Schwalbe Marathon 27" Tire

I commute year round on my cyclocross commuter rig. I sold my car years ago and have been using this as my sole method of transportation. I probably log about 6,000 miles a year. These are excellent quality tires that last a very long time. Their rolling resistance is relatively low for such a tough tire and their traction is excellent even when it is wet out. They are a little on the heavy side but it is a very tough tire so I kind of expect that.

One of the other reviewers mentioned that these 27" tires kept coming off of his 700c wheels. That is because 27" tires should go on 27" wheels which are a larger wheel than 700c. The bead seat diameter for 27" wheels is 630mm while for a 700c wheel it is 622mm. Buy the right tire for the right wheel and you will have no problem with these tires.

I bought two of these recently for my commuter bike, an '87 Schwinn Voyageur, and mounted them to new wheels - a pair of Velocity Synergy rims laced to Shimano hubs.

Went on easily too easily in fact. The rear tire blew out three times while riding. The front tire has stayed on, but I had to help keep the bead seated while inflating the tire. The rear just blew off under load.

The 27" tires seem to be made to second or third rate standards. They do not live up to the Marathon name. The original marathons in a 700c were hard to get on, hard to get off, wore for thousands of miles and almost never caught a flat. The 27" tires are just awful and I wish I could send them back.

Try something else.

The Marathon is an excellent tire I've used them on a few other bicycles but keep in mind that the 27x1 14 is a very very large tire, so if you have limited clearance under your fendersfork crownetc this tire may not fit. Its nominal size is 32mm, but I think it is actually a little bigger than that, when inflated to 90lbs. If it fits on your rig, you can't go wrong.