doing it

I've worn out all kinds of tires in 35+ years of commuting and touring but I haven't really damaged too many tires while doing it...and that includes off-road riding while both commuting and touring. To be honest, about the only tires that have ever given me problems consistently have been Continentals. I simply refuse to use any of them anymore.

I am glad to see that it's not my imagination that Continentals have problems. Seems like lots of others have issues with them as well.

for what its worth, the shot from overhead with that amount of fender being wider than tires is very similar to the distance I've had on a couple of bikes of mine for a couple of decades, and the fenders have done their job well (water spray wise)
In your other shot however, the angle of the shot doesn't really show the actual clearance between the tire and fender. I will take some photos from lower down of the fenders on my two bikes to give you an idea of what clearance I have, and have pretty much not had any issues of stuff jamming inbetween tire and fender.
As you say, wider will give you more wiggle room, but you may have to do what you said, to contour out some room at the top of the fork.
In setting up fenders on my Troll, I went very conservative for fender/tire room, we're talking more than an inch clearance with mud in mind, but the other bikes used for eons are much closer and have worked fine---just remembered you want to go off road more, which certainly will increase the risk of picking up a stick or whatever, so in the end, perhaps more room is the best route to go, but thats up to you.

^^^^^ that

here is the rear fender from one of my bikes that only has a rear fender, 28s, a fair amount of clearance near front of tire, and it gets less as it goes along, to little near rear of tire.
other shot is my old tourer, with the front fender. again, varying amount of space.

camera angle plays a big part in giving an idea of space between tire and fender, I put some white foam core behind bikes to help, but camera angle very much plays a part in it.
Bottom line is that on both bikes, there are parts of the fenders that are much closer to tires than others, but in regular riding on varying surfaces, fender/tire clearance hasnt been an issue.

take all this with a grain of salt re your riding.

Anyways, just ordered a set of Marathon Plus, 700x32. Schwalbe says The most puncture resistant pneumatic tire there is.

Guess I'll find out.

Mike[/QUOTE]

I have a pair of these hanging on a peg in my garage, I trained on them and then rode them on a north to south west coast tour a few years ago, never flatted but they are SLOW. I'm now saving them for the zombie apocalypse, I'm hoping that they're a fraction faster than zombies.

Uh-oh, here I was thinking my 32mm Marathon Pluses were faster than the 32mm Gatorskins I was used to

Second day into it I would rate my new 35mm Marathon Plus Tours about on a par with my old 32mm Gatorskins.

I'm a SLOW rider tho, my target speed is only about 10mph. Eight hours of that in a day will still cover serious real estate, and its much easier to look around at the scenery while you're riding.

Mike

Thanks for taking the time to post those pics.

The issue for me is that, at some points of my commute I am liable to pick up mud when its wet out, while even fenders with abundant clearance can get clogged this can happen easier when there ain't much air space between tire and fender.

Mike