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I've been looking for a decent, reasonably light, mixed use tyre for some on and off road riding and thought that I'd try out Schwalbe's [url= http://www.schwalbetires.com/marathon_extreme ]Marathon Extreme[/url]. Its quoted weight is 570g (although on my scales they come out 50g heavier) which seems reasonable, and they're listed as 'easy rolling'. For some reason though I'm finding them really heavy going and really hard work (especially climbing) compared to my usual tyres. I've never really understood what affects rolling resistance but apparently high grip tyres (and the Schwalbes are meant to be particularly grippy) do increase rolling resistance, so maybe this is an issue.
I was wondering whether anyone else had tried these tyres and what they thought of them. In all other respects they seem fantastic tyres but I'm just not enjoying riding them, everything just feels sluggish and hard work. What other options are there out they for on/off road use?
Yes.
Did 10,000 miles on my last pair.
They are heavy, but I was using them for touring and was carrying 40kg of luggage, so a few extra grams didn't make any difference.
Superb tyre for road/gravel road touring and a bit of light and dry mountain biking. Hard wearing too, but if you're not carting around luggage, go for something else.
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used them for off road trips in Iceland over three years then donated them to daughters bike at uni in Birmingham (can't have children getting punctures in a strange town) Perished after six years in total but no punctures and replaced like for like last year when said daughter started her masters. Would recommend highly if puncture resistance a priority but otherwise a bit heavy. Am planning 6 month trip in three years to North Cape and intend to fit them again for that.
Did a few thousand miles on road with them last year and, like others above, no punctures. Get them at 80psi on road and they roll OK.
They're made for abuse and weight - if you're not an animal and avoid the pies I'd go for gators or similar.