marathon plus V supream

[jags]

just a general question lads more advice really.
i have a tour of ireland coming up in the next few weeks,
i was riding schwalble marathon plus on rear only which to be honest i dont like find it to heavy,  i now have the supream tyre on and find it much much better, but heres the thing ,i havent tried the supream  with loaded panniers so should i leave it on and take a chance, or put the marathon plus back on and carry the supream as a spare.
the supream really looks great rides much better and was supposed to be schwalbles supream touring tyre but i blew the side wall out when i rode over rough ground ,was i just unlucky.
so what say you all. supream or plus.?

[Danneaux]

Hi jags,

I don't know if this helps or not, but my Dutch friend used 26x2.0 Supremes for his fully-loaded round-trip tour from Rotterdam to Santiago de Compostela in Spain last year. He carried about 60-65lbs/27-29kg in four panniers, HB bag and rack-top load. The front tire made it the whole way and is still going strong a year later (and it started with a good bit of wear). The rear tire made it to about halfway through Spain when a large nail went through the casing. He patched it with a tube patch and it made it to Santiago and back about halfway through Spain before it died. At that point, he replaced it with two more cheap tires in quick succession (all that was available, and they failed quickly) before going for a Marathon (not Plus...just the plain old Marathon) and made it back home on that with no problems. It now lives on the front and he put the original front Supreme on the rear.

Why not pick up a folding Schwalbe of some sort to tuck in as a spare; no worries at all that way! They really don't weigh that much, and store pretty flat so they don't take up a lot of room in the bottom of a pannier.

Best,

Dan. (who *always* carries a spare folding tire on-tour; day-rides are the exception)

[martinf]

so what say you all. supream or plus.?

I used Supremes for my tour from Brittany to Spain/Portugal in October 2011 (about 3,300 kms). With 4 panniers, all-up weight was 123 kg at the start (I emptied the fridge and packed all the other perishable food before leaving home), but probably down to about 116 Kg by the time I got to the mountains, even less by the time I got back home, as I lost some body weight. Did some rocky tracks in the Picos de Europa, but most of the time I was on regular roads or fairly smooth dirt tracks.

No problems at all with the tyres, but I think I may have been lucky, as the Supremes are light and look as if they are designed purely for road use. I did think of carrying an extra Supreme as a spare, but decided I could probably get a serviceable 26" tyre of some kind fairly easily if I did get a tyre failure.

Supremes have quite a lot of tread for a light tyre, and the compound seems hard-wearing. The front tyre still has the moulding line down the centre after 6,200 kms, the rear has more wear but I reckon it will be good for at least 10,000 kms, if the carcass doesn't get damaged first.

Supremes roll better than any other 26" tyre I have used to date - certainly much easier than Marathon Plus - on flat rides I would reckon about 2 kph faster.

But if doing more off-roading I think I would either fit heavier tyres or carry a spare. 3 Supremes still weigh a lot less than 2 Marathon Plus

[jags]

thank's lads well then i'll leave the supream where it is,  i do have a spare tyre so i'll take it with me 
ok all i need now is for the weather gods to come out and have the craic in ireland for two weeks.
thanks lads.