djb

For the trip you are doing, switching out you and your wifes tires on a day off half way through the trip will not take too long and makes complete sense to me. Perhaps before the trip, do try removing a tire, as some of the Marathons can have stiff sidewalls and depending on the rim, they can hard to get on and off.

A friend last summer had a continental touring plus on her bike, and it had a slow flat one day we were out. Wehn we got back I offered to check out her tube in water to see where the issue was, and boy oh boy was that tire hard as heck to get off her rim. I've changed lots of tires over the years, including marathons, but those continentals 700x32 and her rims were ridiculous how hard we had to work the tire to get it off and on. Ive seen that before with conti touring plus on another friends bike a bunch of eyars ago, and I recently put one on one of my wifes bike for a while and it was hard as heck also.

even pushing the tire into the tire all over to gain a precious mm of extra give hardly helped. My friends husband had some super thick super strong pedros plastic tire levers, and it was a good thing to have them, as my regular ones probably would have broken.

take a look on youtube for this vid of a guy showing a good technique for dealing with a hard tire to get on, even if you dont use a toe strap, just understanding how to push the tire inwards towards the rim to gain a little extra room helps a lot, and could avoid frustration and or damaging a new tube with your tire levers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XUF...nnel=SpaCycles

I see no downside to rotating tires , as long as you dont wait until the rear one going to the front is not in good shape, as it makes sense to not have a dubious tire up front, but rotating while tires are in good shape makes sense to me.

mm718

Yes, this makes sense now that I look at it more closely. Wishing a great trip and I hope you keep a journal or at least give us a little recap here...

Trevtassie

Damn good excuse for a rest day too.... oh, we have to stop in this nice town with a great brewery/winery/bakery while I rotate the tyres....

imi

^^^ Dang! I've been doing it wrong! You have to have an excuse!

bradtx

gauvins, I would carry a spare tire(s) and use it to replace the rear, rather than rotate, then use the old tire as the spare. This would allow for only two tire swaps and reduce the possibility of pinched tubes. To go even further, I could wait until I needed to repair a puncture on the rear tire and swap tires then.

Brad

djb

I think it's fair to say that the pinched tube aspect goes down in possibility the more you change tires and improve your technique. I certainly have pinched tubes in the past, a very frustrating experience, but have improved greatly. A big part of that is simply from being the family bike mechanic, not to mention neighbours, and also figuring out the technique in the video by the British guy--really makes the difference as it gains that little needed extra room to get the bead over the rim. I've even put a bit of baby powder on a rim to help the bead slip over a pain in the arse rim.

It's like everything ultimately, you get much better at it by doing it often, and practising in a comfortable environment is always a plus.
Good to practise your patching technique if that's something you never do also. Have two little glue tubes, one can dry out if opened for a while.

gauvins

A couple of people mentioned this. I know this to be a possibility, but is this frequent? When is the risk highest - when you remove the tire or when you put it on?

bradtx

So true, but even in the best of conditions an experienced hand can make a mistake.

Brad

djb

my memories of it are from putting the tire back on, not being careful of where the tube is and or how you put the tire levers in to do their work--followed by swearing when you pump up the tire and immediately realize that you have to do it again....thankfully its been many years since Ive done that.
The chances of this happening are much more with tires/rim combos that are very hard to get that last bit on, hence my recommending practicing at home and with no time constraints with your tires/rims to see how it goes.
Do watch the vid I linked, his technique really really does help with getting that little extra room, and I find I do the same thing always but just with my hands, no straps, to gain a bit more space at the top where the last bit is going on.

and yes brad, of course its possible to mess up, I certainly dont refute that. Like I said, whether its baking a cake, or regreasing a hub, or replacing a seal in a kitchen tap, the more often you do it, you get better at it, and with any mechanical physical thing, it comes from doing it, making mistakes, learning from your mistakes.
Like any doing hands on stuff, some people are just ham fisted and some are better, but clearly doing it a bunch of times and being observant helps a great deal to getting better at it. Heck, for years, I would go a few years before having to change a flat, so I would forget how to do it efficiently, and would make the same mistakes. I also started using tires on my mtn bike commuting that were a bear to get on and off, which made for mess ups on my part, but the more I changed tires more often as my family got bigger and older, the better I got at it, or at least smarter to an extent.

have fun practicing M. Gauvin. Make sure you have three tire levers, three is what works for me.

gauvins

yes yes, I use them (a Crank Brothers and three Park). Maybe because I have 2" tires, but I've not experienced any difficulty so far. Knock on wood

djb

the ones I use, and have used for probably 15 or 20 years, have little hooks on the other end, so you can hook them onto a spoke, which works very well I find. I insert all three under the tire, and then hook one and then another onto a spoke, with the final one getting the bead off enough to easily remove it with my hands.
The important thing is just not to be rushed and be aware of where the tube is always, so you don't pinch it with the levers.

If you have no problems thats great, the main thing is to be sure of what and how you are doing it for when a flat comes at an inopportune moment, just less stressful.

Salamandrine 

IMHO it's a pointless exercise at best. It's much more important to keep your best tire on the front at all times. Swapping your old half worn out rear tire that's hit a few rocks to the front will increase your chance of a crash causing blowout. A front blowout will generally cause a crash, a rear blow out will not.

By the same token, if either one of your tires gets any sidewall or casing damage and requires a boot, make sure that tire is in the back. Better tire should always be in front. It's an old rule and a good one.

I can't imagine you will wear out that tire in 4k kilometers.

If you really want to maximize your efficiency, put a heavier tire on the back than the front. However, the traditional method of matched tires gives you a safety margin for the front, and I think that's a better way to go.

imi

How many catastrophic crashes are ACTUALLY caused by front wheel blowouts caused by normal wear? Just wondering...

BlarneyHammer

I'd say a Schwalbe Marathon, any of them, should easily last 4,000 km, even loaded, even exclusively on the rear.

Like others, I think the best method is to replace your rear with your front, and put a new one on the front. But rotating your tires isn't a bad idea either, especially if your idea is to finish the tour without replacing any tires.

djb

Sala, while I agree that a tire that has sidewall cuts or had to be booted shouldn't go on the front, common sense assessment of a tires condition will show in the majority of the time that the rear tire is fine shape, and in this case my experience shows it's worth spreading the wear around more evenly.
Honestly my experience has shown that rotating works fine, I use my eyes to evaluate the tires but what tends to happen is that I forget to do it, but doing it after a few thousand kms will generally mean the wear on the rear will be barely noticeable with the eye.
My regular marathons have been rotated once and still have good life in them, although to be fair the rear usually doesn't have more than 20lbs on it, which reduces the wear considerably compared to a loaded trip where 25lbs or more may be on it day in day out.

Common sense, evaluating the tires condition and not letting the rear wear too much seems to me as the major factors.

Or you don't, that's OK too. I just like the idea of balancing out the wear, just like with rotating car tires. It's a win win.

fietsbob

A friend, who uses used tires frequently, and saves frugally to take International Tours, .. Currently in Chile,

had a number of facial lacerations when a front tire on his road bike failed, at a certain rate of speed , last year.

digibud

Your plan makes sense to me. For most folks doing daily rides it makes good sense to wear out a rear tire and swap the front to the rear but in terms of trying to make both tires last as long as possible without needing to replace a tire, wearing both at the same rate does make sense. The downside would be if you do put enough wear on them to get them down to the point where they were unsafe at all. As long as both tires remain in decent shape, wearing them both down at the same rate makes good sense for your intended use. Good on you to think this through.

mdilthey

I run different tread patterns on front and rear. More grip (knobs) on front, longer life (smoother) on back. Makes for a better handling bike. Thus, I don't rotate, though, I do occasionally run a non-touring tire up front which wears faster, matching the wear rate of the rear.

For "gravel" touring, I have found that the Marathon Mondial rear and Smart Sam Plus front is a good combo.

Salamandrine 

An acquaintance of mine died from one.

I was taught to move older tires to the back at a very young age when I joined my local velo club. It's not that uncommon for tires to blow out as they get older. It's not wear so much as casing damage, unseen cuts, etc. If you keep any questionable tire at the back, you avoid most of the possibility of a crash.

DropBarFan

Mechs always recommend to avoid levers when possible. That can be tough esp when removing tires. OTOH have had pretty good luck not needing levers to mount touring tires. Tonite learned a new tip from a video ie work towards (& not away) from valve location.

djb

Sala, very sorry to hear of that incident.
What I would add is that cleaning your bike regularly, cleaning the drive train and generally being regularly very aware of the condition of all aspects of your bike, including tires, is a really good habit to have. Keeping up on the state of your tires goes a long way to avoiding issues, and in my experience tires don't just quickly develop dangerous issues, but we must remember to check them carefully more often. I don't always but try to remember as much as I can.

djb

Personally I'm not keen on working towards the valve, have had valves that end up not being perpendicular to rim and personally just don't like that for the potential stress it puts on that area of the tube, and the risk of further angling over time.

FBinNY 

This is why we have horse racing.

I've been working toward the valve and teaching the same for 50 years. You, OTOH prefer to work away from the valve. And I'm sure that there are people out there that don't care either way, or even God forbid, ignore the valve and end up someplace neither at nor opposite it.

Whatever works best for you right for you and you should stick with it until you have a reason to change.

djb

Well the fact that you've been doing it this way and it works shows that my concerns are unfounded, as you say, whatever works without issues.

DropBarFan

Well I would never have guessed to try the Work Towards Valve thing; I would have assumed that either way one can push the valve up so it doesn't interfere with the tire beads settling down into the lower channel. OTOH I should note that the video suggested working to a spot ~25° away from the valve. I'm not quite sure if/why working towards or away from valve would affect getting valve properly perpendicular? In my experience one can usually nudge the tire along after mounting to get the valve angle correct.