bark_eater 

I've got 700x38c Marathon Plus's on a bike I've been putting together. Combined with the NO-BS rims, the weight and inertia seems mismatched with the rather lively Koga Miyata frame, and the rolling resistance is impressive.

I'm planning a short 300 mile first "tour" this summer on reasonable pavement. Weight on the tires with me, the bike and stuff might approach 340lbs.

My initial thought was to pick up 3 folding Panaracer PT Paselas.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

revcp 

How about Marathon Supremes. Finishing up a tour in a week,I've really liked them.

djb

Given the rather significant weight being carried by the tires, I wonder how much difference you will feel. While taking a guess at numbers, your tires must be carrying 100lbs and more than mine, figuring your bike at 35ish, let's say 50lbs of stuff, so very robust tires are probably a good idea.
The tough sidewall and tread would always be preferable, but as to how much rolling resistance you would actually feel, I do wonder.
I suspect you will have to buy lighter tires and compare loaded up to really know.
At least be very aware of pressures, especially with a thinner sidewall tire.

fietsbob

by eliminating the puncture protective bands tires in general are lighter , from any company..


The Compass/Rene Herse tires ride great I'm told by those who don't mind spending what they cost...

bark_eater 

I've been riding them at around 55lbs/65lbs with out any gear. Next ride I'm going to pump the tires up to their max pressure and see how they roll.

Rob_E

I was thinking the same. To answer the OP's question about a lighter tire than the Marathon Plus: pretty much all of them. ;-)

But, yeah, even once I replaced my Marathon Plusses with lighter, more supple tires (Vittoria Randonneur Hypers or something like that. Great tires but they change the name every year, so good luck figuring what they're called today), I still would put my Plus back on the rear for a tour. The tire change made a huge difference in ride quality for commuting (although I don't know if that translated to any speed increase or other, measurable improvement), it seemed less noticeable when the bike was loaded up. That said, I did continue to use them once I finally retired my last Marathon Plus. They did not give me a problem. They wear faster than the Plus, but so do most tires, and the ride quality made up for that easily.

I have about 10 miles in on my Compass Tires. They felt seriously great. I obviously can't say how well they will hold up over time, but if they last a year and continue to feel like they do, I will consider it money well-spent. They are replacing my Almotions, which had similar ride characteristics to the Plusses, but a little better because I could run them tubeless. The Compass tires are another level of comfort. I just hope they don't wear out too quickly.

djb

bark and robE, I have put a lot of kilometers on Supremes, and I know they hold up fairly well with a total load similar to what bark is talking about, so those are an option.

but they have a really thin sidewall, so you just cant get away with scraping against sharp stuff or whatever with them.

but they do ride great.

mev

I ride at load weights similar to the OP. On trip through South America, I used a mix of Marathon Plus, Marathon Supreme and Marathon Mondial.

A few disconnected thoughts:
- I haven't noticed much difference between these tires in their handling.
- 300 miles isn't particularly far, so you should be able to make many things work.
- You don't have to use the same tire on front and back or as your spare

My experience:
- Marathon Supreme were fairly durable - though not as durable as my experience with Marathon Plus. In particular, the two failures I had were (a) I cycled directly over a piece of glass in Amato. That led to enough of a hole in the main tread, that I tried a boot on the inside. That ended up rubbing eventually and causing secondary holes. However, original hole also had problems (b) a different Marathon Supreme eventually developed a slit gash in the sidewall. Not exactly sure if it was something I ran into - or if combination of weight and riding eventually had it fail there. Both these failures were with a few thousand kilometers of cycling - so it wasn't early infant mortality type failures.
- Marathon Plus basically lasted long enough that I wore off the tread and started to see blue lines underneath before I replaced them.

tyrion

Schwalbe Mondials 700x40 would be 300g lighter each and almost as puncture proof (I think) and are long wearing.

Rick

[QUOTE][I'm planning a short 300 mile first "tour" this summer on reasonable pavement. Weight on the tires with me, the bike and stuff might approach 340lbs./QUOTE]

I weighed more than that and wore out two sets of Marathon Supremes without a flat.

Kedosto

Conti Top Contact II’s. Same Vectran flat protection as Marathon Supremes at about half the weight of Marathon Plus. About half the price of the Marathon Supreme.

Approaching 4k commute miles at and above 300lbs without so much as a hiccup. Supple, grippy, and wearing well, they work for me.

-Kedosto

Eggman84

I use the folding Panaracer PT Paselas for touring and commuting and have been happy with them. I've used some Compass (now Rene Herse) tires but felt the supposedly higher comfort did not warrant the added costs. I use 32 mm on my wife's bike and 35 mm on my bike. I have considered going to 38 mm on my bike, which would easily fit them, but can't get my head around how big they would look. I/m not a racer so why this would bother me, when I would get better flotation on soft surfaces and cushier ride, not to say longer tread life. Tires seem to be very personal and most people can not provide any scientific evidence (and no marketing copy is not scientific) why they ride a specific model, other than it works for them.

If you want to learn more about tires, one place to look would be at Jan Heine's blog, Off The Beaten Path.

LeeG

Not a light load. If you want Pasela like handling with a bit more sidewall protection get a Panaracer T-Serv. I’m a few lbs lighter than you and found the paselas sidewalls a bit delicate. I’ve ridden Mondials in that size and they handle a bit funny w the raised center section. They are the most truck like tire I’d want to ride and might feel normal after a 1000m of wear. Right now on my Cross Check I have a T-Serv on the front and a Schwalbe Almotion on the rear. I doubt you will feel a practical rolling resistance difference between the Almotions and the Paselas given the much greater durability. I ride with a 1.6” Supreme on the rear of my Surly LHT and at a low acceptable pressure they feel kinda funny but pumped up solid. My $.02 Almotion front and back, nice round tire.

https://www.schwalbetires.com/bike_t...athon_Almotion

antokelly

conti .
https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/i...513&pgrid=5594

bark_eater 

One other quirk: I'm using a bottle generator.

The marathons have a dynamo tread, but they are so much bigger than the bike was originally spec'ed for the dynamo roller falls beneath the sidewall dynamo tread. I'm not particularly worried about wearing through the Marathons side walls, but it did make me wonder how much of a ride difference would there be if I went down to 32 MM Marathon Plus's?

The 32MM tires would be 150 g lighter. I'm riding the 38m tires at about maximum pressure to keep the rolling resistance down, so I might not be missing any "pneumatic suspension " sizing down.

bark_eater 

After a bit of soul searching on the internet, I ended up ordering a set of Marathon GT Tour tires in 35mm. They will be 196 grams lighter and will give a little better fender clearance, which is is minimal with the 38mm tires. I wanted to go down to 32mm but the calculators put me over spec with a load.

djb

Wow, haven't seen one of those in use since I don't know when

And never had one myself, so don't know how they are on sidewalls-- probably depends on setup

geoffs

With Marathon Plus tyres we average 27kmhr on our tandem when we are riding on a flat road with panniers. With Marathon supremes we manage about 32-33 kmhr with the same effort. Suremes wear well and are puncture resistant. Unless you're touring in a third world country and absolutely must get the longest wear from tyres, I really can't see the point of Marathon Plus tyres for the average tour