Schwalbe Marathon Wired Tyre with Greenguard Reflex

The first thing to understand is that these tires are puncture resistant, but not completely puncture proof. I use these tires on four separate bicycles, two using the 28 mm width, one using the 40 mm width, and one using the 47 mm width, all of which I use for commuting and recreational rides. There is a lot of broken glass on the route to work, as well as thorns and goathead stickers seasonally. On one of the bikes wearing the 28 mm tires, I've had two flats. Once I had the misfortune to run over something, perhaps a large piece of broken glass or sharp metal, in the early morning darkness and it was sharp enough to cut (not puncture) through the tire, and the tube on the rear wheel. I didn't see the object, but it made a loud "ping" sound as it came out of the tire and bounced on the road. It left a slash more than 1/2 inch wide in the tire. Whatever this object was, I suspect any bicycle tire would have been similarly damaged, perhaps a motorcycle or car tire also. I also had another flat on the front tire of the same bicycle. While repairing this time, I noticed that the tube was a racing tube, made of very thin lightweight rubber and sized for a 20mm tire, not a 28mm. So when installed in the 28mm tire, that tube was expanded considerably larger than it should have been, and it's thin walls were stretched even thinner...no wonder a tiny thorn managed to puncture it. I ended up buying new, standard weight tubes in the correct size. One the bike with the 40 mm Marathons, I rode through a patch of grass perhaps 10 feet long along the edge of the path, and instantly picked up a number of goathead stickers. I stopped a short distance further when I saw them rotating in the tire, and pulled them out, but both front and rear tire were already punctured, and leaking slowly. I managed to ride home before both went flat, and got to spend a while putting patches on both tubes. Marathons are lighter weight and more supple than the common thick walled "puncture resistant" tubes, although not quite so light as a standard tire without the puncture resistant belt. I have had very good success with the thick tubes resisting flats, but they really change the way a bicycle rides, as the thick tube adds a lot of weight where it doesn't do any good, making the wheel very heavy. So, Marathons are not a racing tire, but a very good commuting or touring tire. My personal best commute time was on 28 mm Marathons (8 miles in 28:45)...on a 35 year old 12 speed lightweight bicycle. If you want to go faster, Schwalbe makes other tires with lighter, more exotic and more expensive materials under the tread (there is a Marathon Racer, and a Kojack slick, among others). And it's not completely invulnerable, but very tough nonetheless. The "Greenguard" belt appears to be merely an extra thickness of rubber under the tread area, and helps prevent punctures simply by virtue of it's extra thickness. It's offers the benefits of a thick tube under the tread where you need it, without the weight of extra rubber on the sidewalls and in the area of the spoke nipples. It doesn't appear to be particularly difficult for a sharp thorn to penetrate, and if the thorn is long enough, it can reach your tube. The "Greenguard" belt isn't kevlar, although Schwalbe offers a kevlar belt in the Marathon Plus, their more expensive tire. However, the extra puncture resistance of the Marathon Plus does come at a cost, that tire weighs more and doesn't roll quite so well as this tire. So, you decide how much puncture protection you need, and choose the tire which seems to fit your needs best. One thing to be aware of is that the belt adds slightly, 3 to 5 mm to the height of the tire, so be sure you have clearance at your front fork and at your rear brake bridge. If you don't have significant clearance with your existing tires, consider downsizing the width when using Marathons. In addition to reducing the instances of flats from punctures, these tires have a reflective band which is highly visible in the lights of cars. I've had coworkers tell me that they could see me several hundred feet away in the darkness, lit only by their own headlights. I do have battery powered lights as well, but the first thing they reported seeing was two bright white reflective circles moving in the darkness. This feature added to the reduced frequency of punctures makes these my favorite commuting tire.

I had the Marathon 32's on a cyclocross that I purchased about 4-5 years ago. The tires rolled well and I kept them on for about a year, around 2000 miles. I got into racing and switched to some light 25c tires and put the Schwalbes in storage. I got other bikes and started riding and burning through tires last year at a decent rate, 3 sets of tires, 6000 miles last year, wearing each set to the thinnest layer before buying new ones. I finally put the Marathons on my new cyclocross after 2500 on my knobby 32 c Richie tires. The old Marathons lasted another 1500 miles and then I went to L A with the bike weighing 53 lbs total. I weigh 208 and had the marathons pumped to 100 lbs. They worked great and made the ride comfortable, smooth, and actually fast. We averaged 16-18 miles per hour the whole ride of 500 miles. My friend had new Pasela's and he had the only flat on the whole ride. Love these tires and decided to buy the smaller 28c size for less rolling resistance this time around. I have about 500 miles on them and no flats, no problems yet. Also, I have read reviews about them falling off or coming off of other bike rims. I don't know what older rim that these people have them on, but I never had this problem and I don't mind pumping them to full capacity. They have been on Mavic open pro and aksium rims without the slightest problem. Don't know about the mechanics and the owners who had problems getting them on their rims. I just put them on twice, having removed the 28's and put the 32's back on for the LA bike trip. No pinch flat, no problem. They're tight but not that bad. When removing them, after deflating, pinch the tire in with your hand all the way around to get the wire bead off the sidewall and in the center of the rim. It makes removing them easier. They are pretty bomb proof. I'm sure that you can get a flat. I just haven't had one with the older or newer Marathons. I've had plenty with my Gatorskins and other light weight tires. My only wish is that they made them a little lighter.

I'm going into my 3rd winter season with this tire now. I can't recommend it enough. I ride throughout the winter, often in some of the worst weather conditions. I used to take a lot more falls on my bike before I had these tires. I've hit some slippery patches, but I don't think I've actually fallen off my bike at all since I started using these tires. As far as flats go: I've had these tires on my bike for more than 2 years now (which is a pretty dang long time for a single set of tires), and I've gotten 2 flats. One was from glass. I could tell when I changed it that the piece of glass had taken a while to work its way through. I also found a lot of other pieces of glass in the rubber that never made it through the liner (spent some time picking them all out with tweezers, just in case). The second time was a nice sized staple in the road. You can have all the liners you want, but something like that is definitely getting through if you hit it at the wrong angle. I fixed it both times, and the tire has gone strong since then. Other tires I had in the past would get flats all the time. I even tried adding a liner between the tire and the tube in an older set of tires. Glass still got through, and it just made the tires heavy. These are pretty lightweight. They won't protect you against every flat (if you start riding over nails, they're gonna make it through), but it can protect better than most. So, in summary, I've gotten very good traction with these tires in slippery conditions (still gotta watch out for that black ice, but I've been surviving so far!), and have had pretty good protection against flats. After more than 2 years, they're starting to show some wear, so I'll probably be buying the same ones again! :-)

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This type of tyre has seen us through thousands of miles of touring with hardly any punctures or failures. Very good touring tyre for 26” wheel bikes that may have come with those big heavy knobbly “mountain bike “ type tyres. A little more expensive than the cheap alternatives, but never regretted having them on a machine. You will never know how much time and inconvenience these save you over other tyres until you have had them as long as we have.

I have a tadpole trike and love the knowledge of having the best quality tires on board.

Perfect.

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