Durable / Touring / Everyday tyres

For everyday riding and for long distance touring, durability is important. These are practical tyres with a good to outstanding level of puncture resistance.

The Marathon Plus is the most durable tyre available. We use it on our town bikes, and even on faster bikes in the winter. This is our pick as the best tyre for reliable everyday cycling. The 37-622 size is ideal for Dutch town bikes and most tourers so if you want the lowest maintenance possible on that sort of bike you should probably look no further.

The Marathon is a classic tyre. Together with Continental's "Top Touring" this was the touring tyre for many years, gaining a well deserved reputation for quality. It's not quite so puncture resistant as the Marathon Plus, but it is still a durable and reliable tyre, and it offers a slightly more comfortable ride than the Marathon Plus at a lower price.

And the Marathon's competitor, the "Top Touring" ? That's been replaced by the "Top Contact" - a very nicely put together hand made touring tyre.

The Big Apple offers sometimes a bit different. It's a very wide tyre, with a very comfortable ride. On bad surfaces, this floats over difficulties better than a narrower tyrecan work very well. On good surfaces it rolls extremely easily. The cost is slightly less puncture resistance, and because of the width it may not fit your bike (check the sizes).

The Marathon Racer is perhaps as far as you might want to go towards a "fast" tyre for a touring bike. It's still fairly wide and comfortable to ride with, and it's a nice fast tyre, but you lose a little durability and puncture resistance. For summer tours in good conditions it's a good choice.

The Marathon Supreme is a tyre that we initially didn't list in the shop. We have used it and find it a fine tyre as a spare, but we wouldn't choose to fit it to our bikes for everyday riding. In our view, the Marathon Plus offers more at a lower price - except that it doesn't fold. For a folding tyre to carry as a spare when touring, the Marathon Supreme has real value.

Finally, the Delta Cruiser is a lower cost but still good quality tyre. It offers one special advantage over the others in that it is available in an attractive, retro, cream colour, and if you have a Men's frame Kronan bicycle, which has an unusual wheel size, then there is one tyre especially for you.

If you have a common size wheel then you have a choice of tyres. If you have a less common size you may find that only one of our tyres from this section fits your rim.