Hi,

Has anyone got any experience of these tyres?

http://www.thesolidtyre.com/

We are doing Lejog soon and my friend wants to run these but they are an unknown to us.

Thanks

God no. I can’t imagine a more awful way of doing lejog.

I’ve ridden 3000 miles across the continent without a puncture on good rolling continental tyres. A puncture wouldn’t have been a tragedy.

I did lejog with a mate. One puncture between us.

Tell him not to overthink it.

Doing LEJOG in September and I’d prefer to have a puncture every day rather than ride these things!

If puncture prevention is an essential how about tubeless with some sealant?

Get some Conti sport contacts or Schwalbe marathon – punctures won’t be an issue. The Vittoria Hypers on PX are a great, fast rolling option too, but a little lighter weight.

There’s a reason nobody uses solid tyres!

I’ve ridden around 200 miles on them and they were surprisingly good. They lacked grip, but quite comfy. Would be good for trouble free commuting, but I’d not do lejog on them.

Never tried them but a mate put them on his road bike for commuting. He said they are awful, uncomfortable and lacking grip.

Tried them on a mate’s fixie – felt like a very high pressure road tyre but less grip.

I’d say a tougher, larger volume tyre (tubeless if possible) would be a better bet.

If you’re really concerned about punctures I’d go for Schwalbe Marathon Plus. 10 000km around central London and no punctures for me.

The Marathon Supremes are good too. A bit more puncture-prone but a lot faster.

Durano Pluses would be my recommendation. Fast rolling, racy looking, and pretty much as puncture proof as the Marathon Pluses.

Out of interest how much do the solid ones weigh?

They say the 32mm ones are equivalent to 100psi, that’s just silly. I run my 32mm at more like half that.

Don’t do it they are crap. Harsh ride and slow. Joff Summerfieldn crazyguyonabike posted a review. Timed how long to slow from 15mph to 10mph when stopping pedaling. 6.5s for solid against 10s for Michelin. Not in the same ballpark.

As above Marathon Supremes are great. One puncture crossing the USA for me. A fraction slower than the Vittorai Hypers but thicker tread. Probably fewer punctures.

700×32 wired Marathon Supreme for £20 at Spa Cycles

http://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s142p3263/SCHWALBE-Marathon-Supreme-wired

Durano Pluses would be my recommendation

I have a barely used set of 25c’s doing nothing I the garage if you’re interested.

Is the grip on the Marathon Supreme’s better than Marathon Plus? I’ve had a few offs this year due to crap grip on wet brickwork on Birmingham canals.

Is the grip on the Marathon Supreme’s better than Marathon Plus?

The grip seems great to me. No issues. But then I don’t ride Birmingham brickwork.

I used them for about 3000 miles of commuting on the country lanes to and from work, got sick of the repetitive punctures in normal tyres.

one thing i would say is that they come with a “coating” this takes about 300 miles to come off, after that the grip greatly improves, until then grip is horrible (the coating has a slight metallic fleck to it).

So if your friend does buy them, tell him to wear them in first.

They are not perfect, it is a solid tyre after all, but they ride a lot better than you would think once worn in.

Postives:
Great for commuting as worry free, don’t have to carry tubes, pump, patch kit etc.
Ride like a hard pumped Gatorskin and better than something like a really heavy Marathon or similar.
After 3000 miles they didn’t have many signs of wear.

Negatives:
A right git to fit.
Grip rubbish for first 300-400 miles especially in the wet (watch painted lines)
As they are solid, they were fine for 28 mile each way commute, but if rides got much longer then you tend to tire more quickly as you feel more vibration through hands.

Thanks for the replies.

The rrp is around £50.

A 28c weighs about 430g. However, you don’t need inner tubes, rim tape, pump, etc.

My friend was planning on taking a decent pump, 3 inner tubes and patches. When you factor this in it is a pretty good weight saving.

He is running a rholoff with slotted drop outs so it’s not as easy as a normal bike to change the tyre. Also you have to remove the pannier racks.

He also has mtb rims so they have a maximum of 60psi. The solid tyres are the same as a 100psi tyre.

I run tubeless on mine and I’m a convert but I have to admit from a commuting perspective they look brilliant.

However, for a longer tour riding with people with normal tyres that roll better I’m not sure.

Anymore reviews?

He’s going to do a timed strava ride on both tyres and see what the real world difference is.

The vibration through the hands is interesting.

Thanks

A right git to fit.

yes, I read the instructions and watched the youtube videos, and then figured out that the best way is almost the opposite of how they have it.

I’ve got them on my commuting singlespeed as I am only using the canal path mostly, but I don’t like the compression sound of them on turning and they have slipped away from me a couple of times.

I’m in Woking Surrey if near and he wants to have a look at them.

I have marathons on my brompton and have had 1 puncture. It’s a convenience bike that gets ridden locally or for commuting. the hub gear makes changing the back wheel a bit of a pain. I like the idea of the Tannus tyres for it, might switch when I wear out the marathons

32c tubeless road tyres at 65psi. No punctures in 14700km of commuting…

I think they are perfect commuting tyres for distances under 15 miles or thereabouts, especially on singlespeed where taking wheels off can be more of a git. They are better than i expected them to be and come closest to be like a regular tyre and the rolling resistance is actually pretty good to. But despite them having quite a bit of give, they were tiring on longer rides

Wasn’t there a company called Green Tyres once who did the same thing. Problems came when trying to get them on the wheel because there was no give and you couldn’t stretch them to get them on

My friend was planning on taking a decent pump, 3 inner tubes and patches. When you factor this in it is a pretty good weight saving

Rotational weight is A LOT more significant than static weight on your frame.

Like ALOT

Rotational weight is A LOT more significant than static weight on your frame.

Like ALOT

But Tannus tyres don’t actually weigh anymore than say a 28c Gatorskin, as you’ve no inner tube and not even a rim strip

The solid tyres arrived today. They feel plastic. I’m not sure I’d want to take a corner in the rain with them.

Interesting about how it wears after 300 miles and develops grip.

The worrying thing that’s been mentioned is the unforgivingness and fatigue. Not what you want on a long distance trip.

He’s got a set of marathons he’s currently running. Will try the solid tyres on a spare set of wheels just because we are intrigued. I’ll let you know what he thinks about them.

Thanks for your input.

A friend tried them, he found them so horrific he took them back, and to be fair Tannus gave him a refund. He found them really slow, horribly uncomfortable and disastrously grippy (didn’t make it to the 400 miles to see if they “wore in” admittedly).

He came from GP 4000s, which is never going to be a truly fair comparison, if you’re used to Marathons or something which is already like riding on concrete tyres it may be less pronounced.

I’ve been considering them for the Brompton when the Marathons wear out. My experience of Marathons and similar ‘puncture resistant’ tyres is that you’re really unlucky to get a puncture until they’ve done a lot of mileage and the tread gets lots of micro cuts.

The 100psi/60psi thing isn’t so relevant. Most people advise running wider road tyres (28mm) at 80psi anyway. What width of Marathons is he running?

New tyres for the trip would be my approach. Are his rims Tubeless compatible?

@disco stu, have you tried the standard marathons , do 4 days a week from bilston to smethwick along the mainline (including coseley tunnel slimey rutted cobblestone) and not had a spill yet or a puncture .now ive spoken i dare say ill end up in the cut on the way in to work tomorrow night 🙄

I also think they tramline on an available road feature they can, more than normal tyres anyway.

My friend was planning on taking a decent pump, 3 inner tubes and patches. When you factor this in it is a pretty good weight saving.

Really high rolling resistance is going to make far more difference than a few hundred grammes of weight.

With Green Tyres, they couldn’t grip the rim tightly enough because they were too hard to fit otherwise. A mate discovered that when water got between the rim and the tyre he could brake and the tyre would continue turning on a static rim! Led to some highly amusing moments for the rest of us.

Also when they wore they became square profiled 😆

the tannus fitting system is pretty solid – and takes a while and much cursing unless you are used to it and have strong hands…

They wouldn’t spin on the rims.

I’ve seen mixed reviews – some saying the drag is only similar to a training tyre.