Tyres For A Round-The-World Cycling Expedition
Once upon a time, one tyre was king in the expedition touring world. That tyre was the Schwalbe Marathon XR. Hard-wearing, impervious to punctures and with enough volume and tread to tackle pretty much anything, the XR was the default choice for anyone doing anything that might be described as ‘epic’ on a touring bike. (I’ve still got a few stockpiled in a basement somewhere.)
Now they’ve been discontinued, however, things aren’t quite so clear-cut when choosing tyres for expedition touring bikes.
Thankfully, Schwalbe’s Marathon range includes several other tyres which remain firm favourites among long-haul cycle tourers. As its name suggests, the Marathon line of tyres has world-class longevity. Depending on the exact model, you’ll either get good or excellent puncture resistance. And they all prioritise rolling efficiency over heavy-duty traction, which is rarely needed in a touring scenario anyway. The most robust tyres in the Marathon range are rather heavy, and none of them are cheap, but they’ve been proven to perform incredibly well on long term tours, as thousands of riders will tell you.
When you’re building an expedition touring bike, of course, you choose only the first set of tyres. Tyres are consumable. Even the best ones wear out eventually. And of course, there are different ‘best tyres’ for different riding conditions.
What that means is that the optimal tyres for crossing Europe on good roads this summer aren’t necessarily the same as the pair you’ll want for dirt tracks in Central Asia and Mongolia next year. A round-the-world will inevitably require several pairs of tyres. What you use is likely to vary over the course of your journey, as availability and conditions dictate.
Comfort being more important than speed, many long-haul riders will choose relatively wide (ie: high volume) tyres. An off-the-peg touring bike might be specified with 700×28C tyres (ie: 28mm-wide tyres of the 700C diameter), whereas a custom-built expedition bike might have 26×1.75″ tyres (ie: 1.75 inch-wide tyres with a nominal diameter of 26 inches). Higher-volume tyres at lower pressures are more comfortable on rough roads, as well as having better traction – and you can inflate them to a higher pressure for those nice stretches of good asphalt.
Don’t forget to consider the tyre clearance offered by your frameset. Expedition-specific frames and forks usually offer more space for fatter tyres than regular road touring frames. If you’re planning to fit fenders (aka: mudguards), you’ll need to match them to your chosen tyre size too.
For my prototype ultimate expedition bike, I decided upon a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Plus 40–559 (26×1.5″) tyres.
What I had in mind for the prototype was a rider planning a tour starting on the good roads and occasional gravel/dirt tracks and bike paths – the variety of surfaces that constitute many designated long-distance cycle routes in the developed world – before possibly venturing further afield. For this kind of riding, I know the Schwalbe Marathon Pluses will happily cross a continent or two before they wear thin, probably having had fewer punctures than they’ll have crossed borders.
If you’re hitting a higher proportion of dirt roads from the start, I’d suggest looking at the Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tour or Mondial, and increasing the volume to somewhere in the 1.75–2.2″ range of tyre widths – as wide as your frameset can take, really. (It’s worth mentioning that there’s a much greater diversity of tyres being used in the off-road bikepacking scene.)
Whichever tyre you choose for your ultimate expedition touring bike, make sure you match tyre size to rim diameter and ensure tyre width doesn’t exceed frame/fork clearance.
As with most manufacturers these days, Schwalbe quote tyre sizes using the standardised, metric, measurement-based ISO system, as well as quoting the equivalent size in traditional systems for those who haven’t caught up yet. For example, using ISO terminology, my so-called 26×1.5″ tyres are actually 40–559 tyres, ie: with a 40mm inflated width and for a 559mm-diameter rim. Similarly, a traditional 700×40C tyre expressed in ISO sizing is 40–622; that is, 40mm width for a 622mm-diameter rim.
(Head starting to ache? Read Sheldon Brown’s classic article on bicycle rim/tyre sizing systems and how to translate between them. My rule of thumb: choose one sizing system and stick to it!)
Pro tip: I always fit my tyres with the embossed air pressure range figures mounted directly alongside the valves. Why? So I don’t have to hunt around for them while I’m inflating/deflating a tyre on the roadside. Yeah, it’s the little things.
Retailers for Schwalbe Marathon Plus/Tour Expedition Touring Bike Tyres
- Buy the Schwalbe Marathon Plus road touring tyres online in the UK from
Chain Reaction Cycles,Wiggle, Amazon or eBay, or in the USA & Canada fromChain Reaction Cyclesor Amazon. - Buy the Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tour mixed-terrain touring tyres online in the UK from
Chain Reaction Cycles,Wiggle, Amazon or eBay, or in the USA & Canada fromChain Reaction Cyclesor Amazon. - Buy the Schwalbe Marathon Mondial off-road expedition touring tyres online in the UK from
Chain Reaction Cycles,Wiggle, Amazon or eBay, or in the USA & Canada fromChain Reaction Cyclesor Amazon.
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