Tyre choice for a long tour

GyatsoLa

Sort of hypothetical question here, but I'm wondering what all your opinions are about the relative merits of either using two heavy duty tyres (seems everyone uses Schwalbe Marathon XRs these days), or bring three different tyres, not just one as a spare, but so they can be alternated according to conditions.

For example, for say a 6-12 month cross-Asia trip, covering both good and bad roads, tracks, and maybe some off road riding, the choice could be:

1) 2x Schwalbe Marathon XR's at 890g each, or:

2) 1x Marathon Supreme (600g) (or maybe an XR), 1x Marathon Racer 1.5 inch (420g) and 1x Smart Sam (530g). The Supreme would be on the rear, the Racer and Sam alternating on the front wheel according to road conditions. (The Supreme is Schwalbes latest tough touring tyre, the Racer is a medium weight high pressure road tyre, the Smart Sam is a knobblie off road low pressure tyre).

Option 1 has the advantage of fit and forget simplicity, tried and tested toughness, and reasonable rolling resistence/grip over most conditions. It also reduces the volume of kit (i.e. the spare tyre has to be carried somewhere).

Option 2 means less rolling resistence on good roads, better grip on bad roads (assuming you have the foresight to change tyres the day before), lighter wheels, and the benefits of a spare in the event of a catastrophic blow-out in the middle of nowhere.

Any thoughts on this?

daviddd

I used (2) Supremes from Perth to Brisbane (9000km) by which time they were worn out (but I had only one puncture); and (2) Hurricanesfrom Brisbane to Perth (11000km) which still had plenty of wear but had 8 punctures. A bit anecdotal but it gives you some idea.
I would have put the Supreme on the front?? I carried the less-worn Supreme as a spare for the second half of the tour.

lloyd_bower

I used a mixture of the standard Marathon (1.50) on the front, and the Marathon XR's (2.0) on the rear and been impressed with them. Ran them for 4 weeks touring on mixed terrain in Guatemala, the only failure being on my penultimute day in Guatemala city on a sharp shard of glass. Since then 9 months ago I've left them on and not a single puncture since in mainly commuting conditions which is saying something as I alternate bikes and have regular punctures on the road bike with a combination of tyres.

GyatsoLa

I've used XR's for a couple of tours and they've been fantastic in terms of toughness and p**tureproofness. But I just find them so heavy I keep trying to think of a better alternative, hence my question. When i swapped them for some Spesh Hemisphere's for commuting duty it was like I had a new bike the difference in feel was so great.

Am I right in saying that if you are mixing and matching tyres on a tour, then its sensible to have the toughest one on the rear, with the 'grippy' one (if on unpaved road) should go on the front? Thats always been my assumption.

raybo

I put new XRs on my bike for the ride across France. No punctures. But, I found that the tires slip on painted surfaces on wet roads. I won't use them again.

You can make most any tire virtually puncture-proof by putting kevlar tire liners between the tube and the tire.

In the future, I will go for lighter tires with better road adherence.

If you are interested, this page has 15 links to information about bike touring tires and tubes. A couple of them deal with XRs.

Ray

andymiller

According to Schwalbe's technical info:

As a general guide, you should expect a tire life of 2000 to 5000 km from SCHWALBE standard tires. Marathon type tires should generally last for 6000 to 12000 km. The MARATHON XR is an exception with its high mileage of about 8000 to 15000 km. With MTB tires, it is impossible to give a useful indication, as the individual riding
style is the main determining wear factor. The Stelvio Competition tire should generally last 3000 to 7000 km.

.. but as Raybo's post suggests, the extra tough Endurance compound used in the XR gives less grip.

I've just retired one of my Continental Gravity tyres, after (off the top of my head) about 6000 kms of which more than half has been offroad. The rear tyre was worn out, but the front tyre still has plenty of life in it. If I'd rotated the tyres I could have got at least 7.5 kms out of them.

I don't know how typical this experience has been, but it suggests to me that there are two possible strategies. One would be to have a pair of XRs and accept the extra weight. The other would be to put on lighter tyres and carry a spare (or get one mailed to you poste restante?) - and rotate them around. The total weight would be the same, but the rolling mass would be less. I don't think it makes sense to have different front and back tyres as this reduces the scope for swapping them around to get most life out of them.

GyatsoLa

andymiller wrote:

I don't know how typical this experience has been, but it suggests to me that there are two possible strategies. One would be to have a pair of XRs and accept the extra weight. The other would be to put on lighter tyres and carry a spare (or get one mailed to you poste restante?) - and rotate them around. The total weight would be the same, but the rolling mass would be less. I don't think it makes sense to have different front and back tyres as this reduces the scope for swapping them around to get most life out of them.

One reason the XR is so popular is that they give great grip on rough roads - i.e. they are a bit of a compromise between off road and on road.

My thinking is (and I stand to be corrected on this), is that the rear wheel takes more weight (especially if you are using a pair of panniers) so you need a tough tyre there - while on the front for most roads a high pressure slick tyre would be fine. But having a knobblie as an 'alternate' for the front would give a lot more flexibility, without necessarily having a weight penalty.

Mind you, having spent 2 hours last weekend struggling to change tyres on a recalcitrant rear wheel of my mtb I'm thinking that maybe always changing tyre is more trouble than its worth.

andymiller

Mind you, having spent 2 hours last weekend struggling to change tyres on a recalcitrant rear wheel of my mtb I'm thinking that maybe always changing tyre is more trouble than its worth.

Indeed. While the idea of swapping between a slick and a knobbly sounds fine in theory I just don't think it's practical in reality eg what if you are riding on tarmac in the morning and offroad in the afternoon? It's just so much useless weight.

The rear tyre does have more weight on it so it does wear faster so yes that's where a tougher tyre will make most difference. But any weight saving from having a different tyre on the front needs to be set against the advantage of having interchangeable tyres, and being able to extend the life of the pair by rotating them.

So far as I can see, the extended wear of the XR is the only real reason for fitting them.

GyatsoLa

andymiller wrote:

Mind you, having spent 2 hours last weekend struggling to change tyres on a recalcitrant rear wheel of my mtb I'm thinking that maybe always changing tyre is more trouble than its worth.

Indeed. While the idea of swapping between a slick and a knobbly sounds fine in theory I just don't think it's practical in reality eg what if you are riding on tarmac in the morning and offroad in the afternoon? It's just so much useless weight.

The rear tyre does have more weight on it so it does wear faster so yes that's where a tougher tyre will make most difference. But any weight saving from having a different tyre on the front needs to be set against the advantage of having interchangeable tyres, and being able to extend the life of the pair by rotating them.

So far as I can see, the extended wear of the XR is the only real reason for fitting them.

Oh, I certainly wouldn't be thinking of changing daily. I was more thinking of running the road tyre for most of the trip, then changing to a knobblie when hitting the mountains (or countries with poor roads, like some of the Stans). I don't see it as 'useless' weight since (as you'll see from my first post) the combined weights aren't much more than a single tyre.

I think the advantages of the XR are more than extended wear - I've found them excellent on rough roads, they have very good grip, while having much better rolling resistence on tarmac than a true mtb tyre.

Al Downie

For that length of tour (and if you're on 26" wheels), I'd fit 2x XRs and forget about a spare. Carry a tyre-boot in case of emergency, but if the worst comes to the worst you can flag down a vehicle to get you to the next village where it's pretty certain you'll be able to find a tyre. On a short tour I'd hate to have to do that and would prefer to be completely independent, but on a long tour it wouldn't be such a big deal.

I'm just back from North India where road conditions constantly and suddenly change from pristine tarmac to dried-up-river-bed and anything in between, and the XRs (2x 2.0) were absolutely fine. Even in the wet - streams and snow, the tyres never slipped.

Having said all that, I do remember getting a bit of a fright riding the XRs on a training day on a muddy, rutted landrover track in England before we went out, but I think that's just because I was used to riding the same track on knobblies which would bite their way out of ruts.

Special K

Al Downie wrote:

Having said all that, I do remember getting a bit of a fright riding the XRs on a training day on a muddy, rutted landrover track in England before we went out, but I think that's just because I was used to riding the same track on knobblies which would bite their way out of ruts.

Don't be fooled into thinking that the XRs will behave like MTB tyres. They behave very differently in corners. I suspect that the hard compound does not deform quite like the MTB tyres we are used to, which can be a little bit worrying. I have also found, that at very high speeds, they seem to wander a little on the road.