Schwalbe Marathon Plus

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Tynan

Veteran
Location
e4
I use cheap lightweight tyres and get a flat perhaps every two/three months, usually something big and solid in the cycle lane

if a flat takes me 20 minutes to repair, and M+ slow me down by even only 1mph, I still get there miles ahead don't I?
 

4F

Active member of Helmets Are Sh*t Lobby
Location
Suffolk.
Tynan said:
I use cheap lightweight tyres and get a flat perhaps every two/three months, usually something big and solid in the cycle lane

if a flat takes me 20 minutes to repair, and M+ slow me down by even only 1mph, I still get there miles ahead don't I?

Depends on whether you can afford to be 20 minutes late for wherever you are going surely ?
 

marinyork

Resting in suspended Animation
Location
Logopolis
Maz said:
So do any of you M+ riders feel confident enough to not carry a pump/repair kit with you on your ride?

I have done then again until recently I didn't cycle beyond about 40 miles very often. I don't think it's particularly as crazy as it sounds because if you had a puncture on them you'd never be able to get the tyre off, let alone back on at the roadside.
 

goo_mason

Champion barbed-wire hurdler
Location
Leith, Edinburgh
marinyork said:
I have done then again until recently I didn't cycle beyond about 40 miles very often. I don't think it's particularly as crazy as it sounds because if you had a puncture on them you'd never be able to get the tyre off, let alone back on at the roadside.

I got one off en-route and back on again without any real problems. But I'd always recommend metal tyre levers rather than those flimsy plastic things...
 

Archie

Errrr.....
Decided to check my SM+ for foreign bodies this morning as I haven't done it for, hmmm, months probably. I was rewarded by a fair number of stones and glass shards, including a flint that was 5mm long and fully embedded in the front. Gawd knows how long it'd been in there but I was amazed it hadn't already caused an UDE.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I'll be replacing the tyres with another set of SM+ ready for next winter*. I don't think many tyres would withstand that sort of attack, and give such a happy outcome to some shocking complacency on my part.

As for fitting, my 26x1.35s weren't especially difficult. I've heard the theory that the thinner 700C tyres can be a be-atch, however.

Archie

* The rear tread has gone and the tyre's squaring off now, so I won't push my luck any further!
 

Rezillo

TwoSheds
Location
Suffolk
I was regularly getting flats after heavy rain on the country roads that I usually cycle on. The rain was washing small sharp flints off the fields which were then going straight through the kevlar belt on my tyres. Marathon Pluses stopped all that completely. However, I've just had a largish flint slice straight through the sidewall before being pinged out into the side of the road. The tyre is not punctured but there's a slight bulge around the cut and a new one is on order.

I've found that fitting these tyres is greatly helped by putting one sidewall in the rim then tying some thin mains flex round the rim and the tyre at a point where both side walls are in then moving out each side from this point to fit the rest of the tyre rim into place. I need levers for the very last bit but without the tied bit in place, both sidewalls keep popping out.

I keep a bit of flex in the toolkit for this but I haven't had a puncture for 3,000 miles.

John
 

Rezillo

TwoSheds
Location
Suffolk
Halfmanhalfbike said:
OMG. Shut up. She'll hear you.

Probably about 15 miles out this morning in a 30 mile round trip after I have decided "Yes, it's ok to go out - the sidewall split will probably hold out until the new tyre arrives". :biggrin:

John
 
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