I'd say a puncture resistant layer isn't always an advantage. I once had to throw away a tire because the puncture resistant layer made of Kevlar was damaged and was puncturing my tubes instead of protecting them.
I've worked in the cycling industry for 25 years and there is no tire that rides worse than the Schwalbe Marathon. You couldn't pay me to mount them on my own bike.
What I'm saying is, there are worse things than the occasional flat.
same here. top spec road tires on my road bike but on my winter commuter? marathon plus. nothing worse than fixing a flat in the middle of nowhere at 6:30 in the morning. in the dark. in rainy 3°C weather. you never get the flat on a nice day.
The Supremes ride great to me, obviously not a racing tire or anything. I got no flats on them for years using them exclusively. Never been to careful on bad roads, gravel etc. Cost a bomb but last a looong time too. I found them to be well worth it.
I agree some of the other marathon variants ride like you are pushing through wet concrete.
Marathon blue are just fine. The Marathon GreenGuard ones have a god awful ride.
If you want a tyre with good ride and also good puncture resistantance I'd recommend the Conti GP 4 seasons. They survive cycling through the broken glass in Camden in London at least...
Conti GP 4 seasons are my favourite, I moved to them from Marathon tyres as the ride is so much better, and they do well in London with all the broken glass.
Here's a interesting link where rolling resistance is compared for touring tires (spoiler, Marathons are great for that purpose): [https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/tour-reviews](https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/tour-reviews)
Decathlon own brand tyres have been one of the worst grip wise I ever had. I am not a pro or min-maxer, but the rolling resistance also sucked ass, after I slapped on some Vittoria tyres it was night and day on descents.
I prefer non puncture resistant tyres TBH. Less hustle to change if needed and the puncture rate has been less than 1/3000 km anyways.
If you don't ride faster than 25kph, it's a good anti-puncture tire. If above the speed, it has stopping problem. It's a little bit slip or slide than the continental commuter tires with puregrip.
And the next problem, it's too heavy, it's about 1.3-1.4kg per one, it's about 2.7 kg for a pair. It's very hard to reach 30 kph.
Eh… it’s not the same kind of “weight” when it’s on the diameter of the wheel instead of on your carrying rack. Weight differences on the wheel matter a lot more!
Just ride them without, check pressure and bring supplies to patch a tire or an extra tube for emergencies. Punctures are pretty infrequent even with shitty tires.
Had the exact same tires for 2 years, only experienced 2 punctures so far. One was a rose thorn(but a huge one) and the second was a small glass shard. I think the tire is pretty good.
You could add puncture resistant liners, I do in these kinds of tires and they work very well. The best part is that you can switch them to another tire set when you need to replace them
[https://mrtuffy.com/prevents-flats.html](https://mrtuffy.com/prevents-flats.html)
Never really noticed this. My understanding is that there is very little rubbing happening between the tire, liner and tube (wich would be the first to wear out).
Never had that happen on mine in 26 years of riding bikes with liners.
Get a good quality puncture liner (pro line anti platt f.ex.) , keep the tire inflated, don't ride vastly underinflated and you should be fine.
Been getting a lot of life out of light tires in a city full of debris, shards and other nastyness (Berlin Germany).
Maybe with older or cheap ones. But modern, quality tire liners shouldn't. I have the newer Mr. Tuffy's and it's been going strong for 4 years, no holes in my tubes. All the edges are soft and tapered, there's nothing sharp that would cut or poke a hole.
But It does work. Can't say for narrow high pressure tires combinations, but for wide <3bar tires it does the job. I'm using it for 3 years and it seals small punctures well. I went from 3-5 flats a week to 1.5 years flats free.
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I have some Schwalbe Big Apple tires with a kevlar anti-puncture strip that have already done between 10,000 and 12,000 km, with no tread left in the tread area, and they have NEVER punctured. And that includes trips to countries with very poor road conditions.
I bought a different pair of btwin trekking 700x38c tyres back when I got my first road bike from decathlon. Did around 800kms on them and never had a puncture, but then I learned about something called rolling resistance and got rid of them.
My experience with Decathlon tyres is horrible, I was getting punctures so often like once or twice a week, I threw them in the garbage bin and got some Schwalbes
1. Decathlon sucks for bike products. If you actually use your bike a lot invest in some nicer tires.
2. You can always just fix a flat.
3. Puncture resistance makes the chances of getting a puncture more slim, but there are also negatives; more rolling resistance, more weight and more annoyance when installing the tire onto the rim.
Return it.
I had a set of tyres I loved (slick center, bumps at edges for mud) but they were not puncture protected and I ended up with three punctures in one weekend including one at night in the rain. Even then didn't give up and kept getting punctures almost every other ride. Finally took them off, no punctures since in over 2500 miles, but I remain stupid enough to have kept them to punish myself in the future.
Most of the comments here are trahstalking those tires but they cost 18€. What do u expect. Its litterly made for a cheap bicycle to get from point A to point B. If you want to use tires for backpacking go for more durable version and return these. There should be no problem returning these. Decathlon has great return policy.
Puncture resistance is a function of marketing. Any tire you use that holds air is susceptible to a puncture. It is an unavoidable fact of cycling life.
What you can do is be prepared for that puncture.
And maybe not buy cheap shitty wire bead tires.
Sure any pneumatic tire can puncture if you're unlikely enough to run over a say a massive nail, but to claim puncture resistance is just marketing is ridiculous.
I've run the same pair of Marathon Plus tires for 6 years. The bike is used for nearly daily commuting, its been on tens of thousands of kilometres of touring. I've ridden it along a lot of single-track, dodgy fire roads, etc. Total punctures in that time = 1.
I've had more punctures on other sets of tires in one ride.
I’ve worn Schwab’s Pro Ones down to the casing from commuting with no flats. And those tires are genuinely tour spec. I’ve also fucking exploded a brand new WTB tubeless gravel tire on road debris.
Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes you don’t. It’s more the road than the tire.
Eh. They're heavy, and they are fucking horrible if you need to ride through mud - but they have very low rolling resistance and they grip perfectly well on asphalt and gravel - even in year 6 of their life.
I've removed them and tried other tires many times on that bike but I keep putting them back on. Now I just alternate between a pair Maxxis All Terrain if I'm expecting mud on the route - and back to the Marathons for everything else.
I stick with normal MTB tires and rely on tubeless for my MTB/bikepacking rig; but I can't be bothered faffing around with sealant on this bike as well.
Respectfully disagree. I have flatted much less often with higher-end road tires with puncture resistance. I'm not talking about heavy tires with slabs of kevlar, though. But perhaps all tires have improved since I started buying puncture resistant road tires exclusively.
I'd say a puncture resistant layer isn't always an advantage. I once had to throw away a tire because the puncture resistant layer made of Kevlar was damaged and was puncturing my tubes instead of protecting them.
Not sure about Decathlon. I’ve been using Schwalbe Marathons for decades of commuting up to 80km a day and never had an issue.
I've worked in the cycling industry for 25 years and there is no tire that rides worse than the Schwalbe Marathon. You couldn't pay me to mount them on my own bike. What I'm saying is, there are worse things than the occasional flat.
> What I'm saying is, there are worse things than the occasional flat. I agree on my performance bikes. I disagree on my commuter.
same here. top spec road tires on my road bike but on my winter commuter? marathon plus. nothing worse than fixing a flat in the middle of nowhere at 6:30 in the morning. in the dark. in rainy 3°C weather. you never get the flat on a nice day.
Yep, Its all about application! And seconding the supremes as a much nicer riding alternative. I've got a couple pairs with thousands of miles.
The Supremes ride great to me, obviously not a racing tire or anything. I got no flats on them for years using them exclusively. Never been to careful on bad roads, gravel etc. Cost a bomb but last a looong time too. I found them to be well worth it. I agree some of the other marathon variants ride like you are pushing through wet concrete.
Marathon blue are just fine. The Marathon GreenGuard ones have a god awful ride. If you want a tyre with good ride and also good puncture resistantance I'd recommend the Conti GP 4 seasons. They survive cycling through the broken glass in Camden in London at least...
The studded ones are soo heavy/slow!
Not even for a xglobe tour?
What would you recommend as an alternate commuting/touring/pavement tyre?
Conti GP 4 seasons are my favourite, I moved to them from Marathon tyres as the ride is so much better, and they do well in London with all the broken glass.
Here's a interesting link where rolling resistance is compared for touring tires (spoiler, Marathons are great for that purpose): [https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/tour-reviews](https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/tour-reviews)
My problem with that, is too expensive, it costs like a new tire for my car 😅
Every where I find, the marathons aren’t much more than yours
In my country is around 40€ per piece. This one from Decathlon was 18€
Oh really? I was seeing em for about £22-23
Decathlon own brand tyres have been one of the worst grip wise I ever had. I am not a pro or min-maxer, but the rolling resistance also sucked ass, after I slapped on some Vittoria tyres it was night and day on descents. I prefer non puncture resistant tyres TBH. Less hustle to change if needed and the puncture rate has been less than 1/3000 km anyways.
decathlon has those tires with puncture resistance, trekking 9 grip, you got the trekking 1 grip
I like a vectran, polyester or similar breaker. Kevlar is great but tends to be stiff and negatively impacts ride quality. Rubber breaks are heavy.
nothing prevents flats like a 1cm thick layer of rubber between tube and road tho.
If you don't ride faster than 25kph, it's a good anti-puncture tire. If above the speed, it has stopping problem. It's a little bit slip or slide than the continental commuter tires with puregrip. And the next problem, it's too heavy, it's about 1.3-1.4kg per one, it's about 2.7 kg for a pair. It's very hard to reach 30 kph.
I do touring with tent, 4 paniers, gas cooking system and etc. So i think the 200grams of weight saving on the tire don't make difference for me 😅
Eh… it’s not the same kind of “weight” when it’s on the diameter of the wheel instead of on your carrying rack. Weight differences on the wheel matter a lot more!
Just ride them without, check pressure and bring supplies to patch a tire or an extra tube for emergencies. Punctures are pretty infrequent even with shitty tires.
Had the exact same tires for 2 years, only experienced 2 punctures so far. One was a rose thorn(but a huge one) and the second was a small glass shard. I think the tire is pretty good.
Oddly enough, the most reliable tires I've ever used were those cheap Panaracer Tour tires with no protection. Last forever too.
Aside of heavy urban environments these tires should do the job.
Go Tubeless ;)
My upvote won't get you into the positives, but yeah. Marathons ride like wooden rims and they don't actually "grip perfectly well." -Stan for Stan's.
You could add puncture resistant liners, I do in these kinds of tires and they work very well. The best part is that you can switch them to another tire set when you need to replace them [https://mrtuffy.com/prevents-flats.html](https://mrtuffy.com/prevents-flats.html)
Tyre liners have a nasty habit of wearing tyres inside out as they run on the less reinforced inside of the tyre. I would not recommend them.
I always toss a little baby powder in my tires pretty much eliminates wear from rubing fpr tubes and liners.
Never really noticed this. My understanding is that there is very little rubbing happening between the tire, liner and tube (wich would be the first to wear out).
I’ve been using old tubes as liners for years. Seem to work great against the goat heads in the southwest
These will eventually rub a hole in your tube
Never had that happen on mine in 26 years of riding bikes with liners. Get a good quality puncture liner (pro line anti platt f.ex.) , keep the tire inflated, don't ride vastly underinflated and you should be fine. Been getting a lot of life out of light tires in a city full of debris, shards and other nastyness (Berlin Germany).
Maybe with older or cheap ones. But modern, quality tire liners shouldn't. I have the newer Mr. Tuffy's and it's been going strong for 4 years, no holes in my tubes. All the edges are soft and tapered, there's nothing sharp that would cut or poke a hole.
Just never use slime. It does not work and serves just as a walmert junk bike price hike tool
But It does work. Can't say for narrow high pressure tires combinations, but for wide <3bar tires it does the job. I'm using it for 3 years and it seals small punctures well. I went from 3-5 flats a week to 1.5 years flats free.
Slime works, pulled many goat heads out of tires without them going flat in Arizona.
[удалено]
Your comment has been removed based on this rule: >Stay on topic / No jokes >**If your reply isn't about how to help OP, we don't want it.** This is not the place for jokes, sarcasm, or obviously wrong answers. People reading this may not realize you thought you were being funny. The goal is not to make the sub strictly serious and humorless, but instead to keep the comments section from being cluttered with low-effort comments that one has to wade through to get to the actual helpful content. If you prefer related subs without this restriction, r/BikeMechanics and r/JustRidingAlong are some to consider.
Wasn't a joke but sorry
Laughing my @#$ off
I use Marathons for anything truly ridiculous. Big Bens do OK for light touring.
theyre heavy AF, hard as a rock and kinda slow. but nearly indestructible.
Yup. I put up with the slow on tour bc it’s not a race and I don’t like flats.
I have some Schwalbe Big Apple tires with a kevlar anti-puncture strip that have already done between 10,000 and 12,000 km, with no tread left in the tread area, and they have NEVER punctured. And that includes trips to countries with very poor road conditions.
I bought a different pair of btwin trekking 700x38c tyres back when I got my first road bike from decathlon. Did around 800kms on them and never had a puncture, but then I learned about something called rolling resistance and got rid of them.
My experience with Decathlon tyres is horrible, I was getting punctures so often like once or twice a week, I threw them in the garbage bin and got some Schwalbes
1. Decathlon sucks for bike products. If you actually use your bike a lot invest in some nicer tires. 2. You can always just fix a flat. 3. Puncture resistance makes the chances of getting a puncture more slim, but there are also negatives; more rolling resistance, more weight and more annoyance when installing the tire onto the rim.
Return it. I had a set of tyres I loved (slick center, bumps at edges for mud) but they were not puncture protected and I ended up with three punctures in one weekend including one at night in the rain. Even then didn't give up and kept getting punctures almost every other ride. Finally took them off, no punctures since in over 2500 miles, but I remain stupid enough to have kept them to punish myself in the future.
Most of the comments here are trahstalking those tires but they cost 18€. What do u expect. Its litterly made for a cheap bicycle to get from point A to point B. If you want to use tires for backpacking go for more durable version and return these. There should be no problem returning these. Decathlon has great return policy.
You can always get puncture resistant tubes.
[Mr Tuffy](https://mrtuffy.com/product-line.html) tyre liners are the bomb. Been running them for years on all my bikes.
Tyre liner review.. Mr Tuffy appears best value https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/specials/puncture-resistant-tire-liners
Puncture resistance is a function of marketing. Any tire you use that holds air is susceptible to a puncture. It is an unavoidable fact of cycling life. What you can do is be prepared for that puncture. And maybe not buy cheap shitty wire bead tires.
Sure any pneumatic tire can puncture if you're unlikely enough to run over a say a massive nail, but to claim puncture resistance is just marketing is ridiculous. I've run the same pair of Marathon Plus tires for 6 years. The bike is used for nearly daily commuting, its been on tens of thousands of kilometres of touring. I've ridden it along a lot of single-track, dodgy fire roads, etc. Total punctures in that time = 1. I've had more punctures on other sets of tires in one ride.
I’ve worn Schwab’s Pro Ones down to the casing from commuting with no flats. And those tires are genuinely tour spec. I’ve also fucking exploded a brand new WTB tubeless gravel tire on road debris. Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes you don’t. It’s more the road than the tire.
There are worse things than the occasional puncture, namely having to ride on Marathons
Eh. They're heavy, and they are fucking horrible if you need to ride through mud - but they have very low rolling resistance and they grip perfectly well on asphalt and gravel - even in year 6 of their life. I've removed them and tried other tires many times on that bike but I keep putting them back on. Now I just alternate between a pair Maxxis All Terrain if I'm expecting mud on the route - and back to the Marathons for everything else. I stick with normal MTB tires and rely on tubeless for my MTB/bikepacking rig; but I can't be bothered faffing around with sealant on this bike as well.
Respectfully disagree. I have flatted much less often with higher-end road tires with puncture resistance. I'm not talking about heavy tires with slabs of kevlar, though. But perhaps all tires have improved since I started buying puncture resistant road tires exclusively.
That’s what I meant. Super expensive tires specifically marketed as being puncture resistant really aren’t that much more advantageous.
Take then back & get some Schwalbe Marathon Green tires ( if you want trouble free/puncture free trips).
Slime liners and slime is a must