Seeking Fatter Tyres Than 2 inch

[Slammin Sammy]

I'm planning a trip which will have significant off road work. I'm running 26x2 inch Duremes, which have been great, but I thought I'd look for something fatter with more aggressive tread for this trip.

I was eyeing off the Extremes, but I am wary about rideability after comments on this site. I also like the Mondials.

Any comments on either of these? Schwalbe seem to keep changing their Marathon range - it's doing my head in!

Thanks

[jags]

Sam a good tyre is a good tyre if u get me. ::the supreams i had on the sherpa were great but for the sidewall, but  getting punctures is just down to pure bad luck.as for grip on rough   paths i've no idea i  never use them smooth tarmac is my buzz no point in suffering when its enjoyment your after.
sorry buddy not much help there but sure u wouldn't take my advice anyway


anto

[Andre Jute]

Perhaps you should first try running your present 2in tyres at the minimum permitted pressure, see how you like that. The reason is that fatter tyes only make sense if you run them at lower pressure, and you won't gain much by going to 2.15in tyres (which I seem to recall is the max on some models of Thorn) unless you also lower the tyre pressure. What if you then don't like riding on softer tyres? Hardly worth spending the money first, before you can answer that question.

[JimK]

I had 2.15 in Almotion tires on my Nomad for a bit. It was quite snug squeezing those through the brake blocks. Any fatter than that & it would required deflating or some such.

Yeah the Marathon range gets quite bewildering! I have 47mm Racers on now, which are nice enough. How would they compare to the Marathon Deluxe? Egads!

But if you have a lot of off road, maybe something like the Smart Sam would be better?

[Danneaux]

But if you have a lot of off road, maybe something like the Smart Sam would be better?

Sam is plenty smart, and I have a feeling he does pretty well off-road also! 

I think the Smart Sams would be a good match.

All the best,

Dan. (...who couldn't resist, but probably should have)

[Slammin Sammy]

Aw shucks, Dan! 

You know, I've been restricting my search to the Marathon line, but JimK's suggestion of Smart Sams has merit! I was planning to use them on my MTB except for this trip anyway.

I've got a GT Avalanche 1 which is currently shorn with 2 inch Duremes. If the Smart SAMs work out, I'll just swap them back off the Nomad at the end of the trip, and keep that set of Duremes as spares. Thanks Jim!

Andre, I currently run my Duremes between 45 and 60, depending on surface and load. You're absolutely right that they'll be comfortable enough for the trip, but I'm seeking more floatation and traction. I'm planning a trip going coastal to Queensland, meaning I really want to hug the coast, so there will be a fair amount of sand dune and beach riding, but I will have to come inland to cross some of the many rivers in northern NSW.

The width of the tyres should not be a problem for the Nomad, although I may need to inflate them in position. My Magura HS33 brakes give me reasonable clearance, but I also have an Abus Amparo I'd like to keep on. I'll have to measure carefully.

Thanks guys!

[martinf]

I ran Duremes at about 30 front, 35 rear on survey work on the Ile de Ré last summer. I rode on a mix of good cycle tracks, tarmac roads, farmer's tracks, soft sandy tracks laboured by horses hooves and field edges.

Duremes were a good overall compromise, very nice on most surfaces except for soft sand, where I often had to push the bike.

Not sure that a tyre with agressive knobs would work all that much better on soft sand, a long time ago I tried riding knobbly 1.9" tyres on dune paths near my home, I still had to push the bike in some places.

Wider would be better for soft surfaces, but not sure that even 2.25 would work properly on really soft sand.

I did think about a fatbike, this should work well on soft surfaces but would be slower everywhere else, so I decided it wasn't worth the expense.

[Relayer]

I'm planning a trip which will have significant off road work. I'm running 26x2 inch Duremes, which have been great, but I thought I'd look for something fatter with more aggressive tread for this trip.

I was eyeing off the Extremes, but I am wary about rideability after comments on this site. I also like the Mondials.

Any comments on either of these? Schwalbe seem to keep changing their Marathon range - it's doing my head in!

Thanks

I have seen the comments on this site about Extremes and I have to say my experience of them is very different.  In the 2.25" variant I find them to be very capable tyres offroad which give enough grip to get me up steep soft grass slopes turning a 19" gear, and they also run surprisingly well on tarmac.

To put their performance into context I found that my MTB with 2.25" Extremes covered a 42 mile tarmac route with an average speed about 1 mph faster than my other flat bar bike with 1.6" Supremes. Broken down over the route the MTB with Extremes was faster on uphill and downhill sections, and about the same on the level sections. While both bikes had flat bars, there was a weight difference in favour of the MTB which helps on uphills, and no Rohloff drag on the MTB on the downhills.

At higher speeds on tarmac you do get some rumble from the Extremes (not as much as Nobby Nics of the same width), but between the sipes on the Supremes and a hub dynamo I experienced a lot of vibration through the bars at speeds of 20 mph and over on the other bike ... so no advantage with Supremes there either (although the dynamo could well be a factor in the vibration).

I have run 2.0" Duremes as well as the 2.25" Extremes on the same MTB, the Duremes feel as though they accelerate quicker and there is no rumble at higher speeds, but there is no significant difference in average speed over 40 mile rides.

IF you can get 2.25" Extremes into your frame and forks they will perform very well indeed.

Good luck with your trip.

Jim

[Slammin Sammy]

Thanks, Jim and Martin!

I've asked my mate with the LBS to get me in some Smart Sams to try. I'm also hunting around for some 2.25" folding Extremes in Australia, but no luck so far. Last I looked, SJS had some in stock, but the postage to Australia was prohibitive. (I don't understand how some companies can ship from the UK with low or no postage, and SJS wants £37 to ship 2 folding tyres!  )

[jags]

Sam did you look on chainreaction  free postage.

[Andre Jute]

(I don't understand how some companies can ship from the UK with low or no postage, and SJS wants £37 to ship 2 folding tyres!  )

SJS, dealing with the elite, probably has too small a mailorder trade to cut a deal with Fedex or UPS or DHL or TNT. Whereas Chainreactioncycles, which deals with the hoi polloi (Jags and I use shop with them often precisely for their free delivery), is the largest mailorder bicycle component store in the world. They cut a volume deal with a courier, for sure. I doubt that their delivery is truly free, but their prices are very good anyway. The problem with them is that they deal with other parts of the cycling spectrum, not with parts of interest to tourers, which is probably too small a market for them to get a grip on, so often they don't have the sort of parts tourers want. Swings and roundabouts. They give you a year to make returns, and their service is superb.

[mickeg]

I do not know which bike you have.  

I have run 2.0 (or 50mm) width Dureme on front and 2.0 width Extreme on back on my Sherpa.  I think a 2.25 (or 57mm) width Extreme on front of the Sherpa would not have much clearance at the fork crown if you run fenders.  So, if you have a Sherpa, be forewarned.

I however find that the 2.25 (or 57mm) width Extremes on both front and rear of my Nomad Mk II to be great.  I am not sure what the complaints were, but I can say that the tires roll very nicely, they do not feel slow at all.  They are quite supple compared to what I would have expected for that tread.  But they are very noisy on pavement.  (The 2.0 width Extreme on my Sherpa are also noisy on pavement.)

If I recall correctly, I think Andy Blance commented in a Thorn brochure that the 57mm width Extreme tended to roll out from under the Andra 30 rim at low pressure in corners.  I think Andy suggested a thick wall inner tube to reduce the potential for that.  I have not had this problem myself and I have the Andra 30 rims on my Nomad.  But I was surprised when I received the Andra 30 rims, as they were narrower than I expected for an "expedition" rim.  Perhaps Andy is more aggressive in cornering than I am?  I am running Salsa Gordo rims on my Sherpa, they are a wider rim and I think a wider rim like that would handle a 2.25 inch wide tire better than the Andra 30.  If the complaints you cite are the rolling out from under the rim at low pressure on an Andra 30 on cornering - that would likely be a problem with any wide supple tire, not just the Extremes.

The Extremes have been discontinued for a while now, but I bought two more a few months ago when I found someone had them at a very good sale price.  I like them a lot, that is why I bought two more to keep in storage for when I might need them.  And at the rate I am wearing out tires, it will be many years before I need them.

My Nomad Mk II with the 57mm wide Extremes in the photo.   For this trip, I was using an suspension fork and a suspension seatpost, it was a vehicle supported trip where a 4X4 truck hauled our food, water and camping gear for a four day off-road adventure, everyone else in the group of ten used a full suspension mountain bike, but I wanted to find out how my Nomad would handle such conditions, thus that is the bike I used on that trip.

[John Saxby]

Sam, I'd echo the reference by jags and Andre to Chainreaction Cycles.  I've also found Wiggle in UK to be good on service and prices.  I'd also suggest looking at a German supplier (or two?) for Schwalbe tires.  I've found starbike.com to be very good on Schwalbes, as well as on rims and hubs.  They do charge for postage, but the combination of low initial prices and the removal of the VAT usually makes for a reasonable final cost, esp on larger orders.

[jags]

i must check that site out thanks for the heads up John.

jags.

[jags]

good price for this bartape.
http://www.starbike.com/p/Lizard-Skins-DSP-bar-tape-3.2-mm-5430-en#