26” MTB tyres

[Copperjacket]

I’m a great fan of Halo twin rail tyres which have a large volume to provide a degree of cushioning coupled with the ability to be inflated to road bike type pressures. As the name implies they have an ideal tread pattern for on road and “soft road “ usage. I run them in identical circumstances to you.

 

[Copperjacket]

Happy to measure the inflated width for you.

 

[foxwelljsly]

I don't know if you can still get it in 26x2.0, but the Continental Double Fighter is an excellent tyre for both light trails and road. A pair of those did me for the full length of the Leh to Manali Highway.

edit: turns out you can

 

[Tony L]

I have Marathons on the ebike hybrid but they lack feel.

Happy to measure the inflated width for you.

If they are Marathon Plus MTB 26” x 2.1” like these (Wiggle) then yes please, that would be very useful. Height above the rim might be useful too.

 

[Tony L]

If puncture prevention is a major consideration then Marathon Plus is still the way to go - like you I've never had a puncture with them. The downside of course is that they are heavy and unresponsive.

Agreed. For clarity I don’t like the Marathons much at all. I previously (on another bike) had a set of Continental road/canal path type tyres which were much lighter and much grippier, but they kept puncturing so I bought the Marathons as you can literally run over thumb tacks with them, which is surprisingly useful in greater Manchester. I actually had to recalibrate my riding as there were some wet cobbled areas of the canal path (over-flow areas) that are basically really uneven cobbles under anything from no to about 4” of water. I could take them with ease previously, but the Marathons Plus Tour just slip and I ended up on my arse one time. They feel heavy too. That said I’d take that over a puncture as I don’t have any intention of doing roadside repairs (I have security skewers etc, the key is at home), so if I do get a puncture it is a train or taxi back. The Marathons really are amazing in this respect.

That said if I am really changing the usage to local shopping and canal path runs then I may be able to rethink this as there is a train station at pretty much 5 mile intervals on my usual run, i.e. I can’t really be more than 2.5 mile walk away which given I don’t use SPD clips or similar and just cycle in trainers is no huge deal. It was more a concern when I was doing long road runs in the opposite direction.

I need to think about this as I’d love to really optimise this bike for the canal paths and maybe even the MTB Marathons would be too heavy and hard. These canal paths are not clean though, there’s a load of broken bottles and other stuff dumped at fairly regular intervals, even when I get right up to the nice end (Hebden Bridge etc).

 

[sean99]

I find that 90% of my punctures are on the rear tire, so on my winter road bikes I run gatorskins on the rear and ultra-sports on the front. This gives a decent balance of puncture protection, road feel and cost (the ultra sports are a great, inexpensive road tire, just prone to punctures). I think the theory is that debris lies flat until the front wheel kicks it up, and then it punctures the rear.
Perhaps you could do the same ? Put a marathon on the rear and something lower weight and rolling resistance on the front ?

The only situation I can remember in which I punctured front and rear was when I was living in the UK and the farmers / local council had just pruned the hawthorn hedges, helpfully leaving the bridleway strewn with thorns. I think the only solution in that situation is probably tubeless.

 

[Paul L]

Nice bike Tony. On my 2010 Whyte 901 I have always used Panaracer Fire XC Pro 2.1 as an all rounder. No problem if those get shot down in flames here as I’m no MTB expert and will lean from replies what I should go for next instead!

 

[SteveG]

I have Marathon Pluses on my tourer and it's great for that as I'm not really bothered about the weight etc. on that bike. I wouldn't use them on my mountain bikes though, especially as where I do my riding we don't get a lot of thorns or broken glass so punctures are very infrequent anyway. Having said that the one and only time I did do a ride along one of the canal paths in Yorkshire I got 3 punctures on the one ride - from thorns. I had a couple of spare tubes and a puncture repair kit so it wasn't a major issue - just a bit of a pain.

 

[SteveG]

Nice bike Tony. On my 2010 Whyte 901 I have always used Panaracer Fire XC Pro 2.1 as an all rounder. No problem if those get shot down in flames here as I’m no MTB expert and will lean from replies what I should go for next instead!

I used to use Fire XC Pro's back in the day and I recall them being ok, although I've since moved to mostly Specialised and Continental tyres for mountain bikes in recent years (and for road bikes as well). I seem to recall there was also a very narrow XC Pro fitment (1.5" maybe) that was decent in muddy conditions.

 

[JezmondTutu]

I find that 90% of my punctures are on the rear tire, so on my winter road bikes I run gatorskins on the rear and ultra-sports on the front. This gives a decent balance of puncture protection, road feel and cost (the ultra sports are a great, inexpensive road tire, just prone to punctures). I think the theory is that debris lies flat until the front wheel kicks it up, and then it punctures the rear.
Perhaps you could do the same ? Put a marathon on the rear and something lower weight and rolling resistance on the front ?

The only situation I can remember in which I punctured front and rear was when I was living in the UK and the farmers / local council had just pruned the hawthorn hedges, helpfully leaving the bridleway strewn with thorns. I think the only solution in that situation is probably tubeless.

Gaitorskins have dreadful cold weather grip though, especially hard shells. I’d sooner run GP5000’s and have a couple of punctures a year (which has been the case). Four Seasons probably the best allrounder.

 

[stevec67]

I find that 90% of my punctures are on the rear tire, so on my winter road bikes I run gatorskins on the rear and ultra-sports on the front. This gives a decent balance of puncture protection, road feel and cost (the ultra sports are a great, inexpensive road tire, just prone to punctures). I think the theory is that debris lies flat until the front wheel kicks it up, and then it punctures the rear.
Perhaps you could do the same ? Put a marathon on the rear and something lower weight and rolling resistance on the front ?

The only situation I can remember in which I punctured front and rear was when I was living in the UK and the farmers / local council had just pruned the hawthorn hedges, helpfully leaving the bridleway strewn with thorns. I think the only solution in that situation is probably tubeless.

Simpler explanation for rear punctures. Weight. One end holds up your arms, the other your fat arse.

 

[Tony L]

Simpler explanation for rear punctures. Weight. One end holds up your arms, the other your fat arse.

Plus you are putting all the power down via the rear tyre. The front is just rolling.

 

[sean99]

Simpler explanation for rear punctures. Weight. One end holds up your arms, the other your fat arse.

I don't think so - weight distribution is about 40/60 - not sufficiently different to explain the large number of punctures.

 

[SteveG]

Gaitorskins have dreadful cold weather grip though, especially hard shells. I’d sooner run GP5000’s and have a couple of punctures a year (which has been the case). Four Seasons probably the best allrounder.

I also prefer to run GP5000's all year on my road bikes. While I do get the occasional puncture I find that if I ensure the tyre pressures are correct then I really don't get many punctures no matter what tyres I'm using on the road.

 

[Tony L]

I don't think so - weight distribution is about 40/60 - not sufficiently different to explain the large number of punctures.

It is the drive aspect. The font wheel rolls over things, the rear wheel is ground into them as it is propelling the bike forward.

PS It appears the same on cars too, e.g. front-wheel drive wear the front tyres hardest, rear-wheel drive the rears.

 

[SteveG]

I'm not sure what ratio of punctures I get front v rear, although I do know that front ones on the road can be scarier. This is one I had on the road bike a few years ago when the front blew out suddenly - fortunately I wasn't going fast at the time although a few minutes earlier I was going down a steep hill at 40mph or so!

 

[sean99]

Gaitorskins have dreadful cold weather grip though, especially hard shells. I’d sooner run GP5000’s and have a couple of punctures a year (which has been the case). Four Seasons probably the best allrounder.

I ride down to about -10C and I've never had a problem unless I hit ice, in which case nothing short of studded tires will help (have those on an old MTB for commuting). I don't run the gatorskins on the front, though - I run ultrasports.
GP4000/5000 are noticeably nicer to ride than gatorskin / ultrasports, but fixing a flat below -5C is no fun at all.

 

[markt]

Been using marathon plus 26x2.0" for six years now (the same one set on an occasional use bike!) and unsurprisingly agree with all the above.

However.

They do have what might be the thickest, seemingly toughest and very rigid sidewalls.

This makes them roll great, but also as uncomfortable as an early nineties aluminium framed bike on 100psi road tires!

Here's a thing, because the sidewalls are so inflexible, you can let some air out, quite a lot actually, before it makes the handling a bit weird on the front tire. I have been out on as little as 25psi so quite bouncy but still no real rolling problems, the pesky things are now quite nice to ride on if you like the gyroscope effect : ) still no feedback feeling though.

Just saying.

ps. Marathon Plus is a tall tire relative to others of the same width.

 

[stevec67]

I've had Marathons on a hire bike. They are the most wooden, leaden-handling tyre I've ever encountered, even more so than a heavy MTB tyre on road. That's the price for puncture protection. I've ridden all sorts, all over, but Marathons manage to suck the joy out of any surface, any terrain.

 

[gavreid]

I can't ride anymore so I'm quite of touch but SJS is/was very good for older spec wheels, rims and tyres. It's the modern. 'metric' number that you need (as you probably know) to match rather than 26 inch - for example, 559 in this link. The different manufacturers can be a bit tricksy with this...

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/tyres-26-559-rigid/