Evening all
Did my first (mini) tour at the weekend and had a bit of a mishap with the one tyre,I had a blowout which resulted in the tyre coming off and ending up with a three inch gash in it. As luck happens,it was only two miles from the end of my ride,so no big problem.
So,can you recommend some 26 inch touring tyres please(I’m guessing tour tyres will be uprated to cope with the weight), and if possible I’d like them to be folding cos I thought I might carry a spare next time,or do you think that would be not necessary if I had the proper tyres anyway?

Cheers everyone

Mrs PP and I use Schwalbe City Jets. I can’t see why you’d need anything beefier for touring TBH. Mine have done about 1700 miles now and are getting a bit low but they aren’t puncturing so I’m carrying on with them. We tour with rear panniers and I tow a trailer with the camping gear in, I think my outfit is over the 150kg mark with me on it and we do do a few off road sections too. Works fine. 🙂

Something like this.
Our recent Castles and Coasts tour….

IMG_2169 by PeterPoddy, on Flickr

I use vittoria rubino pro slick folding mtb 26×1.5″ for high mileage commuting. not officially one of the most puncture proof tyres (marathons etc) but ive been using these and their road bike counterparts for a while now and rate them nonetheless. rated to 95psi, which on a 1.5 tyre should give decent load luggage potential. rolls fast. not the grippiest ever but long lasting. maybe get one as a spare? £17.99 on wiggle last time I looked – not too bad for a folding?

Schwalbe big apples are good, as are all the marathon range.

I pack a spare tyre when touring. On my cross bike (tourer) I can squeze a folding tyre zip tied under my rear rack, it also stops the mudguard rattling too. Continental Gatorskins, not touring tyres but have coped fine with light touring.

I really rate Specialized hemisphere armadillo. My wife and I did a 9000km tour and only had 6 punctures between us. They’re heavy, dead feeling and don’t fold, though. None were an issue for me with our pretty heavy loads, though.

Charlie,when you say the big apples are good,would that go for the fat franks as well? Because that’s what I had on there when I had my upset. If that’s the case,maybe I’ll just replace the knackered one and get a folding tyre as a spare.

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/schwalbe/delta-cruiser-puncture-protection-26-commuter-tyre-ec046056#features

Conti travel Contact?

schwalbe marathon supreme are great, I run them tubeless.

Panaracer Paselas. Did a month in Newfoundland fully loaded including a fair amount of dirt road and no punctures. Roll ok too, especially if you put 80 psi in them rather than the recommended 60.

Can’t go wrong with either Marathons or Travel Contacts.. I’ve commuted countless miles for years and remember just one puncture. They are both very durable and reliable no-nonsense tyres.

I’ve been running Continental Travel Contact on one of my bikes for about 2 years now. They’ve done probably over 2k miles, over all kinds of terrain. Had 3 punctures (two thorns, and one tiny piece of glass that must have worked its way in over time). Overall they’re excellent. Fast. Can handle the rough. And while they’re not looking as chunky as they once were, they still have loads of life in them. I was thinking about trying Marathon Plus next, just for the sake of it, to see what they’re like, but I’m reluctant to change.

Marathon plus are very very heavy, I used to use them to commute through the glass strewn streets of Widnes and Runcorn, where I was getting 3 or 4 punctures a week, I wouldn’t use them for anything else.

I bought some 26″ Marathon + for some gravel road touring but got a puncture just riding on the road. They are very heavy, roll slowly and were a bit of a wrestle to get on and off. The 700c Panaracer Paselas I bought in a similar emergency to the OP [ but a long way from home]have been no trouble whatsoever

Depending on what surfaces you ride on, you could have a look at schwalbe land cruisers. They’re sold as a trekking tyre, so as well as being tough and pretty smooth rolling, they’ve got a bit of bite if you stray off the tarmac much. Well, good for towpaths and the like, probably not for Hellvellyn.

+1 for the Panaracer Paselas

I’m a fan of Big Apples, two bikes for four weeks on rough french backroads with off road forays – no punctures. In fact I’m pretty sure we’ve never punctured one, since 2006. (although I’m strangely blessed in the puncture dept, which I could say the same about chains).

Not really keen on skinnier 26″ slicks for touring on a MTB. The aesthetics upset me but also you’re reducing the diameter of the wheel and losing your higher gearing on the flat/downhill as a result. But the more practical reason is…. the aesthetics upset me

I run Paselas as the default touring tyre for tandems and singles when on reasonable surfaces. They are half the weight of Marathons and feel very sprightly. I also use Marathons for commuting/rougher conditions (mainly 368’s from Spa) but have a pair of XR’s for real rough road/off road touring.

I did buy a Conti Touring Plus in extremis mid tour. It’s got about 2500 miles on it and apart from being tighter than a (insert inappropriate simile) to get on and off, it’s been fine. I also carry a folding spare on tour and have used it a couple of times.

Summary: good roads/sprightly touring = Paselas, crap roads/ultra reliable = Marathons

Another Travel Contact fan here…. they’re a bit heavy but pretty much bombproof. Bought some for both our bikes for a Hebridean tour 4 years ago and both sets are still going strong without a single puncture in all that time.

@ edlong. Funny enough,I removed land cruisers from the bike about six months ago to put on the fat franks,and then gave the land cruisers to a mate lol. This was before I decided to try touring,with hindsight I should have kept them.

I did LEJOG on Panaracer Paselas, and not a single puncture.

I’m a convert to Schwalbe Supremes on good roads, Marathon XRs off.