How do Schwalbe tires age?

[Rob MacLeod]

Hi Yakers,

I have Schwalbe Marathon tires on my wife’s BF Crusoe and they are starting to deform in shape long before the tread is worn out. They are at least 4 years old, low mileage (at least riding miles; we moved the bike from Utah to Nova Scotia a few years ago), and the tread is still very good. However, my wife started noticing a wobble in her front wheel, which I confirmed had nothing to do with how the tire was seated, nor any visible damage to the tire. I have removed and reinstalled the tire a few times with no change and the wobble is very visible when I spin the wheel with the tire in place. The rim is lovely and true. Yesterday I rotated the tires (front to back) and the (formerly) rear tire was also distorted, but not as badly. On our ride, my wife claimed the ride was much better than before.

Eyeballing things, I can see some side wobble in the newly installed front tire but the rear tire has side-to-side and some up-and-down wobble, which she very much notices on the front, less so on the rear. She is happy in the short term, but I am not happy with tires deforming like this.

Question: is it common for tires (Schwalbe Marathons in this case) over time to experience this sort of deformation? I cannot recall it from many previous tires, but mine tend to wear out in the tread before they get to be 4 years old.

I will simply order new tires and get on my life, but I was curious if this behavior was in any way specific to these tires, suggesting I move to a different brand (assuming I actually have options for 20 x 1.5 in (40-406) tires).

Thanks in advance!
Best,
Rob

[Ken Preston]

I’ve had the same problem with some Schwab’s marathon tires. I never found a solution. I also took them off to reseat but with little luck.
Kendra’s seem to ride just as good, seat better on the rim and are cheaper. But they don’t have the reflective band which is too bad.
Ken

> On Aug 3, 2025, at 6:50 AM, Rob MacLeod <rsma...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Yakers,

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[Egan Onoa]

I've experienced this, but only on 20" marathons and not larger sizes. No evidence of any deformation in the tire and perfectly true wheels (I even paid for a proper truing just in case). I think it's just that they are difficult to seat perfectly and very unforgiving. Like Ken, I eventually just had to move on from them. I never had this experience with 26" wheels, despite using marathons for years on them. So my theory is that it's a bit like bumps in the road: the smaller wheel sizes magnify things a bit.

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[John S. Allen]

Bicycle tires have a place somewhere around the circumference where the fabric is joined  This is visible if you look at the inside of the tire . Typically, it is doubled over and held together by the rubber. As a tire ages, this location may stretch or deform differently from the rest of the tire, creating a lump. Is that the case here? 

I have had a wobble in a tire due to a brake shoe's having eaten into the fabric -- a call for immediate replacement before the inner tube bulge out and pops.

Also due to a tire's going flat.

But it sounds like this might be none of the above. 

On 8/3/2025 9:25 AM, Egan Onoa wrote:

I've experienced this, but only on 20" marathons and not larger sizes. No evidence of any deformation in the tire and perfectly true wheels (I even paid for a proper truing just in case). I think it's just that they are difficult to seat perfectly and very unforgiving. Like Ken, I eventually just had to move on from them. I never had this experience with 26" wheels, despite using marathons for years on them. So my theory is that it's a bit like bumps in the road: the smaller wheel sizes magnify things a bit.

On Sun, Aug 3, 2025 at 3:03 PM Ken Preston <ken...@gmail.com> wrote:

I’ve had the same problem with some Schwab’s marathon tires. I never found a solution. I also took them off to reseat but with little luck.
Kendra’s seem to ride just as good, seat better on the rim and are cheaper. But they don’t have the reflective band which is too bad.
Ken

> On Aug 3, 2025, at 6:50 AM, Rob MacLeod <rsma...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Yakers,
>
> I have Schwalbe Marathon tires on my wife’s BF Crusoe and they are starting to deform in shape long before the tread is worn out.  They are at least 4 years old, low mileage (at least riding miles; we moved the bike from Utah to Nova Scotia a few years ago), and the tread is still very good.  However, my wife started noticing a wobble in her front wheel, which I confirmed had nothing to do with how the tire was seated, nor any visible damage to the tire.  I have removed and reinstalled the tire a few times with no change and the wobble is very visible when I spin the wheel with the tire in place. The rim is lovely and true.  Yesterday I rotated the tires (front to back) and the (formerly) rear tire was also distorted, but not as badly.  On our ride, my wife claimed the ride was much better than before. 
>
> Eyeballing things, I can see some side wobble in the newly installed front tire but the rear tire has side-to-side and some up-and-down wobble, which she very much notices on the front, less so on the rear.  She is happy in the short term, but I am not happy with tires deforming like this.
>
> Question: is it common for tires (Schwalbe Marathons in this case) over time to experience this sort of deformation?  I cannot recall it from many previous tires, but mine tend to wear out in the tread before they get to be 4 years old.
>
> I will simply order new tires and get on my life, but I was curious if this behavior was in any way specific to these tires, suggesting I move to a different brand (assuming I actually have options for 20 x 1.5 in (40-406) tires).
>
> Thanks in advance!
> Best,
> Rob
>
> --

-- 
John S. Allen

CyclingSavvy Instructor
League Cycling instructor
Author, Bicycling Street Smarts
Technical Writer and Editor, sheldonbrown.com

[Scott McMahon]

I've had Schwalbe Marathon tires develop pronounced bulges after very short usage.  In my case, the tires were pretty badly squirmed and I replaced them as soon as I noticed it.  It looked to me like some part of the casing (the threads embedded in the rubber that actually hold the pressure,) must have developed a flaw and expanded a bit.  In my case there was nothing abnormal to see on the insides or outsides of the tires.  Whatever happened was internal (within the rubber) and invisible.  I've since used a bunch of the same tires and had no problems. 

jsa's theory about the fold in the fabric coming open sounds plausible, or maybe just a few threads breaking or stretching would explain it.  I know that the casing threads are crucial to pressure retention because I've done the experiment when I was younger and had less money.  I ran my tires until there was no more rubber and they were fine, until I started to see the threading on the outside.  Shortly after that, the threads, now exposed to the road, would start to fray and break, and once a few of those were gone in one place, the tube would bust through and blow out.   

One theory of mine is that I bought some these tires at a very good price online, and perhaps the seller had got hold of some rejects from the factory and was selling them without mentioning that.  

The tires I'm talking about were 451 bsd 20X1-1/8".  I think I bought four tires from this discounter and I had at least two tires go bad; although I couldn't say for sure whether the bad ones came from the batch of four that I bought at discount, they were all mixed up with others I had in stock.

Note:  I do a lot of long distance touring, and I carry a spare tire, just in case.  To do this, I twist the tire in half and fold it, so it's half the size which is a whole lot easier to carry.  This isn't usually a problem.  Lots of people do this, but now that I think about it, it might also be a possible contributor to the problem...

Scott McMahon

[Geof Gee]

What rims do you have on the Crusoe? My personal experience is that Schwalbe tires are difficult to mount properly on the Alex DA16 rims that often come with Bike Fridays. (is it DA16? Can't remember off the top of my head) Bike Friday wrote some blip about it at some point.  

-G

Arlington, VA

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"Sometimes I forget things.  Who I am.  Where I am.  Unimportant things. But I'm not insane. "

[Ken Preston]

The rims on my Crusoe are DM 18 rear, AX 18 front. The rear is a second wheel for this bike. The front is the original one.  I’ve had the tire problem we’ve been discussing with both of these rims. 

Ken

On Aug 6, 2025, at 9:42 AM, Geof Gee <geo...@gmail.com> wrote:



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