26" Tire Widths vs 700c Widths
 

Okay I have been searching for this relationship and I can't seem to find the answer. I just got a LHT and these 26" tire widths are not as obvious as the 700c's. I'm looking at a 26"x1.5 and to me it looks somewhere around the width of a 30mm or 32mm. Obviously the 1.5 is not 38mm, 1.5 inches.

I'm looking to get a high pressure tire. I see some Kenda Kwests at 26x1.5, but I'm wondering if these will be around 32mm wide.

my regular schwalbe marathons 26x1.5 measure in real life to about 38mm.

You have plenty of frame clearance, is your worry about a few mm width, a form of entertainment?

Sorry, I wanted around a 38mm in case I find some gravel or some such, but maybe the stock 26x1.5 Continental whatevers run narrow. I just wanted to make sure this wasn't normal and 26" tire widths weren't measured in some weird fashion.

Go by the ETRO numbers on the side.. metric.

FWIW, Conti, Travel Contact is their adventure touring tire .
a fringe of knobs on a smooth center band,
for un paved loose roads they contct the dirt when it's softened,
not in hard pavement. Gator skin sidewall reinforcing .

the smooth center rolls really nicely on the highway....
only made in 1.75" 559-47 [or 622-37]

Thanks for that suggestion. I hadn't got the connection before so a nice bit of knowledge gain for the day :)

Andrew

Diameters are measured in a weird fasion for sure, but you had the right idea for the widths. Just convert inches-mm or vice versa. I haven`t used enough 700s to say if the measurements are more true to life than for 26s, but there will definitely be some discrepancies between claimed width and actual width no matter what size you`re looking at. I think a lot of that has to do with marketing, but unless the manufacturers know how wide your rims are there`s really no way they can predict exactly how wide any tire will be when mounted.

If you mean the plain Marathon (with GreenGuard) I used the same tires last year on a 500 mile tour. Worked great. They are not on the bike right now and are not convenient to get to to look at, but I think that they are rated at 40X559, meaning 40mm width. But I never expect a tire to measure the exact same as the rating. I do not recall the pressure rating but I think that I was surprised how high the rating was.

This tire is available on the Schwalbe website in a 32mm width, but their website lists the max pressure at 6.5 bars which does not sound right to me for a 32.

There are several different "26" inch tires. If in doubt, look for the number 559 on the sidewall.

Tourist, I'm.pretty certain they are pre green-thingee ones, a bit lighter but they don't make them any longer , but I could be wrong.

This^^^ It's all dependent on rim size.

For what it's worth I run 26x 2.0 Marathon Duremes on my LHT when touring or gravel riding and they do very well. They are not a slow tire and are a very good gravel tire. Last spring they did a great job on a very muddy C&O Canal.

And flats are nearly non existent.

Yeah, they changed the construction of the standard Marathon a few years ago, I got mine this year. That is why I specified the GreenGuard to distinguish from the older ones you have. I have the older Marathons on my foldup bike but in a smaller wheel size, they are also good. I like them for pavement whereas I use a 2.0 width tire for gravel.

I have 26x1.5" Panaracer Paselas on one bike. They measure at 37mm wide.

I've had excellent results with Schwalbe Marathon Racer. I'm running 26x1.75" which do very well both on and off-road. They have a 1.5" version which runs wider at 40mm, according to specs. Sometimes you find them on sale on amazon.