looking for some new tyres for some audax rides ihave planned and for general road based touring. always been a fan of schwalbe marathons. they do just last and work, but they seem very draggy as i age. also had a off recently turning into a right hand turn. hit the white line across the jucntion, rear whell went altogether and down i went. hurt my wrist and moreso my pride.
so 32mm or near, tough, good rolling tyres for a big bloke. any ideas appreciated.
The Marathon Efficiency is supposed to be quite a lot faster rolling now if i remember- I think it was a cycling uk review
GP5000 winter version roll well.
Conti 4 seasons are not that bad either .
The Effiency does look good, not used them.
I have used the Marathon Almotion for winter audax as well. Not fast rolling but robust and never wear out!
What wheel size?
I like Schwalbe Landcruiser Plus tyres. The 650b one currently on the front of my commuter has 5600+km on it with no punctures. That's it on the back of the bike in this blog post. I like them enough I've recently put the 26" model on my monstercross.
Spa Cycles have 700cc tyres in 35 and 40 width. At that price it'd be rude not to:
https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m14b0s252p3016/SCHWALBE-Land-Cruiser-Plus-HS450
Continental Contact in which ever flavour of tread pattern you prefer. I've had Marathons, it's like riding through soup. Hateful things.
I like the conti 4 season too, good all rounder. I'm looking to buy a set myself. Cheapest I can see is £47 a pop on Amazon though. If anyone sees them cheaper sound the alarm!
GP5000 winter version roll well.
Conti 4 seasons are not that bad either .
The Effiency does look good, not used them.
I have used the Marathon Almotion for winter audax as well. Not fast rolling but robust and never wear out!
Another vote for the GP 5000 AS - I was running the GP 5000 s which was amazing but punctured every 30 seconds. The all season version doesn't seem to be at all slower and so far hasn't had a puncture
I put some run of the mill touring tyres on my Sonder recently and after only a few miles felt like I was riding through treacle. The tyres coupled with heavy'ish tubes were something like 760g per wheel. I bought some Goodyear Vector 4 season tyres and some lighter tubes. So far so good....400g rather than 760g but it's not so much the weight as the overall livelier feel. They feel as good to me, as the GP5000. Half price at Tredz
Half price at Tredz
Tredz have a few good deals on tyres at the moment.
Marathons, much as everyone raves about them being bombproof, are also horrible and slow to ride on.
Especially with tubeless now, it's easy to get decent fast-rolling tyres that'll be fine for puncture resistance.
Schwalbe One (not the Pro One) are good for general durability, grip and rolling. They're marketed as Schwalbe's training / all condition tyre.
Continental Contact in which ever flavour of tread pattern you prefer. I've had Marathons, it's like riding through soup. Hateful things.
Stanrad Continental Contact are very good tyres - much softer sidewalls leads to much grippier and comfy ride. I also ran the Conti TOP contact which has thicker puncture resistance and slightly more rolling resistance.
Mrs_oab has a set of Continental Urban Contact which are noticeably 'whoosh' in speed. Silly name as they rock for touring / general road riding.
I've always rated the Continental Gatorskin (standard, not hardshell version) as a good all round road tyre that is reasonably cheap (for nowadays anyway). Head to the bicycle rolling resistance website to find out about, and compare, a myriad of different tyres
Another Schwalbe One (son of Durano) user here. They now do them in 365 flavour with tougher sidewalls for winter/heavier riders. I get north of 5k miles from mine and they're light and easy rolling.
Marathon Supremes are great, moved my 35/40mm set from the old commuter hybrid to my gravel ebike last summer, I have a 32mm in the spares box that might get fitted to one of my bikes this year. Think they got replaced by Marathon Efficiency.
GP5000s aren't bad, I had a 32mm fitted on the rear of my road bike. Hasn't punctured, but it looks like it is wearing quicker than the old GP4000SIIs.
GP4Seasons aren't bad, bit more puncture protection than GP4000 and GP5000, but crazy how these are now ~£55 each... My set were ~£55 total from Halfords in '18!
The brand I'm most likely to try this year are Hutchinson, namely the Caracal Race available in 40mm and 45mm flavour, to put on my ebike for reduced rolling resistance and so better battery efficiancy. The Blackbird, available in 32mm, uses similar compound. No idea if cheapest place, but ~£50 each...
Not tried them myself, but how about Terreno Mix for this job?
Mrs_oab has a set of Continental Urban Contact which are noticeably 'whoosh' in speed. Silly name as they rock for touring / general road riding.
That's what I have on my commuter at the moment. Rate them, but I've really liked the Contact Speed in the past. When I first used to get them from Wiggle they came bundled with an inner tube and a 1 year puncture proof guarantee. Now I don't think I'd have ever sent them back, but that demonstrates some confidence from Conti.
I've replaced worn out tread ones on multiple occasions that have the original inner tube in with no patches.
Mrs_oab has a set of Continental Urban Contact which are noticeably 'whoosh' in speed. Silly name as they rock for touring / general road riding.
Thanks for this recommendation, these look great for new commuter tyres for me.
I’ve got some gp 5000 as waiting to go in
Proper sturdy feeling tyres
I love the contis with the kevlar belt for puncture resistance. Marathons are made of mahogany and last for ever but have no grip. contis will wear quicker but grip really well
Vittoria Ride Armor TLR 32? https://int.vittoria.com/products/ridearmor-tubeless-ready
Been impressed by how quick the recent Vittoria graphene compound tyres feel. T50 and T30s are my gravel bike faves, Rubinos are good basic road tyres that feel better through corners than my Conti UltraSports and I heard great feedback on the RideArmors.
Disclaimer, I work for the Vittoria UK distributor which is how I got to ride a few and hear what people think but I have Maxxis, Vee and others on hand and plenty of other road and gravel tyres to use. Genuinely good tyres for rolling speed.
Continental Urban Contact
Rated, I have them on my Brompton and they're excellent vs the Kojaks I had before (which look faster but aren't). For an audax bike I think they could feel a bit weightier than a more road biased tyre.
The brand I'm most likely to try this year are Hutchinson, namely the Caracal Race available in 40mm and 45mm flavour,
I've seen testing that puts them right up there with the very lowest rolling resistance tyres for gravel surface riding.