Long Term Test: Schwalbe Marathon and Marathon Plus tyres

Length of test period: about 27 months (since July 2011)
Product obtained from: local bike shop (Buckingham Bikes)
Product obtained by: personal purchase through "regular" sources
Price paid: approx. c. £17 Pounds (new, but old stock) (c. $27 US, 20 Euros)
Second Gear rating (marks out of 10):9(one mark deducted for early cracking of the tyre wall - that maybe because my example was "old stock", but I can only test what I have!)

Update: My wife has had Marathon Plus tyres on her bike for a couple of years, and it seems to make sense to group my comments on them in with this review.

Schwalbe Marathon Plus

Length of test period so far: about 3 years

Product obtained from: mail order (Dutch Bike Bits)

Product obtained by: personal purchase through "regular" sources

(no marketing "freebies" for me!)

Price paid: approx. c. £23 Pounds(c. $37 US, 28 Euros) plus shipping - the shipping is a bit pricey, but I bought these as part of a larger order.Second Gear rating (marks out of 10):10 (sidewalls are a very stiff, making them harder to put on and take off, but NO punctures!)

Note: the price paid above for the "regular" Marathon tyre was for an "old stock" tyre (tire). It was the only one in the shop at that price. The rest were about about 50% more expensive!
The Marathon Plus tyres were bought at "normal" price.


I got one of these, because, on returning my folding bike to service after a few years of storage, chunks started falling out of the tread on the old (no-name "generic" brand) tyre, and the tube was visible through the tyre carcass (!)). It was a twenty-year old tyre, though, and natural decay processes may have had a hand in it more than my riding style :-)

Just a quick note on sizes for tyres (or "tires", if you hail from the Americas).
I now have a Schwalbe Marathon 20 x 1.75 (ISO size 47-406) tyre on the back of my folder.

The Schwalbe tyre is wider than the generic brand 20 x 1.75 I had before (!)
A look at the Schwalbe website suggests that their 1.75" tyre covers the range of tyres from 1.75" to 1.9". My estimate is that the tyre is about a 1.90", even though it says 1.75" on the sidewall (it is also marked 47-406)

Not a problem for me (plenty of clearance!) , but if you have a tight clearance between your tyres and the frame or the mudguards (if fitted), it could be a problem for you.
In that case you would have to go down a size to the 20 x 1.5 tyre that Schwalbe make.

Other than that, the Schwalbe tyre is great. The old "generic" tyre was rated at only 45 psi max, while the Schwalbe Marathon is rated at 70 psi max. Just what one needs if one is a slightly larger size (I weigh about 100kg, 220 lbs, dressed lightly!), and in putting shopping in rear panniers (about another 8 to 10 kg (22 lbs) for the shopping, plus 3 kg (6 1/2 lbs) for the pair of panniers. 113 kg is quite a load for a folder, and needs hard tyres! :-)

Having subsequently taken several tyres off several bikes and refitted them, I find the Schwalbe Marathon tyre to be as easy to fit as any other. (The Marathon Plus I find to be, however, considerably stiffer, somewhat more difficult to fit, and takes quite a bit longer to change than the "regular" Marathon)

Update (24th November 2011):
I'm still using the tyre. I don't do much of a mileage - 10 to 20 miles (15 - 30 kilometres/kilometers) a week. Rides nicely. I seem to get some dynamo slip in wet weather, but that might be more down to my (cheap) dynamo than the tyre :-)
I can't say how much effect the anti-puncture belt is having, as I haven't had a puncture! (it is hard to measure what hasn't happened!)

Update (14th December 2011): 

I'm still using the tyre. Same sort of mileage - 10 to 20 miles (15 - 30 kilometres/kilometers) a week. Still rides nicely. Still getting some dynamo slip in wet weather, and still no punctures.

Update (23rd January 2012):
During a routine inspection, I found a thorn embedded in the centre of the tread of the tyre. It was 5 or 6 mm long (c. 1/4 inch), thin, and quite strong. I usually lever debris out of my tires with a door key or a metal keyfob, but the thorn wouldn't shift, so I had to get out the needle-nose pliers. My wife thinks it might have been a blackberry thorn. It was far too thin to be from ornamental roses etc. Another possibility is that it is a thorn from a pyrocantha (quite a few are grown in this area for the attractive colour of the berries, but they sure are spiky!)
One is never sure what would have punctured a "normal" tyre (aka "tire") and tube, but this thorn is a possibility, especially if one was using thin tread, lightweight, tyres.
So, that's one puncture saved :-)
(maybe two punctures saved - look at the picture below, taken on the 23rd January 2011)

Schwalbe Marathon tyre (20x1.75) on my folding bike.

Update (9th March 2012): I'm still using the tyre. Same sort of mileage - 10 to 20 miles (15 - 30 kilometres/kilometers) a week. Still rides nicely. Still getting some dynamo slip in wet weather, and still no punctures.

Update (10th February 2013): Again, I'm still using the tyre. I usually do 10 to 15 miles a week at the moment (15 - 25 kilometres/kilometers) a week. the tyre still rides nicely. I was still getting some dynamo slip in wet weather, and especially in snow and slush, but as I upgraded to a hub dynamo set up yesterday, I am not expecting further problems in that respect :-)

More importantly, still no punctures - but bear in mind that I have a "cheap" tyre on the front of my bike (the tyre is the original one that came with the bike 20+ years ago!) and I haven't had any front punctures either.

So I must be riding on fairly "clean" surfaces.

I have taken to, though, picking up any "puncture - causing" debris I see on my route, which probably helps.

I picked up a large, rusty, open, safety pin only last week (the sort of size one would use for securing an old-fashioned nappy/diaper on an infant).

The 20-inch/406mm Schwalbe Marathon tyre on my folding Cinzia
(undergoimg service work at the time of the pic - that's why the chain is hanging!)

Update (5th May 2013): Still using the tyre. Still doing 10 to 15 miles a week at the moment (15 - 25 kilometres/kilometers) a week, and the tyre still rides nicely. The hub dynamo set up I am now running means dynamo slip on the tyre wall is a thing of the past.

Still no punctures, but the tyre is looking more "cut up" than before, so it seems some debris cuts the tyre then falls out. - however, I have that "cheap" tyre on the front of my bike (the tyre is the original one that came with the bike 20+ years ago!) and I haven't had any front punctures either.

I guess I must be riding on fairly "clean" surfaces :-)

Update (10th August 2013): Still no punctures!!!

I guess I have now done a total of about 1500 to 2000 miles on the tyre - I'm not a high mileage rider :-)

(that's 2400 to 3200 km, for my metric friends).

I'm still using the tyre, and I'm still doing 10 to 15 miles a week (15 - 25 kilometres/kilometers) a week, and the tyre still rides nicely. A few weeks back I went for a longer along a towpath, which started off fine, then got a bit stony, etc. etc.

"Mixed surfaces" is the politest way to describe the worst parts :-)

Anyway, I'm still running that hub dynamo.

As I said, still no punctures, and the tyre is looking very well used.

Plenty of tread left, but the sidewalls are looking cracked and tatty, and the tread has plenty of small cuts in it, so, as I said before in my last update, it seems that some debris cuts the tyre then falls out.

As a "control", I have that "cheap" tyre on the front of my bike (the tyre is the original one that came with the bike 20+ years ago!) and I haven't had any front punctures either.

However, because I ride with the (angled) seat post set very high, I am almost sitting over the back wheel, so most of my weight will be taken by the rear tyre, so one would think that debris is less likely to get forced into the front tyre.

What I have noticed over many years of riding both bicycles and motorcycles is that I find the front tyre tends to make the debris "sit up", ready to attack the rear tyre, and over my 35 years plus of tyre repair, I have had mostly rear punctures. (My wife, however, obviously rides a good bit differently than me, because she gets mostly front punctures! - guess which of her tyres has a Schwalbe Marathon Plus on it!)

I guess I must be riding on fairly "clean" surfaces :-)

Update (26th January 2014):

The review of the Marathon tyre has taken a necessary pause after the demise of my folding bike, on the 8th October 2013. So that was 27 months I used that tyre for.

And guess what?

No punctures!

Was it worth the money?

Sorry, did I say ... no punctures!

 :-)

That says it all :-)

Moving on to the Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres on Anna's bike.

• no sidewall cracking
• no punctures

Are they worth the money?
Sorry, did I say ... no punctures!

But, they can be hard to fit.
Sorry, did I say ... no punctures!

In fact, I am so pleased with both the Schwalbe Marathon and the Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres that I recommend them for almost everyone, except those who are using studded winter tyres (yep, my satisfaction with the Schwalbe Marathon range has led to me purchasing a pair of Marathon Winter tyres, studs and all, which are currently being used on Mermaid, my "fill in" bike)

Update 22 Feb 2014
Still haven't fixed any puctures on Anna's bike (with Marathon Plus tyres on).
The tyres cost almost half as much as the bike did, but it was an easy decision.
Anna gets most of out shopping, and usually takes her bike to do it.
I know that 50-odd pounds ($75-80, 60 Euros) sounds like a huge amount of money to pay for a pair of bike tyres, but they make SUCH a difference to the rider who likes to ride, not fix punctures (or take them to shop for them to do it)
If you do pay to have your punctures fixed at a bike shop, just think about how much money you would save by having more expensive tyres that get less punctures!

It came about that I got to borrow a Pashley last summer - it was a postal delivery bike.
For postal delivery, time is money, and time in the workshop costs.
So what tyres did the Pashley have?
Why, Marathon Plus, of course!
That, to me, is a pretty strong recommendation!

The Pashley Mailstar I borrowed last Spring
- a postal delivery bike.
Tyres are ... Schwalbe Marathon Plus

I certainly don't want to push that lot home!
Mermaid on a shopping trip last Summer, with
Marathon Plus tyres, of course!

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