Schwalbe Durano S vs Marathon Plus Tyres

Ginjanutta

I got my first puncture today on my relatively new Specialized Allez Elite and I had already been considering getting new tyres fitted, even before the event. The tyre caught on a drain I believe and bolted...when it popped.

Whilst I went for a speedy road bike, I'm not too fussed about a lack of pace, as long as I have puncture protection from here on in. I hate the inconvenience of punctures!
I was set (having received many recommendations) on going for Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres, however...I got sold 2 x Durano S tyres by the guy in CycleSurgery. Have I made the right move going for a protective, racier tyre or should I still try and go for the Marathons given that they are much thicker and protective?

Thought would be much appreciated....

Brasco82

My experience with Durano's was not a positive one, I found it to be a very easy to cut up and the set I was running lasted me around a month before there were noticeably large cuts in the tread of the tyre which were gathering road debris. Wasn't long after this that they started getting punctures and I swapped them out, my overall experience with Schawlbe road tyres hasn't been the best either. Other peoples mileage may vary of course but I won't buy another set again.

I replaced them with a set of cheap Continental Ultra Sports and even though they aren't touted as a 'tough' tyre they lasted substantially longer then the Schwalbe. If I was to recommend a tyre for puncture resistance while still feeling a little racey it would be the Continental GP 4 seasons, if I wanted puncture protection over everything else I would choose from the Gatorskin Lineup.

Depending on the rim you're running have you thought about tubeless as a possible solution to flats?

yakk

Hi there, I'd recommend Marathon Plus's but bear in mind that the smallest size you can get is 25mm and it's a wide/tall 25, so would your bike have clearance? Possibly not.
Regarding M Plus's, they are the most puncture resistant tyres I've used, grip well and last ages. They are slow and heavy and hard to get on. The other so-called puncture resistant tyres I've tried have poor grip in my experience (Vittoria Randoneurs, Specialized armadillos).
To reiterate, make sure your bike has clearance before buying.
All the best.
Yak

bendertherobot

M+ are virtually impregnable. But like riding on hard rubber.

I swapped my winter bike to GP4 Seasons and wasn't impressed at all. Very harsh and many punctures. So I swapped to Durano Plus. (25C). The reviews often say they are lifeless. For me the opposite is true, lovely plush ride and great protection. Roll well too.

rolf_f

Durano S are excellent. I've ridden a pair on my Ribble for a few thousand miles since last summer including some pretty grotty days and along some dodgy (scrapyard littered!) roads! If the S seems a bit reckless, you've always got the standard Durano and the plus for the nervous.

I've not had any problems with them and, like any tyre, they rarely puncture if you keep the pressures up, if you remove the glass from the slits every so often (the slits don't appear by magic - they are there for a reason and it's worth checking if the reason is still wedged in them - this is why people say 'the tyre started getting punctures'; lack of maintenance) and I keep away from the gutter. Most punctures are largely self inflicted in my experience.

If you do that, there is no reason on earth why you should lumber your bike with horrible, overweight, clunky tyres.

Hoopdriver

From what you say about not being fixated on high speed and wanting to enjoy your rides without interruption, I would definitely go for the marathon pluses - yes, they are a bit heavier (and that gets exaggerated a lot) but you do indeed get incredible puncture resistance, to the point where flats are just about a thing of the past (I hate to tempt fate but I've yet to puncture a Marathon plus and I've been using them on my touring bike/winter bike for ages and god knows how many thousands of miles.

As noted above the narrowest the M+ comes in at 700c is 25mm. It may be slightly bigger than a standard 25 mm but unless you have super tight clearances you should be okay.

THey can be fiddly to install. A steel cored tyre lever, though, works wonders. And once on you probably won't have to remove them again until it is time to get a new pair - and that'll be a while. They wear really well too.

bendertherobot

Good point from Rolf there. There are lots of times when bad luck will visit. But, equally, a lot can be done to avoid situations where punctures may arise.

rolf_f

Hoopdriver wrote:

From what you say about not being fixated on high speed and wanting to enjoy your rides without interruption, I would definitely go for the marathon pluses - yes, they are a bit heavier (and that gets exaggerated a lot) but you do indeed get incredible puncture resistance, to the point where flats are just about a thing of the past (I hate to tempt fate but I've yet to puncture a Marathon plus and I've been using them on my touring bike/winter bike for ages and god knows how many thousands of miles.

I get a puncture about once every 2500 miles. And that includes the ones where I ride along the scrapyard ridden roads (I picked up a coil spring once - that would have taken out a Marathon Plus ), where I have ridden through a hundred yard stretch of hawthorn clippings without having the sense to get off, where the cheap, crap tyres a bike came with let me down twice. Of the punctures I've had in over 25000 miles, I think about all but three have been while commuting.

If I was a bit more careful, I'd reckon the puncture rate would come down to less than one every 4000 miles. Ten minutes to replace a tube every 4000 miles is a price well worth paying not to inflict a bike with dreadful tyres. People get hung up on the horrors of dealing with a puncture on the roadside (some presumably think you have to fix the hole on the go as well rather than just swapping the tube for a spare) but it is no big deal. Once, on a ride in the Dales on a warm day, I actually enjoyed it!

bendertherobot

Maintenance is also key, as has been said.

Just watch the sheer number of punctures in the first 10 miles of any Sportive. Staggering.

godders1

If avoiding P*s is your absolute number 1 priority then go with Marathon+ (assuming they'll fit your bike).

If you want almost as good P* protection but lighter/nippier then go with Durano+.

I have the former on my winter commuter (primarily because I run an Alfine hub and have mudgaurds making fixing a P* much more of a faff) and the latter on my summer bike.

Obviously I don't race.

Hoopdriver

Rolf F wrote:

Hoopdriver wrote:

From what you say about not being fixated on high speed and wanting to enjoy your rides without interruption, I would definitely go for the marathon pluses - yes, they are a bit heavier (and that gets exaggerated a lot) but you do indeed get incredible puncture resistance, to the point where flats are just about a thing of the past (I hate to tempt fate but I've yet to puncture a Marathon plus and I've been using them on my touring bike/winter bike for ages and god knows how many thousands of miles.

I get a puncture about once every 2500 miles. And that includes the ones where I ride along the scrapyard ridden roads (I picked up a coil spring once - that would have taken out a Marathon Plus ), where I have ridden through a hundred yard stretch of hawthorn clippings without having the sense to get off, where the cheap, crap tyres a bike came with let me down twice. Of the punctures I've had in over 25000 miles, I think about all but three have been while commuting.

If I was a bit more careful, I'd reckon the puncture rate would come down to less than one every 4000 miles. Ten minutes to replace a tube every 4000 miles is a price well worth paying not to inflict a bike with dreadful tyres. People get hung up on the horrors of dealing with a puncture on the roadside (some presumably think you have to fix the hole on the go as well rather than just swapping the tube for a spare) but it is no big deal. Once, on a ride in the Dales on a warm day, I actually enjoyed it!

It depends what you're looking for in a tyre, and perhaps coming from a expedition touring background I am coming at things from a completely different perspective than you. That said, M-plusses are not a 'dreadful' tyre by any means. If you are looking for fast, light sporty handling, then no, they will not be for you - any more than fast, light sporty tyres would be good for commuting, let alone touring. Yet that wouldn't make them 'dreadful' tyres, just tyres that were not suitable to your particular needs

If you want not to be bothered with punctures at all - commuting, or touring, or just going for a spin, they are pretty good tyres. As far as rolling goes, well, I've ridden many a century on M-Plusses, and in terms of mileage between punctures it would hard to calculate mine, really. I keep M+ on my expedition/winter bike and to be honest I do not get flats from one year to another - and that's a lot of riding. After about 20,000 miles or so the tyres wear out and I change them.

CarlosDSanchez

Try a Durano plus, they are available in 23mm and are the road bike version of the marathon plus, not light, but a hell of a lot lighter than marathon plus

rolf_f

Hoopdriver wrote:

It depends what you're looking for in a tyre, and perhaps coming from a expedition touring background I am coming at things from a completely different perspective than you. That said, M-plusses are not a 'dreadful' tyre by any means. If you are looking for fast, light sporty handling, then no, they will not be for you - any more than fast, light sporty tyres would be good for commuting, let alone touring. Yet that wouldn't make them 'dreadful' tyres, just tyres that were not suitable to your particular needs.

I take your point but I think it is actually your overall mileage that is the difference here. What you are getting from the Marathons is not so much the puncture protection but galactic mileage. You won't get that on any Durano but you will get much the same puncture protection.

I can start to see their value for heavily laden touring but even for commuting I'd have thought Marathon Plus was overkill (unless your route takes you through Cutpurse ginnel and Throatslit alley etc!).

And yep - I wasn't being fair to call the M Plus dreadful but I find it sad that so many people seem to get lazy recommendations from bike shops to get them. The bike shop knows that an M plus can be abused for thousands of miles and not puncture so it recommends them knowing that they won't get an angry punter coming back in six months blaming the shop for the fact that they rode in the gutter on half flat tyres which had 6 months of glass in the tread. Even my trusty favourite Spa Cycles are guilty of this.

Hoopdriver

That's a fair point about the laziness of bike shop recommendations.

What I like about the M+ for commuting (although working from home as I do that it not an issue for me anymore) is the sheer simple certainty of arriving to work when you want to and expect to and with clean hands. Worth something, at any rate. I'll concede I've not tried the Duranos - for my road bike I use Conti GP 4 Seasons and for light touring Panaracer Paselas, both of which give excellent puncture protection. Perhaps I should give the Duranos a go next time.

Your earlier point about tyre maintenance is also very good - few people seem to bother. But I even look over my M+ fairly carefully; no point in just wrecking anything.

Sleeping_menace

I had a pair of Durano S's which disintegrated after just 3 sessions on the roller trainer. After seeing that, I didn't trust them enough to even try them on the road... details and photos here:
http://anotherdooratthe.endoftheinternet.org/2011/01/20/schwalbe-durano-s-tyres-contact-surface-desintegration/

Hoopdriver

You're sure it wasn't a belt sander you were riding on? :-)

P_Tucker

I've got both, but I've yet to ride on the Duranos. Hope this helps.

rolf_f

Sleeping_menace wrote:

I had a pair of Durano S's which disintegrated after just 3 sessions on the roller trainer. After seeing that, I didn't trust them enough to even try them on the road... details and photos here:
http://anotherdooratthe.endoftheinternet.org/2011/01/20/schwalbe-durano-s-tyres-contact-surface-desintegration/

Maybe you are right and there was a bad batch. Absolutely nothing wrong with mine. The rear is somewhat squared off. I've made a fairly accurate assessment of about 3000 miles covered on them so far since July last year with mileage covered during all the intervening months. I'm not sure how much more they have (the front still shows the mould part line). The rear won't make 20,000 in a million years but it has life in it yet.

whitebait01

Huge big giant recommendation for Durano+. Had them on my old Ridgeback and got one puncture on the front tyre (chunk of glass) in about 1800 miles of commuting. They were pretty fast rolling and gripped well.

I've got a set of Schwalbe Blizzards waiting to go on my new bike after the Vittoria Rubinos wear out (no punctures with those in about 500 miles to be fair!), anyone got any idea what the Blizzards will be like?

migrantwing

Rolf F wrote:

Durano S are excellent. I've ridden a pair on my Ribble for a few thousand miles since last summer including some pretty grotty days and along some dodgy (scrapyard littered!) roads! If the S seems a bit reckless, you've always got the standard Durano and the plus for the nervous.

I've not had any problems with them and, like any tyre, they rarely puncture if you keep the pressures up, if you remove the glass from the slits every so often (the slits don't appear by magic - they are there for a reason and it's worth checking if the reason is still wedged in them - this is why people say 'the tyre started getting punctures'; lack of maintenance) and I keep away from the gutter. Most punctures are largely self inflicted in my experience.

If you do that, there is no reason on earth why you should lumber your bike with horrible, overweight, clunky tyres.

+1 for the Durano S

scazzer

whitebait01 wrote:

Huge big giant recommendation for Durano+. Had them on my old Ridgeback and got one puncture on the front tyre (chunk of glass) in about 1800 miles of commuting. They were pretty fast rolling and gripped well.

I've got a set of Schwalbe Blizzards waiting to go on my new bike after the Vittoria Rubinos wear out (no punctures with those in about 500 miles to be fair!), anyone got any idea what the Blizzards will be like?

ive got the Blizzards which ive been using for about 18 months (original on bike from new)and ive had 3 flatties in that time ,2x tack and 1 with a staple.....

Im looking at getting ready for some new tyres and may stick with these as ive not had any serious probs with them or maybe just lucky