Rayxt

Have you had problems with the electric wheel destroying tires on 20" bikes?

The bike is a Decathlon TILT 500e folding model 24v battery

Tires running on the rear with electric motor drive

Although 'e-bike ready' and showing almost no tread wear after 1000+ miles I've had TWO 20x1.75 Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires fail with bulges developing on the sidewalls. And a 20" Marathon (again with 1000+ miles and no tread wear) show that the side wall is being torn from the steel bead under the rim!

All tires always inflated to 60-70PSI

These are premium quality tyres which I've had great wear from on normal size bikes.

The only explanation I can think of is although they're designed for 26-29" wheels, with a 20" wheel the torque applied on the rim is 35% more than on the larger diameter rims.

So although the bike is rated at 26Nm torque (which is already 40% of the torque of a 650 BMW single-cylinder motorcycle) that is 26 Newtons at 100cm

but on the bike, the turning force of the motor on the rim (which is only 23cm away from the axle) is FOUR times that! - onto a dinky kids' bike tyre which is overloaded to start with as it's rated for 75Kg capacity. (The rear weighs 12Kg to start with and most adults weight 75KG minimum)

These are fabulous comfortable riding bikes but until tire manufacturers toughen up the sidewall design to handle the increased effective torque on the small radius rims and offer ebike-ready 2" or 2.25" tyres with 100Kg capacity, there will be nothing but annoying and costly tire failures

Doc_Wui

I thought the Decathlon 500e was something exotic, but it looks like a normal 20" ebike. We own several electric folders. Mine has close to 2000 miles on Kenda 20 x1.75's. Just tread wear. I put Schwalbe Big Apples on my wife's folder a while ago. Excellent tires. I'm 195 pounds and my wife is 140 pounds.

Maybe you bought the Schwalbe's from a shop that had a bad lot of tires.

chas58

Interesting. I've seen that happen with fat bike tires at low pressure, but this is a new one for me. Schwalbe does make e-bike rated tires - I've never looked for a 20" one before though. Small tired ebikes are not exactly rare...

Rayxt

Schwalbe Marathon Plus are not only ebike-rated they are rated to 50kph much faster than the 25kph electric bikes in the EU are setup to go.

Continental Tour Plus are ebike rated but only have a 25kph speed rating.

Speed isn't the problem with these small diameter tires, most are overstressed because the ergonomics of the bikes has 80% of the weight on the already heavy electric wheel rear end. Add electric motor torque to this and the walls just can't handle it.

Rayxt

Very good to know about Kenda.

I'm trying Continental Tour Plus on the back, with the replacement Marathon Plus I received on the front at low pressure / low stress. It should outsee the bike!

I had a Big Apple 2.15 on the front at minimum pressure for the 'pneumatic suspension' effect to reduce overall rolling resistance and improve comfort. It did.
Sadly they can't be fitted on the rear as its cross section is too 'fat'
Something Decathlon need to look at: a redesign of the rear to move the wheel back so you can fit 2"+ tires to take 100Kg

dwmckee

Be sure pressure is to spec.
1000 miles out of a tire for an ebike is not terrible...

Bluesfrog

I'm thinking 1,000 miles to be quite good. I wish I had a solution. I guess just buy another tire which seems to be rated for your needs and see if you can get more use out of them. Be Well, Bluesfrog.