New Tyres Please

[ymfb]

We use Schwalbe Marathon Plus on our tourers both for touring and around town, mostly because of the puncture resistance. Mine at 100 psi and my wife's at 90 psi.

I read and value the advice from experts in this parish on these and it's one of the few topics on which I come to different conclusions. On our bikes we get an acceptably comfortable ride and don't experience the deadness that others describe.

And that's what we'll use on the end to end when we eventually have time to do it... unless someone convinces me otherwise. And low cost isn't a high priority in our option appraisal.

Jonathan

Thanks

[MrsHJ]

People choose their own criteria, but compromising comfort and speed by choosing a Plus tyre to avoid the average one puncture every 3,000 miles is completely alien to me. For me that's a average of a ten minute delay every 250 hours of riding.
I don't have a tubeless tyre to recommend, I haven't used any, but the Schwalbe G-one are very popular and I'm assuming there's good reason for that.

I feel seen!

[Tinkerbell]

I need new tyres, ive been running Panaracer gravel king 700 x 38C (40-622) TLC with DT Swiss G1800 wheels. They have punctured several times and have a number of pro racer plugs, but I have also be reducing my pressure to 40 psi and haven’t punctured since running the lower pressure.

Somebody I bumped into was extolling the virtues of Strada Bianchi, but they are very expensive. I don’t mind paying but I’d hate to buy expensive tyres that prove to be another mistake.

I mainly ride on asphalt with some light tracks, nothing gnarly. Anyone offer some real world advice.

I got about 2000 miles out of my Panaracers until they started to puncture regularly. I’ve switched to Schwalbe Land Cruisers which are a bit heavy, but pretty bomb-proof (I run with tubes though).

[Cugel]

People choose their own criteria, but compromising comfort and speed by choosing a Plus tyre to avoid the average one puncture every 3,000 miles is completely alien to me. For me that's a average of a ten minute delay every 250 hours of riding.
I don't have a tubeless tyre to recommend, I haven't used any, but the Schwalbe G-one are very popular and I'm assuming there's good reason for that.

Just so - why give up the joys of efficiency and comfort in a tyre just to increase the puncture resistance by an amount saving only that ten minutes in an age.

Well, I suppose for some the puncture is a greater inconvenience than for others. Some tyres are hard to remove from the rim; some wheels are difficult to extract from some bicycles. Still ...... I'd rather get competent at doing so to enable the use of tyres with more mechanical efficiency and comfort.

On the other hand, some in the towns and cities have to ride over roads strewn with smashed yob-bottle shards, metal bits cast off car-dodgems and all sorts of other detritus inclined to prog at one's tyres. And then there's them landscaped full of flints ...... . Punctures every ten minutes for some, if they don't have inch-thick tyres with armour plating.

******
I have some Schwalbe G-One tubeless (and some All rounds; and Continental GP; and some Panaracer gravel kings, all tubeless). The tubeless reduce the punctures to one every even-more-than-your mileages! it's quite satisfying to see a chunk of hawthorn stabbing the tyre then pulling it out to reveal a teeny latex weep then .... auto-fixed. It's also satisfying when changing a worn tyre to discover three thorns in it you never even noticed going in or for the next thousand miles or so of riding about.

[nickyboy]

People choose their own criteria, but compromising comfort and speed by choosing a Plus tyre to avoid the average one puncture every 3,000 miles is completely alien to me. For me that's a average of a ten minute delay every 250 hours of riding.
I don't have a tubeless tyre to recommend, I haven't used any, but the Schwalbe G-one are very popular and I'm assuming there's good reason for that.

This...

Riding Marathon Plus compared to, say, Conti GP5000, you have to do an extra 30W to ride the same speed (or you ride 30W easier with the Contis for the same speed). The Contis will puncture more frequently but the trade off is worth it to me. For example, 3 of us did LEJOG using Contis with one puncture in total in nearly 3,000 miles. Of course choose a bomb proof tyre if you have a massive aversion to punctures but they make cycling a lot harder than it probably needs to be

[Jdsk]

...
Riding Marathon Plus compared to, say, Conti GP5000, you have to do an extra 30W to ride the same speed (or you ride 30W easier with the Contis for the same speed).
...

Where do you get the power figures from to do that sort of comparison, please?

Jonathan

[freeflow]

Where do you get the power figures from to do that sort of comparison, please?

Jonathan

https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/

[Jdsk]

Thankyou, that is the one that I check with, despite any limitations of the methods.

Any more recommended sources, please?

Jonathan

[MrsHJ]

That’s interesting to see the actual numbers. I’m also wondering about the conditions for the measurements- presumably based in road bike with a decent surface which would be valid for Lands end JOG by road (which is what most people do) and it makes a lot of sense. If I was doing a decent speed LEJOG I would definitely take this into account.

Maybe not so much for my biannual 1000km potters across random unsurfaced terrain from crushed limestone to mud/sand across various countries (all with a different approach to road and route maintenance) with a lightweight but not no weight touring setup on a hybrid bike and me (currently heavyweight).

[nickyboy]

They have to do a standardised test so they run them on a drum with knobbly bits on it so as to replicate a reasonably smooth but not totally smooth surface such as decent tarmac. No test is perfect but at least their website is independent and has consistent data across loads of tyres.

Frankly, the difference in rolling resistance is frighteningly large for very similar tyres with very similar puncture resistance properties (that they also measure in a standard way)