Schwalbe Marathon Pluses are not all that great..

Schwalbe says the Marathon Plus is the most puncture proof tire in their lineup. Well, i had yet another flat with one today.. and i have some insight about this tire ( i've owned a few in different sizes and treads )..



What was the cause? the tire's metal rib popped out and stuck into the tube.. and this tire only had maybe 50 miles on it.

So i took the opportunity to cut the marathon plus apart to see how thick it really was. 7mm at most. 4.5mm at the edge..



The only special thing about the tire is that the blue rubber layer is ~33% more difficult to poke through than the black rubber, but if your tire is not at max PSI at every ride, it's no better than any other tire, maybe worse, because the outer 33% is very thin and not protected.

To be honest, i haven't been checking my PSI at every ride. It's been between 25-40PSI.. obviously that is not enough.

But even if you have your tire at 60psi, you are in trouble from getting poked by a goathead or metal object during a turn. Some cheap MTB tires have much thicker rubber in that area.. every time i've had a flat on a marathon plus, it was on the outside 33%.

https://www.schwalbe.com/en/tour-reader/marathon-plus-tour.html

Marathon plus tour is a little better.. slightly thicker rubber tread.. but i've still had a couple punctures on the outside.

Where i live ( Utah ), i have a lot of road debris that has spoiled bicycling for me for the last 5 years. I have tried all kinds of puncture proof tires and never found the holy grail. I think i spent more money on tires and replacement tubes than i have saved on gasoline.

If you are in my position, then motorcycle tires really are the only way forward.. no tubes / slime seem to have mixed results.

Neptronix....flat tires have hounded me constantly.

My best solution for normal bicycle type tires was to go on ebay, and buy NYLON CARGO STRAPS ...2 or 4" wide and 25ft long . I cut them to proper length to fit inside of the tire , then silicone them onto the inside of the tire . The nylon is very puncture resistant and excellent at protecting the tubes.

70k miles on bikes with schwalbe tyres and i have only had 20 or so punctures mostly pinch flats and spoke issues i dont know where you have been but you shouldent get that many punctures if you look whare your rideing

On my cargo bike, I have a Schwalbe Marathon and it's been OK. I think that it has survived due to being up front. The rear was plagued by punctures and occasional pinch flats. I moved to a 16" - 2.25" Shinko SR714 tire on my 20" Alex DM24 and haven't had a problem since. The tire also feels more solid and planted, even at the lower PSI that the tire likes.

I have a feeling that I will be transitioning to moto tires all around for bikes that exceed 35 mph.

My flats have gone down significantly when I avoid riding through all the junk near the edge of the road. Moped tires have helped a lot, however they take more energy, add considerable weight and are no fun to pedal.

Slowing down also helps, you can better avoid debris and it has less energy to penetrate tires with.

zackclark70 said:

70k miles on bikes with schwalbe tyres and i have only had 20 or so punctures mostly pinch flats and spoke issues i dont know where you have been but you shouldent get that many punctures if you look whare your rideing

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Sounds like you're riding in a place that's similar to where i grew up in California. I put about 30,000+ miles on a trek hybrid bike commuting ~38 miles a day with the cheapest tires out there and probably had 10 flats the whole time also. I didn't even know what flat proof tires were back then. Boy do i miss that.
The Portland, Oregon area was also pretty nice on the tires.. i could trust a puncture proof tire to be puncture proof out there.. that was nice.



Utah on the other hand.. is a frocking nightmare. Here is a pic of one of my tires after 10 miles of offroading. I imagine there are well over a hundred goathead stubs accumulated between both tires after this ride. This is a marathon plus 'tour' and i was very lucky that all the goatheads hit the center of the tread, otherwise i would have flatted instantly.

Most of my riding is on the road... and they must not sweep the roads here.. if they do, they're sweeping everything into the bike lane. There is metal debris everywhere.

The only problem with not using the bike lane is that all the roads have 40-45mph speeds. Not hard to get a motor that can handle that today, but.. battery energy density begins to be a problem..
So currently, i ride in the bike lane at ~25mph when i can, and 40-45mph on the road when i cannot.
i live in the middle of suburban sprawl.. to see someone else commuting on a bicycle is an ultra rare event. It seems like nobody else is up to the task of what i'm trying to do :lol:

I get a flat after every 4 rides or so using various puncture proof tires. I started using 'stop flats' and the tire strip actually punctured my tire by rubbing on it :lol: walking a bike with an 18lb DD hub up hill for 3 miles in the middle of summer with no water to be found was NOT FUN.

cal3thousand said:

I moved to a 16" - 2.25" Shinko SR714 tire on my 20" Alex DM24 and haven't had a problem since. The tire also feels more solid and planted, even at the lower PSI that the tire likes.

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Nice. I found out the vee rubber sells this tire: 'VRM-087 2.00-16' and it is about 2.5lbs and 2 inches wide.. it will fit pretty much anything with a 20" wheel size..
I'm surprised a motorcycle tire can be fitted to a DM24.. i thought maybe you'd need a wider rim or something with a deeper groove. Thanks for the tip.

I am probably going to be using a Downtube 9FS bike as the platform for my next build.. it only makes sense.. you won't find a 20 inch wheel bike with full suspension elsewhere to my knowledge.

neptronix said:

cal3thousand said:

I moved to a 16" - 2.25" Shinko SR714 tire on my 20" Alex DM24 and haven't had a problem since. The tire also feels more solid and planted, even at the lower PSI that the tire likes.

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Nice. I found out the vee rubber sells this tire: 'VRM-087 2.00-16' and it is about 2.5lbs and 2 inches wide.. it will fit pretty much anything with a 20" wheel size..
I'm surprised a motorcycle tire can be fitted to a DM24.. i thought maybe you'd need a wider rim or something with a deeper groove. Thanks for the tip.

I am probably going to be using a Downtube 9FS bike as the platform for my next build.. it only makes sense.. you won't find a 20 inch wheel bike with full suspension elsewhere to my knowledge.

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Alright, I misspoke. These are DX32 rims. Your incredulity about the DM24 is probably not misplaced.

cal3thousand said:

Alright, I misspoke. These are DX32 rims. Your incredulity about the DM24 is probably not misplaced.

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Yikes.. thanks for that, i was just about to order a rim up.

I run my tires tubeless w/sealant inside and the idea is to plug them as the flats happen w/ a bicycle tire plug kit I carry.
But wouldn't you know it, I haven't had any flats for the last year since I converted to tubeless.
But the monsoons are just starting to fire up, I just added a few more ounces of sealant to ea. tire and we shall see how it goes this season.

motomech said:

I run my tires tubeless w/sealant inside and the idea is to plug them as the flats happen w/ a bicycle tire plug kit I carry.
But wouldn't you know it, I haven't had any flats for the last year since I converted to tubeless.
But the monsoons are just starting to fire up, I just added a few more ounces of sealant to ea. tire and we shall see how it goes this season.

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Let me know.. i see you're in Tucson.. do you guys get goatheads galore out there like we do in northern Utah?

I just got some vee rubber 16" x 2.0" tires for another project. This is the lightest motorcycle/scooter tire i could find. These turn out to be 8mm thick but have a compound that is much harder than the marathon pluses.
I will probably order something more substantial like a shinko or pirelli.. if the 20" wheeled frame that's coming will fit them.. i'm sure they are thicker.

Sorta off topic, but.. i was thinking about moving out that way. What's it like to ride out there? do you have bike lanes?
My main problem with Utah is that there's not much in the way of bike lanes, and a lot of giant SUVs everywhere that have limited visibility. Speed limits on common roads are 30-45mph, and so my bike is more of a pedalable motorcycle so that i don't get squished here.

I'm in CA where it seems like there are a lot of goatheads, but probably not considering what you're saying, and Marathon Plus has been great for me; no flats in two years riding the road and bike paths. Out here when there are groups riding some desert areas with cactus problems, they insist that everyone have Stan's. Have you tried that system? The only flats that I've had offroad with Stan's were when I slashed my tires (which admittedly were super light for XC).