Schwalbe Marathon Plus Bicycle tire- 16, 20, 24, 26, 27.5 & 28 inches – Flat-Less tire for Bicycles – SmartGuard

I put a set of these on my bike after finally losing it with flat after flat after flat. It seemed all I was doing was fixing flats, throwing away tubes and I was starting to dread getting on my bike - another flat today? I read about these and researched a lot of reviews and finally decided to take the plunge. I am SO glad I did. 3 years later NOT ONE SINGLE FLAT, even in serious sticker country like New Mexico. The tires are definitely on the heavy side and I added almost 2 lbs to the weight of my bike but it is well worth it since now I don't even think about flats anymore. I can't bring myself to not carry an extra tube and a pump but I could easily have NOT carried those for all this time and never had a problem. I find the tires ride fine, no particular difference in feel vs standard road tires, and I have tried all the top brands. The durability is outstanding - I am easily getting twice the tread life out of these than any tire I have ever used. The 700 x 25 is pretty low profile once mounted and inflated so it keeps my road bike looking like a road bike. I found mounting was much easier if I used a cord to tie the tire securely to the rim at one point then work my way around - very stiff and the tire would inevitably pop off at the critical moment before I used the tying down method. After that it went on pretty easy. The massive payoff though is the complete cessation of flat tires. I will gladly put up with a little extra weight (with no noticeable sacrifice in performance) for the peace of mind of being able to ride anytime anywhere without the specter of flat-fixing looming over the trip. 5 stars all the way for me - I will NEVER put a regular tire back on my bike.

Let's say it up front. This is a heavy tire. However, it's heavy 'cause it's built like a tank. I've got over 900 miles on them and I can still see the front tire's mold line. Normally you'd think a tire that hard would be difficult to handle with poor cornering. Not so. Wet and dry the grip is good. I wouldn't go racing with it, but once you get it up to speed it rolls well. I run about 70 PSI and the tire soaks up minor road roughness very well. That's a good thing because my city doesn't maintain the streets as well as they once did. On smooth pavement the tire sings a sweet little tune that's just barely audible. They're not cheap, but they should last 2 to 3 times as long as a lightweight skinny tire. I seldom got more than 2000 miles from a 700x20, but then I weigh 90 kilos. For a commuter or long distance touring bike this is a great choice. PS: Don't believe the word out that the tires are hard to mount. However - there are tricks you MUST know. I mounted both tires in under 20 minutes _without_ tools. Brute force is NOT the answer. I use strapping tape to secure the parts of the tire that I've mounted and COMPRESS the casing so that the tire is pushed towards the unmounted side. After 4 or 5 taped areas about 8 inches apart I can then use my hands to push the casing over the rim. And of course you must be very cautious airing the tube to prevent blowouts.

Expensive tire but it holds up well in city riding. I have bought a few of these and they last a long time.

REVIEW UPDATED ON 06/05/2012 (updates following initial review) REVIEW UPDATED ON 07/01/2012 REVIEW UPDATED ON 08/07/2012 (first major issue) REVIEW UPDATED ON 08/28/2012 (first flat) Well, I figured I would go ahead and start an on-going review of these tires. During the time of this initial review I had only put a few dozen miles on these - but as some people say "If you can go ten miles without a flat, then you can go thousands", we'll see about that in the coming days. I'm going to keep the review portion quick because I still have to really get some use out of these for a fair review, so here's a quick review, which I'll follow up with mounting instructions. Future updates will be at the very bottom of this review. Weight: * Roll Resistance: *** Acceleration: *** Speed: *** Durability: ***** (so far) These are heavy, fairly low roll resistance (which is good), decent acceleration and speed but they are amazingly durable (at least they should be, only time will tell - but you can't ignore their reputation!). The Marathons are 5 star tires. The negative points can be forgiven because these are all about durability and longevity, which as a daily commuter are are most important. With my previous tires I started getting flats after 500 miles, and the flats became daily. Even though I don't have a whole lot of experience with the Marathons yet, I can just tell that they are FAR more durable. Broken glass is extremely common on my commute and I can almost hear these tires laugh as I roll through it. REVIEW EDITS 06/05/2012: I put well over 150 miles on these tires over the last week, doing my best to hit all the different types of terrain I possibly could. There are a few things worth noting: First, as I mentioned these are heavy, which makes climbing hills significantly more challenging, I'd say by a good 15-20% over my previous tires. My legs have just started adapting to this, so it's not a huge problem, but hills do hurt a bit more. Also, I have tried to hit every possible type of terrain I possibly could. I've ridden over grass, gravel, pavement, dirt, etc. These aren't a fantastic all-terrain tire, but they will work on just about all surfaces if needed. They don't really have enough 'grab' to ride through loose dirt very well, but they handle packed gravel surfaces nicely. They have good cornering on pavement and they are doable on grass, though not ideal. They cut through little pools of water on pavement like a hot knife through butter. Finally, these things ARE durable as heck! I have purposely ridden over large glass 'fields' which would have easily punctured my previous tires, and these tires just roll right through it without any problems. On one commute I literally hit every piece of glass I possibly could (large and small) and I haven't had any issues. 07/01/2012 I just wanted to do a post-500 mile update. I'm well over 500 miles now without a single flat or issue. My legs have become accustomed to the additional weight. Wear on my front tire is very minimal, it still looks brand new. Wear on the rear tire is noticeable but very minimal considering I've put significant mileage on these. Previously I used Kenda Kwick Cross tires and by 500 miles my rear tire was near bald. I imagine these will last for many more miles! 08/07/2012 Well, now that I'm at the 1400-ish mark I've had my first major issue. I was commuting home when my back tire hit some piece of metal. I'm not sure what I hit, but I heard a loud *PING* as my tire kicked whatever it was into the frame, it bounced away and must have fallen into a storm drain as I couldn't find whatever it was. It sounded big though. Now there's a gash halfway between the center of the tire and the sidewall (I was turning at the time) and it runs lengthwise down the tire. It's about 1 1/4 inches long and I can clearly see the blue layer underneath (about 2 mm wide). I must have hit something big and sharp. Amazingly the tire didn't flat, the blue layer protected my inner tube. I didn't even realize I had damage in the tire until I did some routine maintenence the following day. Aside from this gash the tire itself looks like it's about 40-50% worn. The front still looks real good, perhaps 20-25% worn. I weigh 210 and often carry a 25lb backpack (plus I carry a wedge, safety light, headlight, 2 bottles) and at this weight it looks like I'd get about 3,000 miles out of the rear tire had I not hit whatever it was that caused this gash. Money is tight, so I'm going to still ride on the gashed tire for now (the underlying belt is in great condition and the blue layer has no visible damage). We'll see what happens! 08/28/2012 Just a quick update: Well, I got my first flat. I was 30 miles into a 60 mile out-and-back (of course) when my back tire became squishy. As it turns out, a thorn made its way into the gash I mentioned in the previous update. I guess when your tire is spinning at roughly 5,000 revolutions per hour something bad is bound to find its way where you don't want it. In this instance, the thorn managed to just barely dodge the blue belt and make it through to the tube (if you look at a cutaway image for this tire, the gash is right where the blue belt is at its thinnest). I can't fault the tire for this because I'm sure such gashes are quite rare and had I not had this gash then the tire would have simply laughed at the thorn and punted it away. On a positive note: dismounting/remounting wasn't anywhere near as painful as it was when the tire was brand new. It took me about 15 minutes to fix the flat, most of the time was searching for the hole, patching and testing. Remounting was only a tad harder than the average 700X32 tire. I'm going to install a boot in the tire where the puncture came through and hope for the best. I'll do my final update when I replace this tire, which will either be when I experience one more flat because of the gash, or wear the tire down entirely. I went right around 1900 miles before experiencing my first flat on these, not bad at all, especially given the circumstances. I put my full trust in these tires. The front tire is showing about 30% wear on the tread, the back tire is now around 60% Well, I guess that update wasn't so quick, my bad. TIRE MOUNTING INSTRUCTIONS If you've read other reviews then you probably know that these can be a SERIOUS pain in the arse. I've read stories of people taking 6+ hours to mount these, or having to take them into a local bike shop only to have the mechanic give up, but it CAN be done by yourself with the right technique, and once you master it then you will not fear any roadside flats (like that's gonna happen anyways! *knock on wood*) So, I'll try to describe this the best I can but I highly suggest checking out a video on your favorite video site (sorry, have to be vague here - my reviews keep getting rejeceted). Do a search for "How to fit a Marathon Plus tyre", and check out the video made by SpaCycles. The nice gentleman in this video shows a great technique, however you may have to modify it a bit as I did because this man has a heroic grip and he makes it look a little too easy! Rule 1: Take your time! Rule 2: CONSTANTLY check the inner tube to make sure it's not going to pinch. There are two challenges when it comes to mounting these. The first is getting the second bead started and the second is getting the last little bit of the second bead over the rim. - First, inflate your tube slightly, just enough to give it some shape. - Now put the tube into the tire (I found it easier to put the tube in the tire prior to mounting, rather than putting the tube in after getting the initial bead on, your mileage may vary). Make sure you put the tire on in the right direction! The last thing you want to have to do is dismount and remount because of a simple oversight (I nearly did this!). - Work the initial bead on to the rim. This can be slightly challenging with this tire, but it's certainly manageable. Once the initial bead is on just do a quick check around the rim to make sure there is no pinching going on. - Here is the first real challenge - get the second bead started. Normally getting the second bead to start on a tire isn't too difficult but these Marathons are so stiff that it's a bit of a pain. If the tire were a clock I found that if I put my hands in the 2:00 and 10:00 positions and massage the tire into the rim I'm able to get the second bead to finally seat. Once you have the bead seated then use a zip tie, toe strap, or even a shoe string and wrap it around the rim/tire a cinch it down to hold the tire to the rim. Congrats, you're halfway there! - Now, starting from the cinched down area, work the second bead into the rim, keep working it in until the bead is seated on the opposite side of the cinched area from the previous step. Now cinch the tire to the rim like in the above step. You should now have half the tire seated and two straps cinching the tire to the rim opposite of each other. - Continue working the second bead in until you simply can't budge it anymore. I'll assume the remanining unseated bead is in the 12:00 position. Okay, to get the second bead to seat just a little more, start at the 6:00 position and squeeze/push the bead INTO the well of the rim (as displayed in the video). Squeeze it like a near-empty bottle of toothpaste, hand over hand, until you reach the unseated area. If you did this correctly then you should be able to seat just a tiny bit more of the bead into the rim. Keep doing this on alternating sides until you just cannot budge the bead anymore. If you have super grip strength you can probably finish seating the bead using this technique (as displayed in the video), but for us mere mortals move on to the next step: - Now you're going to need a lot of leverage to finish the job. This is a bit hard to explain, but essentially I sat on the ground and pretty much wedged the tire into my chest as if I were playing it like a harp. The unseated bead should be at the top of the rim. With the tire in "harp position" I was able to use my whole body for leverage. From this position you can use both hands, one to pull and one to push. So, go the the very edge of the unseated area, tuck the tire into your body, wrap your legs around it (I was even using my face for a little more leverage!) and now you should be able to seat the bead just a tiny bit more. Don't forget to use the 6:00 squeaze technique from the previous step, it helps. If you keep repeating this step then eventually you will hear a VERY satisfying pop as the tire finally seats correctly into the rim. Using a tire lever to push the in the bead can ease the job a little. - Remember: CONSTANTLY check to make sure the inner tube has clearance, the last thing you want to do is finally seat the tire, only to have a pinch-flat. - Once everything is kosher then run along the rim, squeazing the tire in, just to make sure there are no pinches. If you see a pinch then gently use a tire lever to stuff the tube under the tire (and pray you didn't pinch-flat it!). I was able to get the first tire on in about 40 minutes and the second tire in about 25. I'm confident that I can mount these in 25 minutes or less now, but dismounting them - well, that might be different. Hopefully I don't have to do that for a long, long time! If any of this is unclear then please leave a comment, I will be happy to try and clear things up. I will update this review periodically (I promise!)

After reading a number of online reviews, especially from others who have biked from the west to east coast of the U.S, I decided to get the Schwalbe-Marathon Plus bike tires. Here in Arizona with all the cactus and such, I had 3 flats out of the last 5 rides. I read reviews of cross country bikers who went over 2000 kilometers on these without a flat. Sounded good to me. As other reviews noted, the tires are hard to get on. However, there are some youtube videos showing how to make it a bit easier. And of course the easiest route is pay someone at a bike shop to mount them. The tires are heavier than my previous ones, but they feel like they have less rolling resistance then my previous ones. And the time I save by not having a flat is worth the extra weight. So far, so good, no flats in the several long rides since I got them. I'll keep you posted on how long they go without a flat.

I was running Schwable Kojak tires and the rear tire thread broke internally, it was kinda of weird no noticeable rip just a big bulge in the tire. So I decided to replace both since it's getting wet these days and slick tires aren't giving me the confidence riding in the wet. First thing I noticed with these tires was the weight, they sure are heavy compared the Kojak tire I just took off. The tire is not flexible at all and mounting at first was difficult but after taking a deep breath I was able to tame this beast and get it on. Once I knew how to mount it, the other one was easy to mount. I ride a cannondale bad boy for my commute, the bike feels a lot heavier with those tires now, and it was already heavy with the Kojak tires. Took it out for a few rides and it feels a lot smoother. I guess the smart guard layer helps with ride, it actually deadens the ride as I don't feel the road as much. I guess switching from Kojak tires to the Marathon Plus was like switching sports tires to touring tires. At least these tires will help me go down the hills in San Francisco faster, the only problem is getting up them. Just on a side note, I ordered 2 tires from amazon and they shipped them separately in two huge boxes, almost the same size as a regular bike box.

Let's face it: until drunks stop tossing their empties in the street and druggies stop punching out car windows to steal wallets, bicyclists will be running over glass, and tires will be going flat. This is enough of an annoyance when you're off to Quickie Mart to buy a loaf of bread, but it's positively vexatious when you are a commuter, when a flat tire often means you're late to work. Or late getting home when you're done with work. Bicycle manufacturers know this. That's why even the entry-level "commuter" or "utility" model bikes often come with puncture-resistant tires, like the Bontragers (quite good tires, by the way) that my Trek hybrid originally had, before they got so bad that even the punctures had punctures. I replaced them with these even though they had some tread left. That's the way it goes with puncture-resistant tires: once they get a few punctures, they become more susceptible to more punctures. A "vicious cycle," if you will. Anyway, Schwalbe is one of the premier bike tire brands. They're quite well-known in Europe, and less so in the U.S., except among "serious" riders. Cargo haulers swear by them, as do commuters. Reportedly, this is the single most popular commuter-type tire in Europe. Europeans know what's up; this tire is designed for heavy use in all urban conditions, wet and dry. Tread is good for damaged pavement--not too much, not too little--which is good because with the economic situation we're in, there's going to be a whole lotta pavement going bad in the next few years. If your pavement is REALLY bad, as in breaking apart, then I would recommend some tires with a fairly flat middle part and more of a mountain bike tread toward the edges to help with cornering, rather than the Marathons. Another thing these tire have going for them are the reflective sidewalls, which significantly increase your visibility when viewed from the side; this is a major consideration with so many drivers being either drunk or simply "out to lunch." Of course, the main selling point is the innovative puncture-resistant layer under the tread. Schwalbe is said to be the best in this regard, but I haven't had these tires long enough to comment on that. The shards will assuredly put them to the test in due time. I can say that, unlike some other "ruggedized" tires, their rolling resistance is no higher than the last ones I had, nor did I notice an increase in weight. All in all, I'm very happy with the Schwalbes. True, they are expensive, but the axiom about getting what you pay for is especially true with bicycle tires, perhaps the single most important component on the bike, and ironically, also the most overlooked. Outfitting your bike with good parts, especially good tires, does pay real dividends in terms of safety, and also in terms of long-term maintenance costs (since they need less frequent replacement.) Cheapo tires, in addition to having a shorter lifespan, often fail completely (and painfully) from incidents that only superficially damage premium tires.

I got the 700 x 32c. So far, so good. With all the griping about mounting I was a little concerned, however I found it mounted just like any other stiff wire bead tire. I massaged it on carefully and I used my tire levers in reverse to lever on the last 12-16" of tight fit on the outer bead. Of course, when doing it that way you have to be very careful not to pinch the tube. and I personally find that the easiest way to use the levers is sticking one in at one end of the gap and holding it there with my left hand while alternately using the other lever, taking very small bites, to pry the other end of the gap. Sometimes a third lever is useful if you can manage it. It only took me 15 minutes to mount. I could do this in the field but I wouldn't want to if i didn't have to. I formerly used the Marathon Supremes, which mount VERY easily but are very expensive. I opted for what I hope will be durability and cost effectiveness. I will keep this post edited once I've put miles on the tire. Oh, and my amazon order registered for 700 x 25c even though I wanted 32's. Bikewagon responded to my e-mail and corrected my order before sending it. Much appreciated. EDIT 7/11/16 With about 300 miles on the tire, I can't discern any real-world difference between this and the Marathon Supreme in terms of pedaling effort. Perhaps it offers just a slightly harder ride but overall, not much change at all. No flats, no extra pumping... just a solid tire. I'm still very happy with this one.