# Brompton tyres



## Yellow Fang (12 Jun 2011)

Can anyone recommend a good Brompton tyre? I have been using Schwalbe Marathons. They are generally brilliant for avoiding punctures, but they are a total b@5t@rd when you do get one, because they're a pig to get on and off. I've just bust the rim of a new tyre when I tried to prise it on with my 10" metal tyre level, which is the only lever I've found to work with these tyres. So, is there a tyre that is as puncture-proof as the Marathon, but easier to get on and off?


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## Rohloff_Brompton_Rider (12 Jun 2011)

kojaks, cheap and have puncture resistance. super fast too and easy to put on.


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## Yellow Fang (13 Jun 2011)

Kojaks were recommended on another site too. They're not particularly cheap though.


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## srw (13 Jun 2011)

Marathons are the bees knees (now Marathon pluses are available - even better). Fit and forget - as long as you keep the tyres regularly inflated to 100psi. The number of punctures you get is so tiny that it's worth the hassle of putting them on.

Incidentally, do you know about the useful trick for mounting? If you bunch the tyre up so that it sits in the little groove in the rim, it's possible to remount the tyre (even a brand-new tyre) without levers, by pushing up with your thumbs.


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## dellzeqq (13 Jun 2011)

I've had one puncture on the Marathon Plus tyres fitted to my Bromptons in almost three years. I fixed it 'Dutch' stylee, rolling the tyre clear of the inner tube (but not off the wheel) with a self-adhesive patch applied to the offending hole.


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## Rohloff_Brompton_Rider (13 Jun 2011)

Yellow Fang said:


> Kojaks were recommended on another site too. They're not particularly cheap though.



i got mine for £9.99 per tyre from sjs cycles, seemed cheap to me.


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## potsy (13 Jun 2011)

bromptonfb said:


> i got mine for £9.99 per tyre from sjs cycles, seemed cheap to me.


Money bags!


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## mickle (13 Jun 2011)

There's nowt wrong with Bromptons own 'green flash' tyre.

And if you want to never suffer the ignominy of a punc*ure in public ever again squirt some Stan's inside your tubes. Easiest with Schrader - though you'll need a valve key. Fit tyres once. Go worry about more important shoot.


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## Rohloff_Brompton_Rider (13 Jun 2011)

mickle said:


> There's nowt wrong with Bromptons own 'green flash' tyre.
> 
> And if you want to never suffer the ignominy of a punc*ure in public ever again squirt some Stan's inside your tubes. Easiest with Schrader - though you'll need a valve key. Fit tyres once. Go worry about more important shoot.





i agree. but unfortunately, as with most things brompton, they cost more than double the price of kojaks from sjs.


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## Yellow Fang (13 Jun 2011)

bromptonfb said:


> i got mine for £9.99 per tyre from sjs cycles, seemed cheap to me.



I see there's a rigid and folding version, although even the folding version seems much cheaper at SJS than elsewhere.

I went to Evans at lunchtime and bought a Brompton Greenline (I think). They said they didn't have any of the super-duper Schwalbe Marathons but that they were a pig to get on. I agreed. It was a doddle to put on the Greenline. I just have to see how good they are at resisting punctures now. Marathons were very good in that respect. I've even pulled out a shard of glass that failed to cause a puncture. 

Notwithstanding that, some people from the Brompton forum are impugning my technique. They insist you can replace tyres not using tyre levers at all. If so they must be jedi knights or something.


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## Rohloff_Brompton_Rider (13 Jun 2011)

Yellow Fang said:


> I see there's a rigid and folding version, although even the folding version seems much cheaper at SJS than elsewhere.
> 
> I went to Evans at lunchtime and bought a Brompton Greenline (I think). They said they didn't have any of the super-duper Schwalbe Marathons but that they were a pig to get on. I agreed. It was a doddle to put on the Greenline. I just have to see how good they are at resisting punctures now. Marathons were very good in that respect. I've even pulled out a shard of glass that failed to cause a puncture.
> 
> Notwithstanding that, some people from the Brompton forum are impugning my technique. They insist you can replace tyres not using tyre levers at all. If so they must be jedi knights or something.



having met some of them, i doubt they are stronger than me. i'm not a small fella and i struggled to put on a m+ without a lever, it can be done in perfect conditions, i.e., in the garage with a clean new rim, tyre, tube and hands. it is totally different in winter. have you seen the tutorial videos on bromptons website?


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## srw (13 Jun 2011)

bromptonfb said:


> having met some of them, i doubt they are stronger than me. i'm not a small fella and i struggled to put on a m+ without a lever, it can be done in perfect conditions, i.e., in the garage with a clean new rim, tyre, tube and hands. it is totally different in winter. have you seen the tutorial videos on bromptons website?



<----- Jedi.

I've just bought a brand new M+. M+s are far more difficult to put on brand new than when they've been worn in. It went on inside 10 minutes with no levers. Like I said upthread, there's a trick to it. Just bunch up the tyre in the groove in the rim. That gives just enough clearance to haul the tyre over the rim and seat it.

And in all seriousness, if you're trying to put on a Brompton tyre (_especially _and M+) anywhere other than in the warm you're doing something wrong. When you get a puncture you get a bus/train/taxi. That's the beauty of the Brommie - and it's why you fit M+s.


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## Rohloff_Brompton_Rider (13 Jun 2011)

srw said:


> <----- Jedi.
> 
> I've just bought a brand new M+. M+s are far more difficult to put on brand new than when they've been worn in. It went on inside 10 minutes with no levers. Like I said upthread, there's a trick to it. Just bunch up the tyre in the groove in the rim. That gives just enough clearance to haul the tyre over the rim and seat it.
> 
> *And in all seriousness, if you're trying to put on a Brompton tyre (*_*especially *_*and M+) anywhere other than in the warm you're doing something wrong*. When you get a puncture you get a bus/train/taxi. That's the beauty of the Brommie - and it's why you fit M+s.



what an arrogant statement. if you knew how far i commute, the terrain i commute, the shift patterns on placements, all in in every season, usually 5 days a week, where there are no buses or that i can't afford 20 mile journeys in taxis (and sometimes, only 4x4's could get me home instead of the brommie)....only then... would you realize how arrogant you are.

i only use the brommie for folding capabilities, when my placements are wards in hospitals.


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## srw (13 Jun 2011)

bromptonfb said:


> what an arrogant statement.



Not intended as such - sorry if it sounded like it. You are a very atypical Brompton rider - and exactly the sort of rider for whom an M+ would be perfect. Since moving to Marathons from Brompton own-brands about 6 years ago (about 1500 miles a year) I've had precisely three punctures. Two three-inch nails which would have gone straight through any tyre, and one complete tyre failure.


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## Yellow Fang (13 Jun 2011)

dellzeqq said:


> I've had one puncture on the Marathon Plus tyres fitted to my Bromptons in almost three years. I fixed it 'Dutch' stylee, rolling the tyre clear of the inner tube (but not off the wheel) with a self-adhesive patch applied to the offending hole.




I think I've used this technique before on other bikes, but I thought I would be unlikely to get away with it on the back wheel of a Brompton, with the brakes, rear frame and mudguard struts all in the way.



bromptonfb said:


> have you seen the tutorial videos on bromptons website?


Do you mean this one? It's a good video. They use a slightly different technique to me in that they inflate the tube slightly and place it in the tyre before pushing it back on the rim. However, they were changing a Brompton green label tyre and they're not as hard as Schwalbe Marathons.


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