revcp 

Getting ready for a tour and wasn't satisfied with several flats with my Vittoria Hypers, so bought Supremes and rode them for the first time this morning. Wow. What wonderful feeling tires. If you can get in under the weight limit in them--240 lbs, but can probably be pushed to at least 250--I highly recommend them. Of course I don't yet have real world experience with puncture resistance, but the ride is great.

stardognine

I'll look for them, next time I buy tires, always liked the other Schwalbes I've used. 👍 I just happened to acquire some good Bontrager Hard Case tires not that long ago, for free, so I'm probably good for awhile yet. 😎

revcp 

Perfect timing, as you can look for a deal and grab them before you need them. Retail they are over $80 each. I picked them up for $40 each, which is still pricey.

elcruxio

The weight limits schwalbe gives are per tire. So 480lbs is the actual limit

alan s 

Uh, yeah. People use these on tandems. Great tires. I have them on a majority of my bikes.

djb

phew, I was scared there for a minute.

RC, watch your pressures, running them too low is not good for the sidewalls.
what size are they, how much do you weigh and what pressures did you use?

and most importantly, really watch about riding up against sharp stuff, especially with missing something with the front but misjudging how the rear tire will be closer to what you've missed with the front--the sidewalls are thin and you can't be a bull in a chinashop or else it will end in tears (both meanings!)

Rick

I have worn out two sets of the Schwalbe Marathon Supreme on my touring bicycle. No flats other than a vandal. I run the 26"X 2" version.

JaccoW

I really liked them on my commuter bike. The first time I used them I noticed a consistent increase of my average speed of about 2km/h (over regular Schwalbe Marathons).

That being said I did swap out the rear for a regular marathon after I wore out the sidewalls prematurely. They are fine on tandems but on an upright Dutch commuter bike I sometimes carry people + bags on my rear rack which easily brings the load to 180kg (360 lbs) over a single wheel which they simply weren't designed for.

The only thing that would make them better was if Schwalbe made then with brown sidewalls for that classic look.

revcp 

Excellent. Now I can take that anvil I was planning on leaving at home.

bobwysiwyg

DropBarFan

I've had 559/50 Supremes for a couple of years & no flats. They corner pretty well & are fairly light. OTOH I'm a bit lighter than avg.

djb

heck, take two!
your quip did make me chuckle

tcs

Schwalbe Marathons were the tire of choice for Heinz Stucke.

UniChris

With what they cost, some of us can only afford one!

qclabrat

$40 is pricey? that sounds like a good deal, can you share where?

I just switched form TopContact2s due to flatting to Hypers, haven't had trouble yet, "knock on wood"
Before that tried Bruce Gordon RnR while the are great on gravel, boy is that a slow tire

djb

So Mr singlechris,
Hack or budge on the brake addition?
I vote hack.

I'd also vote a good amount of loctite on those suckers

Like the comment, prefect for the topic!

revcp 

Chain Reaction

UniChris

Mostly anger that the frame manufacturer deleted the previous rim brake mounts for a system that requires using their unique cranks with a spider that carries an external disk. Didn't really want to drill the fork crown as I'd originally planned; brake is really only used for some knee-relief drag when fixieing down hills; stops are preferably by stepping back off a rising pedal to the ground, or failing that running off the front.

I could almost take it off now as the hills I wanted it for are on routes elsewhere bumpy enough that I've decided I prefer the inertial stability of my 36x2.25 "hybrid" to skittishness of the internal-gear-overdrive 29x2 "road" setup... for me the marathon's are a "small" tire.

djb

interesting.
I have seen the odd uni with large wheels, looks nice and must make a difference for the ride quality, especially with a higher volume tire that you can run at lower pressures from the comfort aspect--totally ignorant of uni riding, but I assume that you cannot "unweight" over bumps like on a regular 2 wheeler with handlebars?

alan s 

Where do you attach the panniers ?

fietsbob

back pack, or get a penny farthing ..

UniChris

Personally only having saddle tolerance to ride one long day at a time, I made a small frame bag for heavy stuff like tools and batteries and mount one water bottle behind the saddle; the rest goes in a backpack.



As for what those doing multi-day (or multi-year) tours do...



Ed Pratt's round-the-world rig

But then this is all off topic... because they don't make marathon's in the 36 inch size ;-)

alan s 

Nice! I was half kidding, but figured there must be someone who’s done this.

Lovegasoline

It's useful to read another glowing review revcp, thanks for posting your experience.

I'm glad to this thread is happening as I'm intending to get a pair of these for fully loaded touring and commuting after reading about the supple tire scene which first peaked my interest. The past few months I've read as much as I could find on these tires and they seem to offer the sweet spot for comfort, durability, and reliability when used for road touring (with the typical moderate amount of off road excursions thrown in).

The question that remains unanswered is what width to get which will work with my bike?
I'm considering two widths:
37-622 (700 x 35C) or
42-622 (700 x 40C)
[I assume I'd want the V-Guard version vs. the Micorskin-TL Easy].

I've been trying to find out what the actual width of these tires would be mounted on my rims to ascertain if the 700 x 40C would fit my bike with enough clearance to mount fenders. To complicate things Schwalbe appears to have changed the design and dimensions and of this tire just a few years ago, so when reading about them it's a bit confusing as to just which tires are being referenced and what the actual widths are.

The bike is a 2010 Trek 520 (pre disc brake version), I weight 135lbs. and will be using the bike to tour with a full set of panniers (with a moderately heavy load but not anvil like loads ... I've got lots of lightweight camping gear). I also use the bike for NYC commuting as well as grocery shopping (a typical food run sees 40lbs of cargo including a heavy chain). So in addition to touring I'd like a tire to give me a little more of an edge to meet the demands of NYC streets. Btw, the bike still has the original Bontrager 700 x 32 Race Lite tires. {An aside: the NYC streets scored a hit by way of a mildly dented rim this winter after a deep pothole materialized out of nowhere on my routine route combined with letting my tire pressure get a little low - no cargo**.
As mentioned, I intend to mount full fenders but have yet to decide on which ones will fit with my bike and tire combo. I assume the (700 x 35C)tires will fit with fenders without issue. But if it's possible I'd love to go with the wider (700 x 40C) version to have a bit more edge on more challenging road/off road conditions. Can anyone offer some advice? Actual tires widths?

And the longshot: anyone running the 40mm version on a Trek of this vintage with fenders?

Thanks a bunch for any guidance!


PS: UniChris ... bravo!

alan s 

I was able to squeeze 40s and fenders on this bike, for comparison.