Originally Posted by tomtomtom123

I'm currently using 55-406 Big Ben Plus tires with greenguard on my Dahon, and it's time to replace the tires. I have around 3mm of clearance to some parts of the mudguard and fork/stays with these tires, and when I have heavy panniers on the rear rack, there is a persistent creaking sound when going over bumps, and I can't figure out what's causing it. But when I load equally heavy boxes on the rear rack (instead of the panniers), the sound is gone. So I'm not sure if the sound is coming from the tire expanding on the bumps and hitting the mudguard, asymmetric loading of the panniers causing the wheel to twist and cause rubbing, or if the plastic pannier hooks are bending and making the noise. So I don't know whether I should go for narrower tires this time in case there's some rubbing.

I've had 50-406 Big Apple in the past. They had some punctures once in a while from the start, while the Big Ben Plus had none in the first 2 years. Both Big Apple and Big Ben Plus were a little unstable and wobbly on 19c rims, but I now have 26c rims which makes the Big Ben Plus very stable. I don't know if the same benefit of the wider rim will apply to Big Apple. Big Apple is lighter and probably has less rolling resistance.

I've had the 47-406 Marathon Plus in the past, but it was very hard on the bumps. I don't remember if they rolled any better. But I'd go for the regular 47-406 Marathon instead, which has similar puncture resistance as the Big Ben plus.

40-406 G-One Speed, I read that it has much lower rolling resistance, but that it can get more frequent punctures. I guess the narrow 40mm would also be very hard on bumps. There aren't any wider G-one variants for 406. As it's tubeless ready, I also read that it's difficult to seat the bead.

I've since added Schwable Doc Blue (Stans) in the tubes to seal any future punctures, so perhaps the puncture resistance of the tires aren't as significant anymore.

Which of these tires would be recommended for my next replacement?