wilson_smyth

I have Continental GP5000 32mm on my commuter. they are lovely tires, very comfortable, and I feel a bit quicker on them when pulling off from traffic lights.
But with the winter weather Im getting a lot of flats, 2 in the past week. With kids to pick up from school etc, i cant afford too many flats so time for something more durable.

Everyone recommends the Schwalbe Marathons. I am just asking if anyone can compare them to low resistance thin tires like the GP 5000?
Do they make a drastic difference in feel of the bike?

PhilFo 

They are completely different tires and it would be hard to make a comparison. You can comfortably compare a Marathon to a Continental Contact, which I prefer, personally, but not a GP5000. You will definitely notice a difference in acceleration and ride when switching from a GP5000 to a heavy duty touring tire. Personally, I prefer Continental tires over Schwalbes, so I ride various versions of the Continental Contact which have served me quite well for a long time. The Contact also has the Plus protection on some of their tires (ie: Contact Plus, Contact Plus City, Contact Plus Travel, etc.) which is extra puncture and cut protection. I ride Contact Plus tires and love them, they ride better than Marathons, but this is my opinion.

Darth Lefty 

The whole point of the regular Marathon tire is thick armor. Literally thick, 3mm thicker on top of some regular armor. Of course it's not going to ride as well. Especially not the skinny ones where that thick layer is a substantial portion. When the rolling resistance website did their Marathon size comparison they found the 32mm substantially worse than the bigger ones. And you want what, 25's?

You could also consider running tubeless

Schwalbe and everyone else have thin tires with premium armor that do ok. Usually they are marketed as road bike tires at 32 and under, bigger ones are commuter/touring tires for tubes or gravel tires for tubeless

fooferdoggie 

I have 38's marathons and the ride is pretty harsh at 70 psi.

ser_gio

I have marathons with 3mm green shield. 35mm wide. I use at 80 psi. Of course, not very soft but good rolling resistance. Puncture aspect is a bit of luck. I have not had any flats (knocking on the wood) but the roads I ride seems to be clean. I do recommend these.

stevel610 

BicycleRollingResistance.com shows Marathons with good rolling resistance. Though as has been mentioned, it is a completely different tire.

You might try 32c Gatorskins for Winter.

randallr

Another option that might serve is the Conti GP 4 season. Two vectran layers instead of one. Supple, but more flat resistant. I have used them a couple of years and have had one flat.

GamblerGORD53

No wonder. They should be 66 lb at the most. I have 584 x 38 SMP on my 3 speed CCM. They just float along when I do centuries.
For 35c x 700, 70 front/ 72 rear lbs is plenty too.
For my next tour I bought E Marathons. Hoping they will be better. SMPs let me down a few times lately. Staples so small I had a hard time seeing them.

fooferdoggie 

they are rated 60 to 80 pounds and I weight 210 and my bike is a e bike and tends to be around 70 pounds with a load.