[Doohickie]

I had my bike loaded up this morning, took it out and noticed the rear tire was flat, so I ended up driving. It didn't tear me up too much because I had of the stock, 16-year-old Kenda hybrid tires in 700x38C size with two and a half years worth of heavy commuting wear on them (the bike was NOS when I got it).



I was very pleased with the Kendas, but being 16 years old, they were wearing out quickly. This was the third flat in two and a half years, so I really can't complain. This flat was found at home; one of the others was quickly fixed on the road; the other happened a mile from home and I decided to walk the rest of the way instead of fixing it.

I was already planning for this and had some money set aside. I bought a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Plus HS 348 tires in 700x25C.



A quick ride around the neighborhood is as expected: Much less rolling resistance! Maybe I can shave a few minutes off my commute time. I have a double header softball game after work tomorrow (and I'm bringing the beer ), so my first chance to commute with the new tires should be Thursday.

[Xela]

Wow! I thought "surely he mis-typed when he wrote 16 years old", but then you repeated that. Amazing! How many miles would you guess were on them?

[TxCyclist]

I'm surprised the tires didn't have dry rot after that long. Did you do something to maintain them?

[photosbymark]

could be that dry rot caused the flat

[LarryM]

Kenda makes pretty good tires. My Giant hybrid has a 3 year old set of Kenda 700x40C tires with 5,000 mi. The only flat I ever had with them was due to a valve stem failure. The tread pattern on them looks exactly like the tread on your Schwalbe Marathon Plus HS 348s

[Doohickie]

I bought the bike as NOS in late 2008. It looked brand new, had the nubs on the tires and the original store price tag ($379 at Oshmann's in 1994). The tires looked like something out of a bike shop- brand new. However, in the last year and a half, the gumwalls have degraded quite a bit. I also wore a good bit of the tread off. When I got new rims for the bike in January I rotated the tires so the rear tire to the front, and the tread was very worn and flat in the middle. By the time I changed over to the Marathons, about three months, the tread on other tire that had been moved to the rear was also flat in the middle. So I got a good year and a half out of them, but they were wearing quickly.

My review of the Marathons so far is that going from 38C all the way down to 25C was a mistake. The ride is pretty harsh. It is pretty sporty though. The stiffer tires provide a better grip around corners; the sidewalls on the old tires were too flexible.

If I decide these aren't quite right for this application I suppose I'll move these over to my single speed or my road bike and get a slightly wider set of tires.

[Green]

16 years?
Wow, just wow!

I change my tires every three years whether they need it or not! Tire rubber cures and hardens over time but the best reason to change is to keep the puncture resistance up to date. I have had great success with Schwalbe and Continental.
I love my XR's......

[wild]

I have had as many as 5 flats in a week, the roads around here get a lot of glass on them with summer trafic heading to the shore. I am thinking of these airless tires for my next set Nu-Teck Manufacture of Airless Puncture Proof No Flat Tires anyone try these yet.

[froze]

I too like Kendas. My first experience with Kenda Kwest I put on my MTB, this darn thing won't wear out; it gets double duty, in the summer it's used for riding including trail, and in the winter after it's clean it gets used on the trainer; it won't wear out and hasn't flatten.
Then I decide to try a pair of Kenda konstrictors on couple of the road tires and love those too, light weight, no flats and long wearing.

[j3rd]

I used to live in the city where there is a lot of glass and I've used Continental TT2000 and now Panaracer Pasella TG with good results. I've heard that the thin sidewalls are a problem with both but I've had only one cut in 10 years. I usually wear out a couple sets a year.