Nightmare fitting Marathon tyres - any tips

[mnichols]

Found a good deal on Marathon Tyres (£12). Been hearing rave reviews about them for years so I thought I would try them.

Put them on my Son's bike for his commute to school to replace the ones that come the cheap rubbish that came with his bike. No problem.

Put some on my gravel bike to replace the nobblies. No problem, but swapped them back again as this made it too similar to my winter bike.

Tried to put some on my Ultegra Wheels for my winter bike. Nightmare! Putting any tyres on the Ultegra Wheels has always been tight and needed more wrestling than any other wheel I've had....but putting Marathon's on was a whole other level.

I don't normally use levers, but there is no-way these were going on without. I had to use all my body strength and 4 different types of levers before I got them on...and off. I pinched 3 tubes in the process.

I tried all the tricks that I know but it was still a nightmare. I dread having a puncture on a cold wet day... Any tips?

I thought about snipping a few millimetres out of the wire bead.. Would this work, or ruin the tyre?

Any advice gratefully received?

[gaz]

Do not snip the tyre bead.

Have you seen 531Colin's tutorial: [youtube]-XUFVrl0UT4[/youtube]

VAR tyre lever or Simson tyre mate may help.

[PAB855]

I had a similar problem, but maybe not quite as bad as yours. I asked my LBS and I was advised to put my foot on the inside of the tyre, press it down onto the floor and pull at it upwards with my hands directly across its diameter. Do this at various points around its circumference. I thought he was having me on, but I did it and although it feels like a very crude remedy, it worked. The Marathons have not come to any harm as a result of this 'vandalism'. Happy New Year and good luck.

[Brucey]

if your ultegra wheels are tubeless-compatible, they may have a shallower well in the rim than your other wheels, and a different tolerance on the bead seat diameter. This can mean that tyres (of any kind) can be more difficult to fit to such rims, and tyres that are 'difficult' on normal rims can be almost impossible.

Hey, don't shoot the messenger!

cheers

[seph]

Yep, those ultegra wheels are really tight!

For marathon plus tyres (on different wheels) I carry a few 6'' reusable zip ties in the toolkit. They weigh very little and hold the tyre in place whilst I'm doing battle with it.
Not that they've punctured in the 5000 miles they've been on.

good luck!

[Elizabethsdad]

Simpsons Tyre Mate from SJS cycles

[mnichols]

Thanks for the replies

Yes, the wheel is tubeless compatible and I think that this is the route of the problem

I have seen Colin's video. The man is a magician. I think he could take this on tour. Much more impressive than David Blane. Perhaps I'll just take him along on my next ride.

I've wrestled it on and off a few more times to make sure I'm comfortable doing it on the road. The zip tie thing is an excellent idea. I've put some in my saddle bag. Keeping an eye on the reflective strip BOTH sides seems to be key. It can actually be sitting up on the other side. I've never had this happen on other tyres. Going round and round a few times is important. Using your palms rather than wrists helps. I still can't do it without levers on the Ultegra but getting there. The Crank Brothers Speedier lever was great for getting the last couple of inches ON without pinching the tube, but not for getting it OFF. The best tool for getting it OFF was the basic Park Tools lever.

Thanks All

[AaronR]

Zip ties.

Get bead seated at one point on both sides of rim (I usually do next to valve stem) and zip tie it tight

Work both sides into rim about 20cm away from this point to one side and zip tie, then repeat this for 20cm in other direction, keep this up until you are left with a gap almost opposite where you started of about 20-30cm - you should have enough slack to be able to mount the rest of the bead into the rim by hand

[Sweep]

Yes, colin's vid is a wonder. I'd probably have thrown myself, jibbering, into a yorkshire canal (2 punctures in the rain) if it wasn't for that. I don't go on group rides as much as I used to, pity maybe, as part of me is waiting for someone to struggle before I wander up with the wisdom of colin and save the day.

I don't use zip ties or straps though. A pair of boot laces (from mountain warehouse - others available) are kept in my seatpack. No need to knot the lace onto the tyre - just loop under itself at the beginning then wind it around the tyre as you push it down/seat it. I usually only need one lace but in extremis use both.

[simonhill]

There are currently 12 different Marathon tyres on the Schwalbe website. Add to this variations (wired, folding, etc) and discontinued models and you have an bewildering number of "Marathon tyres".

I've recently started using Marathon Supremes (26x1.6 folding, 2nd generation) and found they went on pretty easily.

Sorry to be picky, but it would be useful if everybody said what sort of Marathon as some are definitely worse than others.

[Mick F]

........ they may have a shallower well in the rim than your other wheels, and a different tolerance on the bead seat diameter. This can mean that tyres (of any kind) can be more difficult to fit to such rims, and tyres that are 'difficult' on normal rims can be almost impossible.

If the well is deep enough, I reckon that the tolerance issues won't be so much of a problem.

Shallow rims are terrible IMHO as borne out with my Moulton 406 rims.

[Brucey]

shallow rim wells alone don't always make for difficult tyre fitting; for example some Mavic designs have relatively shallow rim wells but don't have a reputation for being problematic in this regard.

So to my mind it is the combination of the tolerances and the well depth that gives the problem or not, in standard rims.

My point was that tubeless rims are built with shallow wells and are toleranced to make tyres of any kind a tight fit, so unless you definitely are going to use tubeless tyres, tubeless-compatible wheelsets are probably worth avoiding.

cheers

[mnichols]

Sorry to be picky, but it would be useful if everybody said what sort of Marathon as some are definitely worse than others.

I think that these are referred to as 'original', not plus, and they are 700c x 25. The wheels are Shimano Ultegra tubeless compatible not sure the model number but about twelve months old.

[Gattonero]

Marathon tyres can be a problem when in narrow size (25 or 28mm), because they tend to come off the rim when you are fitting the second bead.

Like posted above, use two toestraps to start. Close the second bead by the valve and fit the toestraps about 10-15cm apart, keep them tight and move on with fitting the tyre bead on the rim. Move the straps further up as you progress.
Toestraps are not substitute of zipties for some tasks, but are reusable and IMO work better for a tight tyre fitting. Always good to carry one or two in your pack, they are useful for many things.