semislicks

Nick Drew said:

Oh, forgot to ask - what's the puncture resistance like on skinny slicks
like these? I'm guessing you have to have them pumped up pretty hard,
particularly if you're going over any kerbs?

No punctures to date. Pumped up hard and I DON'T DO KERBS. I use the shared
use facility, the one you share with other vehicular traffic. That's right,
the road..

...d

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 05:57:01 GMT, Gawnsoft wrote (more or less):
....

Quoted message said:

I also decided to finally get a new rear tyre - I was persuaded by the
shop staff to get a Schwalbe Marathon XR rather than the Schwalbe
Marathon.

(It's got an extra blue foam layer inside, around the main contact
patch path to help prevent punctures)

Anyone have any experience of them? Comments?

Are they useful? Much more effort to pedal? Worth the extra 4 quid?

Well, I've finally found a) the Schwalbe web site (A Google turns up
loads of folk /selling/ the tyres, but not the manufacturer's web site
anywhere near the top and b) the tyre bits on the site.

The good news is - the blue stuff makes /no/ difference to the rolling
resistance.

It's a pure money vs. puncture resistance trade-off.

The bad news is that the tyre I was shown, and that I now know I want
out of the Schwalbe range, is the 'Marathon Plus'.

So I hope they don't fit 'Marathon XR' by mistake.

....
--
Cheers,
Euan
Gawnsoft: http://www.gawnsoft.co.sr
Symbian/Epoc wiki: http://html.dnsalias.net:1122
Smalltalk links (harvested from comp.lang.smalltalk) http://html.dnsalias.net/gawnsoft/smalltalk

In article said:

Quoted message said:

Are they useful? Much more effort to pedal? Worth the extra 4 quid?

Well, I've finally found a) the Schwalbe web site (A Google turns up
loads of folk /selling/ the tyres, but not the manufacturer's web site
anywhere near the top and b) the tyre bits on the site.

The good news is - the blue stuff makes /no/ difference to the rolling
resistance.

It's a pure money vs. puncture resistance trade-off.

There is a small weight penalty. (I have some, but haven't used them
long enough to comment on how well they work beyond "fine so far".)

Quoted message said:

Mark van Gorkom said:

It's been quite a while since I last used City Jets, so they may have
improved no end, but mine where very puncture-prone.

I think you must have been riding over some peculiar stuff to get loads of
punctures with them. My brother's been using them for a couple of years
or so without a single puncture -- albeit not for huge mileages but enough
to discover a problem if they were particularly puncture prone. There's
quite a fair depth of rubber for objects to penetrate.

Just ordinary roads and cycle lanes mostly, but I rode a trike at the
time, and it's very hard to miss any road debris on a three-track
vehicle. But I still think I wouldn't have had weekly punctures with
Schwalbe Marathons or Vredestein S-licks.

Mark van Gorkom.

"Skunk" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Pete recommended those tyres to me earlier in the week. I bought a pair
from wiggle - 24 hour delivery time. I fitted them Friday night, and
cycled 80 miles on my trek mountain bike to see my dad saturday
morning. I have only ever done 50 miles before and wanted the road
tyres on to make sure I got up the steeper hills and to generally take
some of the effort out. The tyres were fine so cheers for that. I am
gonna fit some bar ends next week, any ideas, Pete? ;-)

hmmm... been checking out some reviews of the city jets, and the consensus
appears to be that they're an absolute b0gger to fit and seat. Have you
found this? I was hoping (half heartedly) for a set of tyres that I could
swap over to knobblies at weekends, and back to slicks during the week.

Cheers
Nick

Nick Drew said:

hmmm... been checking out some reviews of the city jets, and the
consensus appears to be that they're an absolute b0gger to fit and
seat. Have you found this? I was hoping (half heartedly) for a set of
tyres that I could swap over to knobblies at weekends, and back to
slicks during the week.

They're not ridiculously tight on the rims I've fitted them to (including
X618). You'll probably be able to fit a pair in five mins once you've got
the knack (and good tyre levers if you do need levers*). Seating could be
better but they end up round enough.

* It is generally best to avoid using levers to fit tyres but you can do
so with damaging anything if careful.

~PB

Quoted message said:

They're not ridiculously tight on the rims I've fitted them to (including
X618). You'll probably be able to fit a pair in five mins once you've got
the knack (and good tyre levers if you do need levers*). Seating could be
better but they end up round enough.

* It is generally best to avoid using levers to fit tyres but you can do
so with damaging anything if careful.

hmmm.... I'm guessing you meant with*out* damaging anything? Unless you're a
teenage vandal, of course 😉

I'd never really heard that about tyre levers tho. I guess it does make
sense, but the plastic levers you usually find tend to break before damaging
the rim.

Cheers
Nick

Nick Drew said:

Quoted message said:

They're not ridiculously tight on the rims I've fitted them to
(including X618). You'll probably be able to fit a pair in five
mins once you've got the knack (and good tyre levers if you do need
levers*). Seating could be better but they end up round enough.

* It is generally best to avoid using levers to fit tyres but you
can do so with damaging anything if careful.

hmmm.... I'm guessing you meant with*out* damaging anything? Unless
you're a teenage vandal, of course 😉

Dunno about the "teenage" bit :-) Yeah, "without" I meant.

Quoted message said:

I'd never really heard that about tyre levers tho. I guess it does
make sense, but the plastic levers you usually find tend to break
before damaging the rim.

It's more the tyre and tube you have to be careful with. Levers can pinch
and tear the tube if you're unlucky.

~PB

My rear schwalbe blew off the rim a week after fitting. The noise was so loud, a guy came out of a local shop to see if there'd been a drive by shooting!!! I am cackhanded when it comes to owt technical and it was probably more down to me than the tyre. The front one went on easy enough and is still okay. The rear cost me a couple of plastic tyre levers and was a sod to get on. I was opposite a local bike shop when it blew and I now have a panaracer on, not fitted by me which is probably why it's still okay.

Skunk [email hidden] opined the
following...

Quoted message said:

My rear schwalbe blew off the rim a week after fitting. The noise was so
loud, a guy came out of a local shop to see if there'd been a drive by
shooting!!! I am cackhanded when it comes to owt technical and it was
probably more down to me than the tyre. The front one went on easy
enough and is still okay. The rear cost me a couple of plastic tyre
levers and was a sod to get on. I was opposite a local bike shop when
it blew and I now have a panaracer on, not fitted by me which is
probably why it's still okay.

My mate is currently running some Continental GP3000 23mm tyres on his
racer. It seems that one of them has a manufacturing fault since the
sidewall blew out on it the other day. Thankfully it didn't do it while
he was riding, but after he'd put the bike away in a cupboard. He was
mid-conversation with someone when there was a bang followed by the
wooshing sound of air leaving the tyre.

Jon

Nick Drew said:

hmmm... been checking out some reviews of the city jets, and the consensus
appears to be that they're an absolute b0gger to fit and seat. Have you
found this?

I don't recollect them being particularly hard to fit. They may have been a
bit tighter than most but nothing special.

...d

Jon Senior said:

My mate is currently running some Continental GP3000 23mm tyres on his
racer. It seems that one of them has a manufacturing fault since the
sidewall blew out on it the other day. Thankfully it didn't do it
while he was riding, but after he'd put the bike away in a cupboard.
He was mid-conversation with someone when there was a bang followed
by the wooshing sound of air leaving the tyre.

A sidewall problem with a Conti? I've never heard of that before.

~PB
--
Does contain more than a trace of irony

Nick Drew said:

hmmm... been checking out some reviews of the city jets, and the consensus
appears to be that they're an absolute b0gger to fit and seat.

My pair of City Jets is the only set of tyres I've fitted since I was a
kid, so I don't have much to compare with. However, they went on with no
problem for me.

--
Keith Willoughby
Welcome to the police state - http://tinyurl.com/3cptb

Pete Biggs [email hidden] opined the following...

Quoted message said:

A sidewall problem with a Conti? I've never heard of that before.

~PB
--
Does contain more than a trace of irony

Do they have a reputation then? It appears that the underlying weave had
just given up at that point. The tyres had done a maximum of 200 miles
and suffered no scuffing of the sides.

I was thinking of changing mine (Same tyres but 23mm not 20mm) but if
the panel is aware of issues with Contis, then I'll look again!

Jon

in message <[email hidden]>, Jon Senior

jon_AT_restlesslemon_DOTco_DOT_uk ('') said:

Pete Biggs [email hidden] opined the following...

Quoted message said:

A sidewall problem with a Conti? I've never heard of that before.

~PB
--
Does contain more than a trace of irony

Do they have a reputation then? It appears that the underlying weave
had just given up at that point. The tyres had done a maximum of 200
miles and suffered no scuffing of the sides.

Many years ago I used to believe in Michelin, and fitted a brand new
pair of Michelin something-or-other (quite narrow 27" clinchers) only
to have the front blow out on a fast downhill bend within ten miles of
first being fitted.

That one was a manufacturing fault. Mind you I went on using Michelin
for years afterwards and never had another.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; killing [afghan|iraqi] civilians is not 'justice'

Jon Senior said:

Quoted message said:

A sidewall problem with a Conti? I've never heard of that before.

~PB
--
Does contain more than a trace of irony

Do they have a reputation then? It appears that the underlying weave
had just given up at that point. The tyres had done a maximum of 200
miles and suffered no scuffing of the sides.

I was thinking of changing mine (Same tyres but 23mm not 20mm) but if
the panel is aware of issues with Contis, then I'll look again!

url:http://cgi.sfu.ca/~gpeters/cgi-bin/pear/battle.php?word1=continental+b
low+out&word2=michelin+blow+out&key=&B1=Submit

+ more, much more on Google *Groups*. I've just noticed the Continental
name is mentioned more with sidewall problems on usenet than any other
brand, quite distinctly so. I've only used one Conti tyre myself in
recent times (Ultra Gatorskin) and it was fine, though the sidewall didn't
/seem/ very strongly constructed. Varies from model to model as well.

~PB