Good replacement tire?
 

Hi everyone.

I've been looking for a replacement for the stock 26x1.95 Kenda tires that came with my Giant Sedona. The Kendas have been fine but one has been sliced open and needs to be replaced. I'm wanting something that rides a little better on the pavement, since I spend majority of my time riding on the streets. I'm also looking for something that possibly offers improved flat protection. Obviously looking for something on the lower end of the cost spectrum.

I've narrowed my search down to the Continental Double Fighter III and the Schwalbe Marathon. I've heard good things about the Schwalbe Marathon and it seems to be a really good tire but is slightly more experience. The Double Fighter III is cheaper but is a slightly smaller (26x1.9) width, whereas the Marathon is slightly wider (26x2.)

Has anyone had any experience with these tires? If so, would you recommend them? Also, would it cause any problems to go with a slightly narrower tire? I weigh ~340 lbs (I'm trying to get back in shape) and have heard it's better to go with a wider tire if you weigh more.

With the Kendas I was running 60 PSI front (which will get the new tire) and 65 PSI in the rear (65 being maximum stated on the tire's sidewall) and had no real issues with pinch flats or anything, and the ride was fine.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I wouldn't worry too much about the frankly slight difference in width. Wider tires are better for heavier riders, but anything around 2 inches is more than adequate--the big issues are around road bikes and heavier riders. That said, I looked the Double Figher III tire up and they make no mention of a puncture protection layer, so between the two the Marathon seems to match your needs better.

Garrett - may I suggest you add the Tioga City Slicker or (2nd choice) Kenda R838 to your short list.

the Tioga is really a great tire for street use, very flat resistant and low noise and rolling resistance.

Mark Petry
Bainbridge Island, WA USA

If you primarily ride on pavement look for something narrower.
I run 26x1.25 on the front and 26x1.6 on the rear of my "grocery getter". Sometimes 55 lbs. in the rear baskets.

Maybe look at Continental Contact Speed or Top Contact II.

I would go for the Marathons for 2 reasons
It may be the most flat resistant tire on the common market
Schwalbe specifys the weight limit of each model, so you know how robust you need. Usually the wider tires can handle a heavier weight because they take a lower pressure.

Thanks for all of the responses.

From what someone mentioned in another thread, the Continental Double Fighter III is fairly thin in the tread area, thus more susceptible to punctures.

The Schwalbe appears to have a puncture protection layer (albeit nowhere near the resistance of the ones found in higher-end tires that are out of my price range.) The Schwalbe seems to be a fairly common tire that I know has its fans. But from the reviews on Amazon, it seems like the Schwalbe also has some issues with blowouts and failures.

I looked at the Tioga City Slicker and Continental’s Contact Speed and Top Contact II and saw how smooth the tread area is. Would the smoothness affect the handling when the streets are wet? Even on my road bike (which is in storage) I didn’t run tires that smooth. Obviously I don’t need anything knobby since I primarily ride this bike on the streets and (though rarely) sidewalks and concrete. The Tioga seems to have good reviews from commuters.

I plan on installing the new tire on the front and moving the stock front tire to the rear to replace the damaged tire. Is there a huge issue with having mismatched tires?

I am on my third set of Schwable tires. No blowouts, one flat from a retread wire and one flat from vandalism that I fixed with a tire boot and used until I wore it out.

There are two primary considerations for tires and wet surfaces: aquaplaning and traction. Aquaplaning (hydroplaning, etc.) is very much influenced by the design of the tread and channels for water evacuation. Having said that, it's a concern for automotive tires and other tires with a "flat" tread surface because of the nature of those tires' contact patch -- if the tire's tread design cannot evacuate water fast enough, it will "dam" up a wall of water in front of tire and lift it off the ground. This is not a consideration for bicycle tires -- it's commonly said that you can't physically ride a bike fast enough to create a true aquaplane situation. For the most part, I think tread designs on bicycle tires intended for the road are primarily for visual appeal, marketing, etc. Of course, tread voids do help grip rough surfaces (even rougher pavement probably), and tires intended for mixed surfaces (like touring tires) will rarely be a true "slick".

So you're really interested in traction on wet surfaces, and the largest factor in this is the rubber compound itself, and the components/ingredients within that cause the rubber to either grip wet pavement well or not. I don't have a ton of experience with wet-surface riding, but I would wager that most tires intended for city use have rubber compounds that will work well on wet surfaces. If the tire's website specifically mentions wet traction as a benefit of that tire model, you can probably have high confidence that it'll work well.

How did they wear? What was the ride quality like?

There is no issue with mis - matched tires. I run a lightweight front (and slightly heavier rear) tire for reliability. It turns out that the taller you are, the more of the riders weight is on the rear tire thanks to the (approx) 72 degree set back of the seat tube, so a bike for a large rider will have more of a rearward weight bias and that may steer you towards a rear tire that is heavier or has a larger cross section.

Whole books and pages of Bikeforums posts have been written on the topic of tire cross section but I'll try to sum it up: you probably want a tire that has a minimum of 1.75" cross section and run no less than 60-65 PSI to protect against pinch flats when dodging the potholes, I-beams, burned out cars and other obstacles you encounter on your daily commute. Do you have a tire pressure guage ? and a good pump ?

I'd give preference to any tire that has a puncture barrier. I have had very good luck with Panaracer "tourgard" tires on my Alex Singer touring bike, in fact during a 1200 mile ride from Seattle to San Diego, we had ZERO flats with these tires and they looked almost unworn after the ride. Looking now, Panaracer has a "street" MTB tire which I have not tried but I'd certainly consider it.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2PAK-Panara.../371527638801?

Last thing. any new tire will be a little "greasy" when you first put it on. Watch out. A good friend who is an experienced motorcycle rider dumped his beautiful Ducati half a mile from his house on brand new tires. Take it easy until they get scrubbed in.

Mark Petry
Bainbridge Island, WA USA

If you're concerned about the mold release on brand new tires, you can give the tread a light sanding before going for your first ride. :thumb:

I've had excellent service with a Schwalbe Marathon for four years on a rear hub motor ebike where you REALLY don't want a flat and the performance is adequare. However for my most recent build, I used a Bell 26" X 1.75" with "flat protection (Amazon $16 or so) and it's worked well.

Hey, I've got a pair of Schwalbe Marathons, with tubes, in 26x1.5 that are barely used. PM me if interested. These just came off my old Trek MTB and replaced with Kenda 26x2.1 fat tires. The Schwalbes were intended to make it a city friendly bike a few years back but I had another very similar bike that I set up instead. I run Conti Gatorskins on that one, and these are narrow like a road bike tire.

I do have a good pump, and usually use the pump gauge for pressure readings. I kept the old Kenda tires around 60 PSI front/65 rear with no pinch flats - and I'm a heavier (330-340 pounds) rider. On my road bike I typically ran 65 PSI front/70-78 PSI rear with no pinch flats, either.

The Panaracer is a bit more than I'm intending on paying for a tire. I think the Schwalbe Marathons look like the best option, with the Tioga you mentioned earlier being a runner-up.

I'm not sure how well a 26x1.5 tire would fare on a 26x1.95 rim. It seems like the best bet is to go with the 26x2.0 tire, as it would seem the narrower tires would be slightly more difficult to seat and may create other problems. But thanks for the offer.

You do not have 1.95 inch rims and 1.5 inch tires will fit just fine.

My bad. The stock tires are 1.95 inches.

How would a narrower 26x1.5 tire handle my weight? As mentioned, I weigh 330-340 pounds and I’ve heard a wider tire is better than narrower for people who weigh more, as mpetry912 has mentioned. I’m assuming the 26x1.5 tire would be run at a higher pressure - would that counteract that effect of being narrower in terms of the weight it can handle?

Schwalbe Big Ben Plus is similar to the Marathon. Both have the greenguard protection layer at the center of the tread. But the Big Ben Plus has an added protection layer for the sidewalls. It's even slightly lighter than the Marathon, although I never figured out why, but I assume the rubber is slightly thinner, which is why it's rated at a slightly lower durability which doesn't really matter.
https://www.schwalbe.com/en/tour-reader/big-ben-plus

The Big Ben Plus is 55mm (2.15") compared to the Marathon 50mm (2.00") that you're considering. The slightly wider Big Ben Plus will be able to support a little higher load, at a lower air pressure. I have it on 20" rims. The specs says 2.00 - 4.00 Bar (30 - 55 psi) with max load of 128kg, while the Marathon specs is 2.00 - 5.00 Bar (30 - 70 psi) with a max load of 118kg.

On my Big Ben Plus, I used to have 19mm internal width rims and pumped the air to 3 bar, which is actually pretty hard already. I just switched to 26mm internal width rims and I think the air volume increased due to the increased width for a harder ride, so I lowered the pressure to 2.8 bar to achieve the same hardness as before with the narrower rim. I wouldn't inflate to the maximum or minimum pressure, which would then be either too hard or too soft. I usually go for the middle. But if you're worried about the extra load, then for the Big Ben Plus, you could maybe try 3.2-3.5 bar and feel how it rides before attempting the maximum 4 bar.

One thing to check is to see how much tire clearance you have in your forks and mudguard. If you used 1.95" tires, then 2.15" will most likely be larger, unless your previous tire was very thick and knobby.

Also, Schwalbe sells a very cheap digital air pressure meter. It's very handy and gives easy to read measurements. It only costs a few dollars.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f56383da21.png

I didn't catch the part about your weight. These are decent tires but I don't know if they are suitable for your weight. They still have the seam down the middle so they weren't used much. I was going to keep them for my commuter bike, but since I don't commute anymore having retired it won't get that much use that I'll need new tires anytime soon. The first pair of Gatorskins lasted 3-4 years given that less than about half my miles are on it, and the second pair are maybe a year old at this point. But again, since I don't commute anymore it is only used to run errands and won't get many miles.

I ordered the Schwalbe Marathons. It took a little bit longer since Amazon sent me the wrong tire size (sent me a 700c size, but someone at some point put a “26x2.0” inventory sticker on it.) So after a few more days, I finally received the right tire.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ac0fe1776.jpeg

It looks excellent. The tire not only seems well-built, but also is aesthetically nice and actually matches the bike pretty well. Didn’t think I’d say this - but I may replace the rear as well to make a matching set because it looks really nice.

Only problem is when I went to reinstall the wheel there was a problem with the chain. I posted another thread here: https://www.bikeforums.net/bicycle-m...sed-chain.html

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. They were greatly appreciated.

Nice. Go with the matched pair. Don't worry about the chain, it'll get resolved, I posted in the other thread.

If anyone else is interested in a pair of 26x1.5 Marathons let me know. They are really barely used.

Take a close look at KENDA K-838 (26 x 1.95)
They are $14.41 each with free shipping
https://www.ebay.com/itm/KENDA-04700...6fc5:g:AGgAAOS
(#254420545477 on the bay)

1. Other than on very technical rocky trails, or for estimating wear, I think that it's real easy to overstate the benefits of bicycle tire tread patterns.

2. Nope.

I agree -- that's a good-looking tire! I hope you enjoy it for many miles to come.

That is one goddamn mean looking wheel! Well done!