Test: Of course, Schwalbe, the top dog for bicycle tires, also has winter tires in its portfolio. In the test, we looked at the spike version of the popular and extremely widespread Schwalbe Marathon.
The profile
The winter version of Schwalbe's endurance runner Marathon is a mighty tire: 920g, 36mm wide and 240 spikes make an impression. The profile of the Marathon is much more reminiscent of winter tires on a car than a spiked tire for a bike. Quite a low profile depth, large distances between the lugs and the characteristic jagged grooves along the direction of travel should ensure grip in all situations. The spikes are distributed quite evenly over the tire - only a narrow strip in the middle does not require any metal.
The practice – asphalt
Schwalbe recommends a pressure of between 2,5 and 5 bar for the marathon winter - for use in dry conditions on asphalt we decide on the maximum pressure of 5 bar and start cycling. We are pleasantly surprised by the background noise: the tire emits the characteristic hum of a spiked tire, but given the 240 spikes we had expected a much more unpleasant volume. When it comes to rolling resistance, however, we felt every single one of the 240 metal rivets: Despite the roadworthy profile and the quite high pressure, the Marathon Winter brakes significantly.
The practice – ice cream
So far so good - the spikes slow us down on asphalt, but do they do their job when they are required? This question can only be answered with an unequivocal YES. We let the pressure down to 2,5 bar and venture onto a large, icy surface. To our astonishment, we hardly feel any of this on the bike. Our bike remains completely and easily controllable at all times, and there is more than enough grip even when cornering a little faster. Grade 1 with asterisks!
The practice – snow
After the impressive performance on ice, we were curious to see how the Schwalbe Marathon would do in the snow, especially given the rather shallow profile depth and the rather reserved profile. Here, too, the tire knew how to convince, although it didn't quite reach the level of grip on ice: The tire offers very good grip, especially on wet snow and in mud. In powder snow we had the problem that the profile clogged up quite quickly and the grip then decreased noticeably. However, pausing and tapping will quickly remedy the situation.
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