Schwalbe Marathon Mondial review

So, a couple of months ago, I parted with some cash to purchase a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Mondial tires.  It was my first experience with the brand and was a little hesitant to purchase these more expensive tires.  In the end, I'm sure glad I did.

These tires did see a fair amount of off-road action...

I wrote about my first ride with the tires here.  After riding about 500+ miles (I kinda didn't keep track) I feel like I can give a better evaluation of these tires.  About 80% of my riding was done on roads and the rest was on varying surfaces including gravel, mud/dirt, and snow.  Half was commuting and the other half was longer recreational rides.

As a pure road tire, I would opt for a different model obviously.  The more aggressive tread of the Marathon Mondial is just plain overkill if you sticking to smooth pavement.  While I didn't notice it on the first ride, after a while I could tell that there is some slight rolling resistance with this tread.  Of course, since I wasn't switching between tires or bikes, this is entirely a subjective assessment.  Where the tire definitely excels is transitioning between many different loose riding surfaces and still working quite well on roads.  They offered great grip for their width on gravel and mud and didn't even shy away from packed snow.  For those wondering, they offer little to no grip on bare sheets of ice... I had to find out the hard way.  In warmer winter conditions, the tires seemed to quickly gather snow on them in the tread and then eventually jam against fenders.  However, that's probably going to happen with any lugged tire combined with a fender.

The test lab.

I did get the opportunity in the past week to take a ride out in my local state forest with a modest load of overnight equipment.  Although this winter has been fairly tame, I was still concerned about the condition of the roads and what traction problems I may have.  Whether it was a long fire road climb on packed snow or a long, long climb on soft and tacky mud, the tires never skipped a beat.  My legs may have skipped a couple of beats though.  The Marathon Mondials definitely gave me the necessary confidence to maneuver my loaded bike along the slippery roads.

After over 500 miles of riding, there is no evidence of wear on the tires.  I really would have expected more of the tread to be rounding off in spots.  You would also think that if the rubber is so firm to resist wear that it wouldn't offer much grip on rock or wet pavement.  That thought has been dispelled as the tires provide great grip on such surfaces.  Also, the claims of high puncture resistance in the Schwalbe Marathon line have so far held up.  I  haven't gotten a single flat with these tires yet (and I hope that I didn't just horribly jinx myself).  Lest you think I have been babying them, I haven't.  I live in a town with a major college and everyday I literally ride over tons of broken glass provided by intellectuals' copious broken bottles.  I'd say that's a pretty fair test.

If you are looking for a tire that can ride anywhere well and stand up to abuse, this is it.  If you are already looking at the Marathon Mondial specifically, buy them.  They're worth it.

Update 10/18/2012-  I have over 8,000 miles on this pair of tires now and have only suffered 3 flats total.  That includes riding across the entire United States.  The tire that was on the rear was wearing more and the tread was a bit worn in the center.  I have swapped the front and rear tires and will continue to ride them.  After all of the miles, I am still 100% pleased with them and stand behind everything I've written previously.