Winter slick - Sport Contact, Marathon Supreme or Xenith?

pete99

After some deliberation I've narrowed down my choice of tyre for the rigid MTB which will now be my winter/wet weather commuter. It currently has Specialized Fatboys, which are great in summer but a bit alarming in the wet.

My brief: around 1.5''-1.75'', fairly puncture resistant but fast and (as much as possible) not too scary in the wet.

So, Continental Sport Contact 1.6'', Schwalbe Marathon Supreme 1.6'' or Maxxis Xenith 1.5'' - anyone help me make the final choice? The Maxxis seem marginally lighter, but maybe they're too similar to the Fatboys.

Any help appreciated.

anyuser

No experience with Maxxis.
Had Sport contacts previously, fast but wore out after approx 1500 miles resulting in frequent punctures. Replaced with Marathon Supremes, slightly slower but more grip. Two punctures in 2000 miles and they look like they will last a lot longer. Will replace with Supremes again when they do wear out.

andrewc3142

I like Conti tyres (currently using the GP 4000s, before that the 4 seasons).

Similar to your spec, my wife uses the Travel Contact on her MTB. Seems to be a good combination of slick for the road and enough tread for a bit of mud, towpath, forest trail, etc. No punctures so far.

I have marathons on the tourer, the tandem and spare wheels for one of the kids' road bike (to swap out for slicks). They're OKish, but rather heavy and I find them skittish in the wet. And a total pain to fit.

markp2

I used Sport Contacts for a couple of years - grippy and seemed fast. They came with a puncture guarrantee which I used twice and resulted in nice new tyres again!
Cheers,
Mark