Tandem Tom

Anyone use these? What are your impressions?
Thanks

robow

Durable, great puncture resistance and they will serve nicely as boat anchors when you're done riding them.

PlanoFuji

Extremely durable and pretty inexpensive, but a compromise in most other areas (weight, comfort, etc...)

rifraf

Under rated tyre.
I run them on my Moulton APB which has 406 Aeroheat hoops (20") and wouldnt have anything else for touring due to their superior puncture resistance as well as their great durability and decent pricing.
710 grams per unit.

The 47-622 weighs in at over a kg per unit, which for me is a little heavy in 700C-1.75 so I'm currently rocking Supremes for touring tarmac, Big Apples for day to day and I'm tossing up grabbing some folding Mondials to take on tour for any extended off road stuff. This on my Surly Ogre running Velocity Dyads which is the 700c version of Aeroheat..

staehpj1

If you care even slightly about either weight or a supple sidewall, don't even consider these. They are the next closest thing to a solid tire.

FrenchFit 

And extremely difficult to get on and off rims in the wild.

IAMAMRA

I just bought these, and installed them last night. Front tire was no issue, but the rear took me over 30 mins to get on.

FrenchFit 

A similar tire that I'm enjoying right now, replacing Marathon Supremes, is the Vittoria Randonneur Pro - although the rear tire was challenge to get on. They weight 420g per tire, about half that of the Marathon+, firmer than the SMSs and about half the price.

MichaelW

The natural habitat of Marathon Plus is an urban utility bike for someone who doesn't like to get their hands dirty, bikes with complex wheel removal systems such as chain cases, drum brakes and hub gears.
I used plain marathon on my tourer, lighter and fairly resistant and also much easier to mount on the rim.

CrazyLemurBoy

I echo MichaelW's sentiment. Regular Marathons, now labeled 'Greenguard' or HS420 profile are fantastic touring tires. It's all I use on my Salsa Vaya and it does admirably offroad, while having great handling on pavement. 40-622 user here. Never had a single puncture and all my friends now ride them too (they are all flat free). My experiences with the Marathon Plus is that it was heavier, harder to get on the rim, and a bit less compliant. My bike uses regular derailleurs so there is no complication in wheel removal.

juggleaddict

True, but I haven't heard of anybody putting a flat in one either. I switched to them and haven't had a flat since... Including a full sized nail going through the sidewall.

They are boat anchors though, about 4 or 5 times heavier than the conti sport contacts I had on there.

Bicycle365

Have 8000 miles on mine without a flat, didn't have any trouble getting them on. My touring kit has always had 2 spare tubes in it but I am dropping that to one for tours and none for day rides. I am over 400 lbs going down the road rider and bike weight.

PlanoFuji

Not if you carry this for your tire levers... https://randonneurextra.blogspot.com/...ire-lever.html



A combination set of tire levers and bead jack... Works great with cold numb hands when even normally easy tires to mount become difficult.

Ridefreemc

Seems like finding one is difficult. Does anyone know where to get one?

FrenchFit 

Sweet.

rifraf

I use Velocity Aeroheats and Dyads (same extrusion) and have never had any issue getting tyres on or off.
Marathons or otherwise

PlanoFuji

I got mine from https://www.retro-gression.com/produc...tire-bead-jack, but they are currently out of stock. Might be worth checking with them to see when/if they will get more. Also you can find them on ebay. And occasionally others will stock. Search for Var tire lever. It is the type 425 from that company.

Of possible interest; https://sheldonbrown.com/var/pages/var0051.html

Ridefreemc

Thank you!

chrisch

Great tires! I've had them on my touring bike for six years and not a single flat.

fietsbob

I have 2 VAR tire tools in my Kit. particularly for the skinny tire wheels .

Mel Pinto Is the East coast VAR distributor, Cyclone , for the west.

Your favorite LBS will order thru them ..

Northwestrider

My Marathon Mondials have over 5600 miles with no flats, are heavy, no problems getting them on or off. I use tire irons to get them off, only my hands to get them on

contango 

Can't comment on the Plus Tour specifically but ran the Plus ATB on the mountain bike in 26x2.0" for a couple of years, and regular Marathon Plus in 700x32 on the cross bike for a couple of years (I swapped the rear tyre on the MTB for a Marathon Extreme and the tyres on the cross bike for Durano Plus to save some weight)

They are heavy, they ride quite hard, but they are as close to indestructible as you can get without going to a solid tyre. When I rode 250 miles in three days mostly along towpaths with some friends on the MTB (with Plus ATB on the front and Extreme on the back) we had to stop a few times for punctures. When we stopped I checked over my tyres but never got any punctures. A couple of times I pulled inch-long thorns out of the tyres and threw them in the canal - they never penetrated the plastic defences.

On the cross bike I put about 5000 miles on them before I swapped them out for a lighter tyre (the Durano Plus is about half the weight and narrower 700x25 instead of the 700x32 I had before). In that time I got one puncture caused by a half-inch hawthorn spike. The tyres were tough enough that it took me a while to realise my front tyre was flat - I was aware of the periodic clunking sound that's much like you get when you ride over ridges in the road, but when the ridges stopped the sound didn't so I stopped to check. In terms of tread wear after 5000 miles I reckon the back tyre probably has another 5000 miles in it at least and the front tyre should go for at least another 10,000 miles.

If you want supple tyres that roll fast the Marathon Plus range probably isn't for you. If your primary concern is something that's resilient and nigh on bulletproof they're probably the best choice out there. Be aware they are difficult to put on and take off - you will almost certainly need decent quality tyre levers to do the job.

djb

again, thanks to this lovely geezer for putting this up. As someone noted in the comments in Youtube ages ago, even the incoming Me109's 20mm cannon fire wouldnt have punctured that tire (watch vid and listen at end ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XUFVrl0UT4

staehpj1

I thought the Marathon Plus Tour was a new model in the last two years. Am I mistaken or do you maybe have the Marathon Plus (not Tour). Personally I wouldn't even consider either, but for someone who is very flat intolerant they may work out, especially if they do not care about weight or ride feel.

IAMAMRA

back in stock and just ordered one! Tanks for sharing!