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Post by brianbutler on May 26, 2023 14:20:53 GMT
My Viscount Sebring has been converted to a touring bike and needed tires suited to that task so I ordered a pair of Schwalbe Marathon's, which performed flawlessly on a Trek 520 that I no longer have. One of the new tires just would not mount and spin without a pronounced wobble. After switching rims, tubes, and rotatiing the tire position on these different rims, I concluded that the tire had a crooked tread and bulge at a certain point and decided to exchange it. I bought these through Amazon, so I could have just sent it back for a refund but their first suggestion was to contact Schwalbe to resolve the problem. I figured I owed them that so I filled out a ticket with Schwalbe America but after 5 days of not hearing anything from them, I returned the tire to Amazon and ordered a new one. The return, refund, and reorder were very fast and cost nothing. So, kudos to Amazon and not so much to Schwalbe. If you are going to advertise a premium product from a top shelf company, then I recommend doing better quality control and responding to customers.
The new tire spins perfectly and I hope these tires are as good as I remember.
Brian
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Jem
Viscount
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Posts: 3,390 
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Post by Jem on May 26, 2023 17:09:17 GMT
I agree with you on the ease of return and the guarantee from Amazon. I have known them to extend the regular warranty of items if you are a Prime member. I have had issues with things that are just over a year old, and after a little bit of persuasion, they refunded or swapped out 'like for like' with new item.
I had Schwalbe Marathon on my Deore tourer and other than being a pain to get off and on, they were magnificent tyres.
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Post by sprockit on Jun 6, 2023 21:32:23 GMT
I had a Schwalbe Marathon on the back wheel of my Sport, but one very hot day ran at the 95psi maximum pressure.
Whilst putting the bike in a secure, covered bike shelter, the hot sun had heated and over-pressurised the tyre, and it blew off the rim with a sound like a gunshot! The shelter in question was just outside the door of the local council offices, and on hearing the retort, every window in the side of the building opened and a head popped out to investigate the bang!
Even running as low as 65psi the tyre never stayed on the rim after this episode and had to be scrapped as it had a bad kink in the bead.
Moral of the story - don't go right up the the limit or over-inflate tyres, especially in hot sunny weather!
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Post by brianbutler on Jun 6, 2023 23:25:37 GMT
I had a Schwalbe Marathon on the back wheel of my Sport, but one very hot day ran at the 95psi maximum pressure. Whilst putting the bike in a secure, covered bike shelter, the hot sun had heated and over-pressurised the tyre, and it blew off the rim with a sound like a gunshot! The shelter in question was just outside the door of the local council offices, and on hearing the retort, every window in the side of the building opened and a head popped out to investigate the bang! Even running as low as 65psi the tyre never stayed on the rim after this episode and had to be scrapped as it had a bad kink in the bead. Moral of the story - don't go right up the the limit or over-inflate tyres, especially in hot sunny weather! I am curious as to whether that happened with a straight or hooked rim. I have had a couple of tires blow off the rim, either on the road or while inflating indoors. In all cases it was a straight rim. I can imagine a blow-off bending the wire bead and leaving the tire hopelessly compromised.
Brian
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Post by sprockit on Jun 7, 2023 22:04:38 GMT
The rims in question are chromed steel Van Schothorst (now Rigida), and they are straight, not hooked, and the distance from the bead seat to the top of the inner rim wall is only about 3-4mm, so I can see why the bent and therefore compromised bead then kept blowing off.
Whilst examining the tyre (tire to you across the pond), I noticed the warning 'use only with hooked rims' in very small lettering near the bead, so I think I was asking for trouble using a straight rim with tyres designed for use on hooked ones - not that I had realised at the time.
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Post by brianbutler on Jun 7, 2023 23:18:06 GMT
That small lettering is interesting. I did not see it either and will have to check carefully to see if mine have that warning. When mounting the Schwalbe Marathons I did find that they went on the rim easily and were very supple. I was actually concerned about inflating to 95 psi so I did it in steps, checking the bead seating after each step. In the end, the two good tires seated perfectly and have been inflated to 95 psi for about a week with no sign of problems.
Brian
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Post by sprockit on Jun 8, 2023 22:26:43 GMT
My feeling after 'The Bang' was that the hot sun acting on a black tyre at the maximum pressure limit would further increase the pressure and in turn cause the blow-off. The fact that the tyre should have been on a hooked rim didn't help either.
I replaced the Sport's rear tyre with a fairly nondescript budget (clearance!) item, and regularly run it at maximum pressure, and have so far not had another blow-off.
I also have a Viscount Sprint with odd wheels - Super Champion 27x1 1/4 on the front and Sturmey Archer Mistral 700c on the rear - both shod with Schwalbe Marathons, and have had no issues at all with them, although I do tend to run them at maybe 10psi below the maximum pressure limit.
'The Bang' has led me to run my tyres at about 5-10psi below the maximum recommended pressure, but also be wary of running tyre pressures too low, otherwise the lack of pressure allows the tyre to creep round the rim, causing another set of problems!
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