Marathon Plus's on a road bike....RESULT!

[BlackPanther]

My Dawes hybrid has done over 5,000 puncture free miles on Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres (35mm). A month ago, I bought my first ever road bike (Specialized Allez 16) and thought I'd try Schwalbe Durano Plus's (23mm) to keep the weight down a bit, but still have some puncture protection. Unfortunately, I suffered a puncture after under 100 miles, a 1cm tear all the way through! Anyway, I ordered a couple of M+'s in 25mm. I thought I'd try one just on the rear of the Allez to see if they slowed me down much. If they did, I'd just fit both the 25mm M+'s to the hybrid.

I've just been out for a 5 mile blast on the Allez. Physics dictate that more mass=more effort to move, but I really cannot tell any difference in the acceleration or top speed, and the handling/ride seems better if anything......come Winter time, I may even stick an M+ on the front as well.

I suppoes if I'd kept the Allez as a light weight machine instead of commuterificating it with panniers etc etc, then maybe the extra weight of the Marathons would be noticeable, but as it seems to have made no difference (maybe it's because I'm super strong?), I think I'll stick with this set up for now. I know that the Dawes is a heavyweight against the Allez, (almost 10kgs heavier), but it's made me wonder. Can a few extra grammes really make any difference to a bike used solely for commuting? Is weight against performance more in the head? The peace of mind the Marathon Plus's provide, easily outweigh any miniscule deterioration in performance in my mind anyway.

 

[david1701]

I think the point of tyre weight is its on the outside of the rim, so the weight has a greater effect on acceleration ect

 

[corshamjim]

Thanks for the review. I haven't suffered a puncture on my Trek (700x25) yet as I haven't ridden it very far, but as soon as I do I'll have a go at M+ too. I'd much rather not have punctures than go a teeny bit faster.

 

[GrasB]

Lighter weight tyres & rims are quicker to accelerate however they don't hold as much energy as heaver tyres/rims. Until you start climbing this means you take a little longer to get up to speed but once there the energy stored up in the tyre will help you keep a more even speed assuming you're doing a shortish ride (say sub-40 miles). Where you'll actually notice it the most is on long rides, the extra weight & worse rolling will slowly eat away at you & you'll end up slower at the end of the ride compared to running heaver weight tyres.

IMO you were just unlucky with your D+ tyres, I've got a marginally worse record with 700x28c M+ than 700x25c D+ tyres (about 2100 miles/puncture on M+ & 2400 miles/punture on D+)

 

[zigzag]

what i noticed that some folk like to emphasize the significance of grams as if they were elite racers. i agree, lightweight tyres are a bit faster, a bit more supple and if i raced i'd certainly use them. however for commuting, social riding, even audaxing m+ tyres are hard to beat (imo) and trying to keep up with the "fast boys" makes me stronger in the end.

 

[BlackPanther]

IMO you were just unlucky with your D+ tyres, I've got a marginally worse record with 700x28c M+ than 700x25c D+ tyres (about 2100 miles/puncture on M+ & 2400 miles/punture on D+)

Of course you're probably right, and I was unlucky. I can't help thinking though after seeing the damage to the tyre, that the M+ would have just shrugged it off. As I need to get to work on time (then again don't we all) I just want that added protection on the rear wheel.

Interestingly, no-one's commented on me mixing a 25mm Marathon Plus rear, with a 23mm Durano Plus front.......which I'll take to mean that there's no problem with this set up.

what i noticed that some folk like to emphasize the significance of grams as if they were elite racers. i agree, lightweight tyres are a bit faster, a bit more supple and if i raced i'd certainly use them. however for commuting, social riding, even audaxing m+ tyres are hard to beat (imo) and trying to keep up with the "fast boys" makes me stronger in the end.

I agree 100%. After all I started commuting on the bike primarily for fitness, so a bit of extra weight helps my cause. That said, since I got my road bike, the hybrid has sat in the garage without turning a wheel for the last month 'cos it's so damn heavy in comparison . If that seems like I'm disagreeing with myself, I do find that I work a lot harder on the road bike and 'sprint' a lot more on it (especially on the way home).

The hybrid is just a 1 level effort machine.....around a steady 75-80% effort for the complete ride. I ride the road bike at around 90%, with the odd visit to the 95%+ range! I'm sure I'll bring the hybrid out of retirement for the Winter though.

 

[DrSquirrel]

what i noticed that some folk like to emphasize the significance of grams as if they were elite racers. i agree, lightweight tyres are a bit faster, a bit more supple and if i raced i'd certainly use them. however for commuting, social riding, even audaxing m+ tyres are hard to beat (imo) and trying to keep up with the "fast boys" makes me stronger in the end.

Aren't M+ tyres close to the 1000g mark? Where a light tyre will have you under 200g


700x25c are 590g, some go above 1000g each... (looking at schwable's site).

Basic Schwable Lugano 700x25c is 280g, half the weight. Half a kilo per set and these aren't even lightweight ones. Maybe 0.5kg doesn't make much difference either, but it's hardly what I would call "grams".

I use vittoria diamante pro 195g).

 

[asterix]

As this is a 'Commuting' topic, surely it is not a race we are discussing? I have Marathons on my tourer and it is still quick enough.

 

[potsy]

Of course you're probably right, and I was unlucky. I can't help thinking though after seeing the damage to the tyre, that the M+ would have just shrugged it off. As I need to get to work on time (then again don't we all) I just want that added protection on the rear wheel.

Interestingly, no-one's commented on me mixing a 25mm Marathon Plus rear, with a 23mm Durano Plus front.......which I'll take to mean that there's no problem with this set up.

Can't see a problem mixing tyres or sizes like that BP, some sets are even sold like that.
As I said on another thread, the D+ will do me as a compromise between weight and durability, I know they are not a patch on M+ but I can live with a flat every 1000 miles or so.

I always aim to get to work 30mins early, this gives me time for an unexpected repair or more usually a chance to cool down/get changed etc. Only been late once since cycle commuting in 2 years, that was because of a double puncture on the way in (1 front 1 back) those were the stock tyres that got binned the next day (Had another on the way home for a 3rd in one day)

 

[corshamjim]

Some young fool overturned a car on a road on my route to work last week. There was lots of glass on the road. On my M+ equipped commuter I simply rode over it without a care in the world.

 

[GrasB]

what i noticed that some folk like to emphasize the significance of grams as if they were elite racers. i agree, lightweight tyres are a bit faster, a bit more supple and if i raced i'd certainly use them. however for commuting, social riding, even audaxing m+ tyres are hard to beat (imo) and trying to keep up with the "fast boys" makes me stronger in the end.

Front wheel + skewer + tyre + tube on my road bike = 912g
Rear wheel + skewer + tyre + tube on my road bike = 1062g
tyres + tubes on my commute bike = 1794g

So the Marathon + tyres & relevant tubes weight under 200g less than my road bikes wheels ready to roll! Now shall we mention the 2.45kg wheel set before disc & skewer? We're not talking grams here we're talking kilos. Also remember this is happening at the furthest point out from the hub possible which means that you're dealing with the most inertia as well. As said, on the flat this is kind of neutral as you're putting power into the wheel/tyre maybe 5 min before it's used, however when climbing it's extra dead weight & all those little extras add up.

 

[the_mikey]

As this is a 'Commuting' topic, surely it is not a race we are discussing? I have Marathons on my tourer and it is still quick enough.

I've never tried M+ but I've been using continental gatorskins, 700x25's on my road bike, the only thing I've really noticed is a little more rolling resistance over 700x25 race tyres, and better grip over the race tyres I was using previously (kenda Kriterium)

 

[zigzag]

i didn't notice the op changed to disc wheels as well i thought we are talking about tyres here. so let's say m+ tyre is heavier by 320g (than half decent 25c tyre with p-protection). that's 640g extra where it matters most. matters to who? probably not me, as i will be getting another set at the end of this year.
i've got lighter tyres on another bike, but i don't use it for commuting.

 

[al-fresco]

5,000 puncture free miles??? I'm congratulating myself on doing 250! (Damned hedge cutting.) I'll have to look these Marathons up.

 

[MarkF]

Nice to read the OP's post. I too put M+'s on my hybrid, 35mm's, been to Spain twice and in over 3 years, not one puncture. I was plagued with them before. I am a leisure, touring, commuting & utility cyclist, I don't care about grammes.

I have a Ridgeback Horizon audax on 23mm slicks, lovely weather the past week, spoilt by 2 punctures, they put me off riding the bike, been thinking about M+'s on it.