Do you still get flat tires while cycling? But why? No more!

[@The-GreenHornet]

Mr Steve Greene, you are looking mighty green. 😊 Great presentation 👏 as well as pictures. Marathon PLUS tires are all I run! I however don't run earth guards because they can...can possibly pinch your tubes due to the edges. I figure I trust Marathon PLUS tires just as they are. I also pretty much always watch the road in front of me. Watching for any debris that I can avoid running over with my tires. Im not a careless rider, always looking out for things in the road. Great video!

[@jamesmchugo9422]

Better tires equals better ride. Thanks for the info. Something I learned from racing days, three tire irons make putting on a stiff tire so much easier. Use two irons to hold the bead, so it can’t walk around the rim and then use the third iron to lift the bead over rim edge. It’s still hard, but saves your thumbs.

[@EZSteve]

Yes, great advice James. I have three tire "irons", which happen to be plastic, but they work well. I did a video a few years ago on this channel about how to mount these tough tires, once I finally figured out the finer points from a couple of other trikers who had it wired pretty well. One of the tricks was to get the opposite side of the tire deeply seated into the rim before attempting that final "pop" at the top ... this one technique made a positive difference for me. steve

[@jamesmchugo9422]

@@EZSteve that’s how I’ve always mounted a tire. I just assumed everyone did it that way.

[@The-GreenHornet]

I also have 3 aluminum tire irons. Also here's another tips and tricks for mounting difficult tires. Take a little dish soap, just enough on your thumb and fingers, and rub it all around the bead of the tire BEFORE installing the tire. This will help tremendously the brand new rubber to glide over your rim. Or you can put the dish soap around the rim instead. No water added, just pure dish soap on either tire bead or rim edge. Makes a HUGE DIFFERENCE.

[@Deinonuchus]

I've got Pluses on my two-wheeled recumbent. Boy howdy are those things hard to mount.

[@EZSteve]

I agree regarding the challenges of mounting these tires, and early-on figured they were next to impossible, and if I did get them mounted, it was at the expense of painful thumbs. But eventually, I learned some secrets that have made a HUGE difference, to the point where I can mount them without any agony (still stiff tires, but no more painful thumbs or cursing). Here is a link to a short article I did in 2014 on my Trike Asylum website, along with two guest videos that help explain the process: trikeasylum.wordpress.com/2014/04/23/mounting-schwalbe-marathon-plus-tires/ The KEY TO SUCCESS to be learned from both these video clips is to make sure the tire bead (wire, in the case of the MP) is pushed all the way down into the deepest portion of the rim well so that the final difficult section pops over the rim. Without this technique, the Schwalbe Marathon Plus tire cannot be mounted without significant battle! Once this bead placement technique is understood and mastered, and by using the butts of the hands instead of the thumbs, the Schwalbe Marathon PLUS tire is indeed very mountable. Never use the thumbs for the final push over the rim ... use a thumbless grip. And the bead on the opposite side of the rim MUST be as far down into the rim as possible, something that is not necessary with typical cheaper tires. The best way to really get good at this is to take a rim, and just mount, dismount, mount, dismount, and continue the process until it's no big deal. Set aside an afternoon when it is warm enough that the hands are not cold, and just do this exercise to the point of mastery. All the best! steve

[@Hansaman58]

I have Marathon Plus tire on my Catrike 559, but I have had flats with them. Turned out to be a faulty tire bead.

[@EZSteve]

Sounds like a factory defective tire if the bead is not correct. That is concerning, and I hope it does not mean that Schwalbe's quality control is not what it has always been. So far in my own experience, I've never had a Marathon PLUS go flat, even with a length of wire stuck in one for weeks before I found it. And so far, no goathead has yet, caused a flat. steve

[@danielbingham3124]

I use standard weight tubes with Flatout tire sealant. Ran over a big bed of goatheads, no flats. 1 year later no flats. No liners used.

[@EZSteve]

Yes, with Schwalbe Marathon PLUS tires, liners are not really needed. I have toured with and without liners in mine, and never have flatted either way. I have also ridden through thousands of goatheads over the years on my trips, which will do standard bike tires in, but the only thing I had to do with the Schwalbe Marathon PLUS tires was pull those darn goatheads out with a pair of pliers. I once found a long piece of truck tire wire in one of my tires months after the trip was over ... it was long enough to have caused a flat, but the PLUS construction bent the wire harmlessly sideways, so even after riding a few hundred more miles with it in the tread, the tire never did go flat. These are amazing tires for sure! steve

[@paulahavens2764]

thanks will look into them.

[@EZSteve]

I would use nothing else! Never have had a flat tire with these Schwalbe Marathon PLUS tires. They are worth every penny (but more of a challenge to install due to their substantial construction). steve

[@dennisyoung4631]

Hence use Park’s larger metal tire levers (been using these for a while - lifesavers) and tire-changing lubricant - which I need to get.

[@EZSteve]

@@dennisyoung4631 I have never tried Park Tools metal levers, but they are probably worth the investment. I have only used the cheap plastic kind when mounting tires over the years. Also, I have always been one who dry mounts tires, with no lubricant ... guess I like to do things the hard way, haha! steve

[@dennisyoung4631]

@@EZSteve I got the park levers a while back when having to deal with really *obnoxious* tires, first while dealing with a loaner Ebike, then my own. I might not be running Marathon plus tires right now (will consider them in the future, though), but Schwalbe Big-Ben tires need those levers, want tire lube, and it sounds like the Marathons are *worse.*

[@EZSteve]

@@dennisyoung4631 Yep, the Schwalbe Marathon PLUS tires are about as tough as they come! It's pretty much agreed in the cycling world that no other tire is as hard to mount at this one. I finally figured it out, but it took a few times to get the hang of it. I think I did an article about it on Trike Asylum years ago, with photos. Here is an article I did, which follows the two videos of other riders and how they mount the tires: trikeasylum.wordpress.com/more/tire-changing/

[@dennisyoung4631]

Speed? Hey, won’t you lose all that added speed changing *flats?* This is especially true when your manual dexterity *isn’t* happening.

[@EZSteve]

You are SO right Dennis! For riders who like to speed around everywhere on lightweight flat-prone tires, the time lost to fixing a flat takes all the air out of the speed sail, haha. steve