Thornproof tire service report: Bontrager Satellite Elite Hardcaseand Schwalbe Marathon Plus

At 2110 klicks there is zero sign of wear on the original equipment
Bontrager Satellite Elite Hardcase tires on my Trek Navigator L700
Cyber Nexus. No flats either. I ride almost invariably on smooth
enough country lanes with occasional drop off a pavement or yump over
a ridge up to 2in high at speed to get back on the pavement. The tires
are kept pumped up to around 80PSI and bike, gear and me are probably
125Kg.

The Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres on my Gazelle Toulouse show no sign
of wear at half that many klicks again. Same roads, riding conditions,
weight, generally inflated to about 60PSI. No flats. I fitted them
after I spent in the previous two months 125 Euro on new tubes and LBS
flat repairs...

The Bontrager tires came on the bike and get five stars. The Marathon
Plus have already paid for themselves and then some; they too get five
stars. I would say the Marathon have a small edge on comfort but the
Bontrager is the more sporting, faster tire by some small margin.
There's not much in it; maybe a serious longrange commuter or tourist
would find the differences more important than the functional
similarities. I'd buy them interchangably on price. I seem to recall
that the Bontrager are about 100g lighter than Marathon but with tires
around 3/4 kilogram each that seems of little relevance.

HTH those thinking of investing in thornproofs.

Andre Jute
http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/B...20CYCLING.html